G M O How does genetic modification effect our lives? Within this abbreviation and the question below we have a few key terms that need to be understood in depth for comprehending the end result and the effects that we reap from genetic modification on a large scale. What is the gene? What is genetic modification? What organisms can or are being modified? What are the results of modification? What is the loss and what is the gain? And most of all we need to understand what life is and what does it take to sustain it on earth. It is obvious that the speed of the developing science is reckless so that even the scientists cannot follow up with all the advancements that happen in their own narrow fields of professionalism. Thus, it is also extremely hard for the church to thoroughly examine the social, ethical and spiritual nature of the scientific achievements and evaluate them. And this gets even harder after the fact that the Church (Roman Catholic) has to apologies for past “misevaluations”. Until the eighteenth century, science was developing under the religious umbrella. In the Christian world it mostly developed in the monasteries. Monks were the scientists of the time and great scientists were also spiritual leaders of the Church. After collecting enough data and information about the universe, the world, the nature and the structure of the material world science developed its unique and independent systematic structure that started contradicting the religious motivation and sometimes even conflicting with it on the moral, ethical and spiritual grounds. Galileo and Copernicus are classical examples of the great conflict between religion and science. After separation from religion, science started gaining momentum with the snowball effect. According to some statistics modern science is doubling its achievements every five years. The faster it gets, the less controllable it becomes and the more danger it contains. Before the accomplishment of every new achievement, no one can predict the outcome. For example, before testing the nuclear reaction, no one knew for sure what the aftermath would be. Scientists were not able to predict whether it would stop at certain point or it would start consuming the surrounding matter. The results were unpredictable and surprising when Soviet scientists were testing the world’s largest hydrogen bomb (50 megaton) in New Lend (Novaia Zemlia). According scientific gross prediction it was suppose to last only few minutes, but it lasted over twenty-five minutes. Everyone was scared to death. Shortly after the “Tsar Bomba” was detonated, Sakharov (one of the participating chief nuclear scientists) began speaking out against nuclear weapons, which culminated in his becoming a dissident. Considering that scientific morals allow us to eventually start controlling great achievements and using them for human benefits, we still cannot guarantee absolute harmlessness. The ancient wisdom says, “When you read in the beginning of a book that someone took a gun and started walking down the street, no matter how long or complicated the story is or how moral that person is, that gun is going to shoot at one point or another”. The best example for this is the use of nuclear power: first it can be and has been used as a weapon when demanded by the desperate measures and second it can turn into natural disaster while used for peaceful purposes (Japan is a typical example for both). To read more GMO DNA WHY |
