Thursday, September 29, 2005

Playing God

I agree with the observation of Simon Singh in Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe that every technology seems to have its critics. We've all heard the old saw about "if God had meant for us to fly he'd given us wings." There are so many examples of that type of thinking. In Singh's book there is a most unlikely, to me, example of this. It had to do with the invention of photography. Seems a fellow was offended by Louis Daguerre's invention and stated that

"The wish to capture evanescent reflections is not only impossible . . . but the mere desire alone, the will to do so, is blasphemy. God created man in His own image, and no man-made machine may fix the image of God."

(from page 201 of Singh's book.)

We hear similar things today about certain emerging medical technologies. You know what I mean.

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