Will human-made life have a soul?

  • Thread starter Thread starter PatThompson
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
tonyrey said:
God has already given us the power to procreate, i.e. reproduce human beings. We assume every child has a soul but some children are so defective we cannot be sure they are human beings and have a soul.
Click to expand...
Actually, it’s pretty easy to determine if something has a soul. Is it alive? If so, it has a soul. It is the soul than animates otherwise inanimate matter.
 
Eucharisted and Shannyk you got a ways ahead of science there! I wasn’t talking about clones or humans, just the most basic self-replicating ‘life’.

Lobster, did you read the article? It says:
A self-assembling molecule synthesized in a laboratory may resemble the earliest form of information-carrying biological material, a transitional stage between lifeless chemicals and the complex genetic architectures of life.
Click to expand...
Called tPNA, short for thioester peptide nucleic acids, the molecules spontaneously mimic the shape of DNA and RNA when mixed together. Left on their own, they gather in shape-shifting strands that morph into stable configurations.
Click to expand...
The molecules haven’t yet achieved self-replication, the ultimate benchmark of life, but they hint at it…
…
Asked how long it would take before fully synthetic life could be coaxed from an inert chemical mixture, [the biochemist] said, "Soon. If not in our lifetime, then the next. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be longer than that.”
Click to expand...
 
In my opinion the question is mute. Only God can create life.
Humans could only re- create life, if life can and does occurs spontaneously. In other words if life is an accident then we will be able to recreate that accident at some point in time. But there is no direct evidence that life has ever come into existence accidentally. It has yet to be observed in the natural world. If it did there would be no need for God, and the evolutionists and atheists would be triumphant.
 
tonyrey said:
. We assume every child has a soul but some children are so defective we cannot be sure they are human beings and have a soul.

WHAT??? Do “we” assume that some children are defective and might not have a soul, or do “you” assume that? I don’t even kno’w where to start to decipher that remark.:confused:
Click to expand...
 
God created man in his Image, many theologians has interpreted this image as being the soul, animals where not created in Gods image therefor they can’t have souls.

Humans cannot create souls, only God can create something so beautiful.

HickmanJosh
 
Here are my 2 cents: God created us in His image. He is a creator, and thus we are too. We are supposed to use sex as a mean to re-create human life, however we often use other means such as IVF, sperm donors, surrogacy,etc. to reproduce. The fact that these result in new life is evidence that God can take a gift that we have distorted, and still create life (and thus a soul) from it. I think the same would apply for clones…though I hope it never comes to that.
 
HickmanJosh said:
God created man in his Image, many theologians has interpreted this image as being the soul, animals where not created in Gods image therefor they can’t have souls.

I believe that we shortchange God’s goodness if we assume that he created the exquisite, sentient, feeling beings known as animals (in addition to human animals), only to toss them away when they’re finished with their bodies. I can’t believe in a God like that. The word “animal” is itself directely derived from the Latin “anima,” meaning “soul.”

How do we know what “God’s image” is? I’m astonished at the arrogance of our race, when we ASSume that we’re the only beings whom God cares enough about to endow with an eternal soul.
Click to expand...
 
Speaking as a human-made person (my parents created me 29 years ago), we have the same life forces that every other higher level species has.
 
eggsbenedict said:
Speaking as a human-made person (my parents created me 29 years ago), we have the same life forces that every other higher level species has.
Click to expand...
I’m curious, how do you segregate “Higher” form “Lower” life “species”. What is your criteria?
 
I presume you actually want to ask how I distinguish between higher level species and lower level species. I can’t answer the question in detail, as I am not a biologist. I can tell you that I do think that I think that humans are a higher level species than algae.
 
Please keep the discussion related to the OP’s topic. Thank you all.
 
buffalo said:
Whoah. Are you talking viability here?
Click to expand...
I am referring to cases like anencephales, a deformed human foetus which lacks a forebrain and cranium. I did not say it does not have a soul but that only God **knows **whether it has a soul. The fact that it has human parents implies that we should regard it as a human being with a soul and treat it as a person with a right to life. Fortunately such cases are extremely rare and never survive very long.
 
A friend of mine adopted an anencephalic daughter who was about to be tossed into the trash by both medical and moral naysayers who claimed she wasn’t human. While there wasn’t much hope that she’d ever be “normal,” the last I heard, she was a teenager who was obviously enjoying her life.
 
jln said:
A friend of mine adopted an anencephalic daughter who was about to be tossed into the trash by both medical and moral naysayers who claimed she wasn’t human. While there wasn’t much hope that she’d ever be “normal,” the last I heard, she was a teenager who was obviously enjoying her life.
Click to expand...
That must be a miracle! It just goes to show it is really impossible for us to know who has a soul…
 
I do consider it miraculous, Tonyre. I consider it miraculous, too, that the dear lady who adopted her was willing to take this baby home and love her for all these years. She never “grew up,” although her body got larger. She was supposedly blind and deaf; but after several years, she started to respond to (turned her head toward) her mom’s voice and smiled when my friend talked directly to her. BTW, this lady is a single adoptive mom, and has taken in four other special needs kids over the years.

That’s my idea of Christianity in action! No judgement of others, no arguing about what’s sinful and what’s allowed. Just unrelenting, unconditional love of God’s creation.
 
jln said:
I do consider it miraculous, Tonyre. I consider it miraculous, too, that the dear lady who adopted her was willing to take this baby home and love her for all these years. She never “grew up,” although her body got larger. She was supposedly blind and deaf; but after several years, she started to respond to (turned her head toward) her mom’s voice and smiled when my friend talked directly to her. BTW, this lady is a single adoptive mom, and has taken in four other special needs kids over the years.

That’s my idea of Christianity in action! No judgement of others, no arguing about what’s sinful and what’s allowed. Just unrelenting, unconditional love of God’s creation.
Click to expand...
The lady is undoubtedly a saint. But not only that. Her adopted daughter has demonstrated that physical explanations of the soul are hopelessly inadequate. Thank you for sharing with us this inspiring story.🙂
 

Living things have souls - that is how they are alive in the first place. And there are different kinds of soul - but all are living.​

I chose “Other”.
 
As I was brought up when it was said that we were made in the image and likeness of God, it didn’t mean that we literally looked like him but that we shared things in common - mainly the intellect and soul. Now if someone is able to “create” some form of life, that person is only able to “create” it because of the gifts and abilities God has bestowed upon this person. God is the Author of all life - regardless of how it comes about. Is there any question of children born via invitro fertilization not having a soul? If there is no question with the lives that Doctors have technically “created” using invitro, then I don’t understand why anyone would think that any other life technically “created” or put together in a lab would be any different. I can’t imagine that just because life did not come about through “natural” means - i.e. the means that Catholics are taught are the means by which many Catholics believe are the only correct or licit ways that human life is “supposed” to come about - if life that came about through other means didn’t have the soul of life that came about “naturally”, wouldn’t that be punishing the creature for something it had no control over?

Now as far as animals having souls- I sure hope that someone is wrong about animals not having souls. To think that I would never see some of my best friends - (although they have four legs) - that’s just a horrible thought! To think that they’re here and then when they die are just gone. I kn ow in the BIble it says that Adam was given “dominion” over the animals, but no where do I remember reading where anything was said about animals not having souls. Does anyone know if St. Francis of Assisi ever said anything about this? I’m not trying to be contentious - I just really hope my pets will be there waiting for me if I ever make it into Heaven.

God Bless

Ryecroft aka Annie
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top