The Genome Project

From 60 minutes sunday nite 06/12/11

For generations, scientists have wrestled with the idea of creating new forms of life in the laboratory. Now that age is upon us.The latest milestone occurred last year when microbiologist J. Craig Venter announced that a team of his scientists had created a synthetic bacteria designed on a computer, with man-made DNA. The announcement was greeted with a mixture of praise, skepticism and rancor, which is familiar territory for Venter. At age 64, he's not just trying to decipher genetic codes. Now, he's trying to create them.
"This is a quote from one of your critics: 'He's trying to short-circuit millions of years of evolution and create his own version of a second genesis. It's the height of hubris. It's irresponsible. And he can't tell you it's going to be safe,'" Kroft said.
"Except for the second part, I was taking that as a compliment," Venter replied, laughing. "I can tell you what we're doing is safe. There's no way that I can guarantee that other people that use these tools will do intelligent, safe experiments with it. But I think the chance of evil happening with this and somebody even trying to do deliberate evil would be pretty hard."
"Why?" Kroft asked.
"Because the complexity of biology," Venter said. "You know, we're not working with human pathogens. We're working with algae cells. And part of our design is cells that won't survive outside of a facility or a laboratory. And we think other scientists will adopt these same approaches."
"There are some things that concern you about this?" Kroft asked.
"Well, it is powerful technology. It's something that needs to be monitored absolutely," Venter replied.
President Obama was concerned enough to ask his commission on bioethics to hold hearings on Venter's new technology shortly after the results were published in the journal Science. Apart from the legal and regulatory questions raised, there are some moral and ethical ones as well.
"There are a lot of people in this country who don't think that you ought to screw around with nature," Kroft remarked.
"We don't have too many choices now. We are a society that is one hundred percent dependent on science. We're going to go up in our population in the next 40 years; we can't deal with the population we have without destroying our environment," Venter said.
"But aren't you playing God?" Kroft asked.
"We're not playing anything. We're understanding the rules of life," Venter said.
"But that's more than studying life, that's changing life," Kroft pointed out.
"Well, domesticating animals was changing life, domesticating corn. When you do cross-breeding of plants, you're doing this blind experiment where you're just mixing DNA of different types of cells and just seeing what comes out of it," Venter said.
"This is a little different though, this is another step, isn't it?" Kroft asked.
"Yeah, now we're doing it in a deliberate design fashion with tiny bacteria. I think it's much healthier to do it based on some knowledge and a better understanding of life than to do it blindly and randomly," Venter said.
"You know, I've asked two or three times, 'Do you think you're playing God?' I mean, do you believe in God?" Kroft asked.
"No," Venter replied. "I believe the universe is far more wonderful than just assuming it was made by some higher power. I think the fact that these cells are software-driven machines and that software is DNA and that truly the secret of life is writing software, is pretty miraculous. Just seeing that process in the simplest forms that we're just witnessing is pretty stunning."

1 The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.

2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

Here's a man who has seen, has mapped out the DNA, is playing God. Yet is blinded to the truth of God. It amazes me that one so intelligent, so studied, can be so, shall we say, blind to that which is all around him. Then again the Bible does say it is a spiritual blindness "the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God....(2 Cor 4)

I had an ache behind my leg. So to try and find out where it might be located, what exactly that part of my body was, I typed into the search engine "muscles in the leg." I was astounded by the pictures and names of all the muscle groups. And that was just in the leg! The complexities of the connections coming together and making everything work. I was speechless. And that is just a small part of what a human being is!

Belief in an all powerful creator does come down to the fact that mankind does not want to be held accountable to some, what did Venter say "higher power." There is indeed a moral issue at the heart of this. I know. Been there. Done that. We simply do not want to be told that what we are doing is wrong.

Jesus said "²¹ For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, ²² thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,^[a] nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor 6)

As Scripture says, "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." And no matter what microbioligsit Craig Venter or anyone else says, we will answer to a Holy and Righteous God.

"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2... who indeed did create "all things' out of nothing." Including the alge that microbiologist Craig Venter is using to maniputate his synthetic bacteria.

But know this. Not all men see the creation of God are blind to it's truth. Here's an encouraging story from The Sunday Times dated 2006. Written by Steve Swinford titled

" I’ve found God, says man who cracked the genome"

THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real.
Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”.
His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,” said Collins, 56.
“I don’t see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years.”
For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to “glimpse at the workings of God”.
“When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it,” he said. “But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along.
“When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can’t survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can’t help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God’s mind.”
Collins joins a line of scientists whose research deepened their belief in God. Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the laws of gravity reshaped our understanding of the universe, said: “This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”
Although Einstein revolutionised our thinking about time, gravity and the conversion of matter to energy, he believed the universe had a creator. “I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details,” he said. However Galileo was famously questioned by the inquisition and put on trial in 1633 for the “heresy” of claiming that the earth moved around the sun.
Among Collins’s most controversial beliefs is that of “theistic evolution”, which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man. In his version of the theory, he argues that man will not evolve further.
“I see God’s hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way,” he says.
“Scientifically, the forces of evolution by natural selection have been profoundly affected for humankind by the changes in culture and environment and the expansion of the human species to 6 billion members. So what you see is pretty much what you get.”
Collins was an atheist until the age of 27, when as a young doctor he was impressed by the strength that faith gave to some of his most critical patients.
“They had terrible diseases from which they were probably not going to escape, and yet instead of railing at God they seemed to lean on their faith as a source of great comfort and reassurance,” he said. “That was interesting, puzzling and unsettling.”
He decided to visit a Methodist minister and was given a copy of C S Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which argues that God is a rational possibility. The book transformed his life. “It was an argument I was not prepared to hear,” he said. “I was very happy with the idea that God didn’t exist, and had no interest in me. And yet at the same time, I could not turn away.”
His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. He said: “It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, (Romans 1) I felt, ‘I cannot resist this another moment’.”
Collins believes that science cannot be used to refute the existence of God because it is confined to the “natural” world. In this light he believes miracles are a real possibility. “If one is willing to accept the existence of God or some supernatural force outside nature then it is not a logical problem to admit that, occasionally, a supernatural force might stage an invasion,” he says.

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be ......(Gen 1)

For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “ I am the LORD, and there is no other.(Isaiah 45:18)

¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.(Col 1)

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1)

as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1)