Playing God?!

I was hanging out with a few friends over the weekend and the conversation turned to what each of us likes to do and our interests. I of course talked about my love for genetic engineering and all things to do with genetic modification. I mean when you consider the potential benefits of being able to target particular genes, eliminating those that are harmful to us and maximizing the impact of beneficial ones, I am usually amazed that this is even possible. Some of these genes can be transferred between different organisms in order to help mitigate some the negative impact that human activity has on the environment. Of course something like this can be potentially dangerous in the hands of the wrong people (we don’t want another Adolf Hitler, do we?) and there are a lot of ethical issues involved. One the biggest issues so far has been that everything has been created the way they are for a purpose and “messing around” with them may upset the natural balance. In simpler terms, we are attempting to ‘play God’.

I happen to believe that at least some of the issues raised are legitimate, but that is not the reason why I brought this up. Try to imagine for a minute a world where everything is within your realm of control-the economy of the world, the health and lives of your loved ones (and your enemies!), the course and direction of your life, the ability to cut off anything in your life that is not beneficial (sort of like genetic engineering right?) and the power to do anything you dream with no limitations in your way. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?

Unfortunately not everything can be controlled in this way. If we could have control over all the components of our lives......wow! But the fact that we can’t control everything doesn’t mean that the ones that are within our control should be left to the wind. If we can, by our own initiative and desire for growth, earn more than we are earning now, we shouldn’t just take what we make, complain about it and then spend it all (with no thought for the future if I may add).If we can use our time to achieve more than we are doing now, we should. If we can achieve all our dreams with just some more effort on our parts, then why not?

I guess all I’m trying to say is that if we can engineer our lives by removing those bad habits and bad associations and adding on good habits which will produce better results than we have been attaining, then why not? If this means we are playing God with our lives, well then I don’t think that is such a bad thing is, is it? So technically not every circumstance can be within our control, but what have we done to affect the ones that are within our realms of influence?