Evangelicals and Nano-Gnosticism

Luddites to the left of me, the religious to the right; and here I am, stuck in the middle with nano. This Christianity Today article: "The Techno Sapiens Are Coming," is subtitled, "When God fashioned man and woman, he called his creation very good. Transhumanists say that, by manipulating our bodies with microscopic tools, we can do better. Are we ready for the great debate?" The author, C. Christopher Hook, director of bioethics education for the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, and chairman of the Mayo Clinical Ethics Council, writes: "The ethical implications of nanotechnology are great, but even more troubling is the philosophy of some of its proponents, who subscribe to transhumanism. This is the belief that someday we will re-engineer our natures to such an extent that a posthuman species, or several new species, will be created that are "superior" to homo sapiens." Here's an issue that will need to be addressed. The evengelical lobby has tremendous influence with the current administration in Washington, and subscribers to a publication that reaches many of them are being told that some nanotech proponents are "transhumanists," which the author calls a "new incarnation of gnosticism." I'm guessing that the nanotech business leadership, already going through some bizarre intellectual contortions in order to distance itself from proponents of molecular nanotechnology, would certainly not want to be painted as gnostics. Yet, here, a pro-nano evangelical and a confused religion writer add their voices to the latest incarnation of ages-old questions of faith and science. Discuss Bioethics for Scientists Bioethics for Scientists provides an introduction to the ethics of modern life sciences and encompasses a wide range of environmental, social, scientific and medical issues. Subjects such as global warming, GM crops and the recent advances in genetics and cloning affect all areas of society. Scientists in all fields are frequently reminded of their own responsibilities, not just within their own profession but also to society. Confucian Bioethics Guiding Icarus: Merging Bioethics with Corporate Interests Bioethics from a Faith Perspective: Ethics in Health Care in the Twenty-First Century