Funky Clones?

[pseudonymous]

I was contemplating the idea of human cloning yesterday afternoon. Forgetting anything I had ever heard of other people's opinions and philosophies on the subject, I tried to envision what a cloned human being would be sensed as. You know the intuitions you get on people when you come into contact with them? Without comparing the idea to what you have heard, or thought before, in this moment ponder what a cloned human would "feel" like to you. Would there be that inherent divinity (for those who subscribe to such an idea), or a sense of connectivity to the species? I think it is a fascinating angle to contemplate the issue from.

That said, and considering the answer you give, is it in the human race's best interest to see what the results would be from a theological and epistemological standpoint? What would be the implications, would you guess, of finding a rather alien and queer (original definition) mind inhabiting a clone? I am under the impression that a cloned human has already been attempted, but wonder from my personal understanding of the relationship of the divine to humanity what the outcome would be. For these questions to be answered in the spirit they are asked, please contemplate them from your own intuitions and not from what you have read on the subject.

pseudonymous

[I, Brian]

I am quite under the impression that natural human clones have existed since the dawn of humanity - in the form of "identical" twins.

AFAIK, identical twins do indeed share the exact same DNA, and are therefore - in a different frame of language, clones.

[Susma Rio Sep]

Clones are coming, whether we like it or not.

Theologians used to debate about when the soul comes into being in the production of a new human being.

Of course, that question is asked on the assumption that there is a soul.

With the arrival of clones, the question is even more challenging.

But with Occam's razor, we might say that doing without the soul saves a lot of complications about when and how and where it be in the person and body of the individual.

There was that successful clone, a sheep, the name is Dodie or Dobie or what. So cloning is also a future actuality for man.

When human clones appear, they are as human as the source from where they cloned; and they are essentially also human. It would be a very exciting world at the beginning, then it will become a routine event.

Eventually we will have also designers human beings. Also a very exciting prospect.

What will God say about that?

Will He say that man has become too proud, come down from heavens and confound our mind completely that we become like dumb beasts?

I think by that time our concept of God will also change and become one that will be congruent to our advances in science and technology.

Of course, there there will always be remnants who refuse to join the march of mankind to more and more mastery of life and the universe.

Susma Rio Sep