What does life mean?

Last month, amid the preparations for Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter, a U.S. tech company indicated it was on the verge of bringing back the dire wolf from extinction. Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences introduced the world to three genetically engineered white haired wolf pups created with the help of ancient DNA obtained from fossilized remains of the long extinct animals. Dire wolves went extinct some 13,000 years ago and their skeletal remains have been found in both North and South America but many people know of them from George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy which was the basis for HBO's TV series "Game of Thrones."

So a genetic tech company believes it has the wherewithal to bring the dire wolf back from extinction. I guess this is hardly new in a world where gene editing has been announcing all sorts of miracles for a long time. It was eerily reminiscent of the 1993 Jurassic Park movies which had the same kind of answer to a question no one was asking. I wish this was simply about resurrecting extinct species.  Instead it is about the God complex of modern humanity and the advances in technology that have granted us this power over life and death.  In the end, it would seem that we are as a culture so caught up in the possibility that the question of limits on our powers and the morality or wisdom of what we do has not been raised with enough seriousness to slow the progress.  Do not make the mistake of thinking this is simply about resurrecting old species.  In a real and profound way it is about what it means to be human and if being human means anything significant at all.

The tech community along with those invested in everything from gender identity to IVF all view the human limitations we know as challenges to overcome rather than boundaries to accept.  They resist any limitations upon the freedom for man to define himself and invent himself and the world around him according to whatever choices the moment deems prudent.  What is concerning is that the world is listening and enjoys the whole idea that we can do this and seems unconcerned about the consequences upon us as people and our society for the unrestrained use of such power to do whatever we choose.  The tech industry is not content to dabble in entertainment and screens or even medical devices on behalf of those who have lost limbs or are blind.  No, any limitation on us has become a challenge and problem to be solved without any real consideration to what this will do to us as a society and as people.  Our ability for eugenics and the technological manipulation of humanity has exceeded our moral compass.  We are in love with the idea of what we can do more than we fear what such choices might do to us as a people and this is a large problem.

In 1943, C. S. Lewis wrote a critique of the penchant of man to ignore the questions of values in a book with a very catchy title:  The Abolition of Man.  But the abolition of man can come in many forms.  Lewis foresaw a not-so distant future in which the values and morals of the majority would be controlled by a small group who exercised their understanding of psychology in order to rule over others but whose own morality was guided not by principle or value but whim.  The surrender both of rational reflection and moral consideration would end up dehumanizing the world and the Abolition of Man will have been completed.  Of course, it is obvious when we see a world which is more in love with the idea of making a baby in the lab than it is protecting the life in the womb but this is only part of it.  The separation of gender from gene and body has created another avenue in which whim triumphs over truth.  But it could be that Lewis is right to foresee a time in which our technology will lead us where we should not go.  An island out of control may not be a big problem in our minds today anymore than a couple of cuddly wolf pups seem a threat but it is entirely possible that the fascination with what we could do will be an even greater threat to who we are and who we should be as people.  

Every Sunday morning we go to church not simply to find forgiveness for our many sins or an answer to death that has passed to all people.  No, we go also to be reminded who we are as people, where our lives come from, and to remember the story of what happened when we refused to respect limits.  The delusion of freedom became a curse that has dogged our lives.  Now in the shadow of Good Friday and Easter, we are asked again to look away from our own natures and to the Lord who has the answers and whose Spirit leads us to ask the right questions.