A PRESENTATION

BY

PETER N. MURIITHI

2 Tim 3:16

Ps 1:2

BIOTECHNOLOGY

(A THEOLOGICAL VIEW)

THEO LOGY (God) (Study)

Theologians believe:

All life is initiated and controlled by God.

BIO TECHNO LOGY(Life) (design) (study)

Biotechnologists are “claiming” to know how to design life

This is seen as encroaching on the role of God.

A human being is PSYCHO SOMATIC

(Soul) (Body)

THEOLOGY deals with SOUL

SCIENCE deals with MATTER

If the two disciplines were to work together, humanity would be wholistically satisfied

But unfortunately, they have never done it!

Virgin Birth (Parthenogenesis) - Galileo

Theologians work on faith on a God they have not seen

Scientists work on matter they do not understand the source

Hosea calls theologians fools

Psalms calls scientists fools

Scientists tell us that the earth was in existence 5 billion years ago

And that there was life on earth about 500 million years ago

Ever since the creation of the world, his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been

understood and seen through the things HE has made [Rom 1:20]

So what has God made?

• Powerful computers…

• Airplanes…

• Radar…

• Digital cameras…

• Sensitive microphones…

• Speakers…

• Fantastic Biochemical factory… (Romans 1:20)

God is the greatest Biotechnologist!!!

The story of Creation confirms that the universe was not created on a whim but was a thought out and planned orderly series of events

Plants before animals(Photosynthesis)

Fish and birds before antelopes

figure “1” (era)figure “7” (Ultimate. Perfection eternity)

Man is a designed creation. “Let us make man in our image, in our

likeness” The 2 important words are

Image and Likeness or Essence

Discuss on: The first Test Tube baby (Jeremiah 18)

Jesus said that in heaven, there is no sexuality

So the first Adam, in the image of God was Asexual

This presented 2 major problems:

• Adam was seeing what the birds and bees were doing and might be tempted to try it with a lion

• Because he was asexual, he could not multiply and fill the world like the other animals

So it was back to the laboratory

It is at this stage that the sex chromosomes were added

The result was two different peopleAdam and Eve who are sexual

And humanity could reproduce

Eve says so when she bears her first Baby.

“I have produced a man with the help of the LORD." (Gen 4:1)

God made Humanity the Stewards of His creation:

“let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." (Gen 1:26)

And from then on, God became Deus Absicaditus

But Humanity seemed to have acquired a gene of rebellion

All scientists know that this can happen in any laboratory (Biosafety rules!)

This gene seems to have got in during the time the woman was being engineered

Even the first offspring Cain had the gene, and he killed his brother Abel and the rebellion is continuous up to date

God decided to make a people whom he would teach and guide so that they could set the standards for the rest of humanity (Canon)

He chose Abraham whose wife had gone beyond the menopause Stage

• Despite leaders like Moses and Joshua and the prophets, the Israelites were a failure as the role model

• For the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended from him. [2 Esdras 3:21]

There was no clean source of tissue from any descendant of Adam

The only perfect tissue had to come from God Himself

So back to the laboratory again for a new Adam who would not succumb to sin

Notice what the angel said to Mary,

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.” [Luke 1:35]

In this setting, Mary is not involved in the conception

None of her genes enter into Jesus.

She is only the feeding vessel

This problem of the epistemology of Jesus was to cause problems for many years, (and even today) with many heresies

This led to the formulation of the Creed of Nicaea in AD 325 in which the early church stated that Jesus was both fully God and fully human

Jesus as God shows us what God wants humanity to be and to do

Jesus as human shows us how we humans should do the will of God

He cured mentally disturbed (Mathare)

He gave sight to the blind (Glasses)

Cured incurable diseases (Leprosy, TB, Cancer, AIDS,)

He fed the hungry (and food for export)

He taught us about the environment (birds and flowers)

He controlled storms (dykes)

Told us to pay taxes (coin in fish)

Taught us agriculture (the sower)

• BUT note the story of the fig tree

• Jesus fed both the soul and the body

• He was a Theologian and a Scientist

If Jesus was to be reborn in Kenya today, He would be faced by a high population of hungry people and a degraded environment

According to latest data by the Government, He would have to feed more than 10 million people but with only one fish and one loaf of bread.

And for the world one Billion according to FAO estimates (June 2009)

He would also find a land of terrorists, Political turmoil, Mungiki, kidnappings, drugs etc

What is Jesus demanding from us as Good stewards?

St. Paul, says “We are grafted (which is a biotechnological phrase) to Jesus” who is the second Adam (Romans 11: 17-21)

"The first man, Adam, became a living being";

The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Cor 15:45)

Through the first Adam, we have the body and the scientists have to meet the needs of the body like food, health, clothing, shelter

Through the second Adam, we have the Holy Spirit and the theologians will preach peace, joy, hope, faith, and forgiveness

BUT, one-sixth of the world's hungry and poor, pose a "serious risk" to world peace and security

Note the Contradiction: Just 15 million people hungry in the developed world (with abundant technology; In sub-Saharan Africa: 265 million and limited technology

• No more arrogance from the scientists

• No more Sunday School Theology from the theologians

SYNERGY

THANK YOU