“Playing God”: Religious Symbols in Public Places  

Oleh:

Cahill, Lisa Sowle

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy vol. 20 no. 4 (Aug. 1995), page 341-346.
Topik: Religious Symbols

Ketersediaan

Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: MM80.4 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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Isi artikel

The phrase “playing God” implies the relevance of religious symbols — God, creation, providence, and sin — to public debates about biomedical technology. Those who “play God,” it is suggested, overstep the boundaries tf humanity’s proper role in the creation. They not only commit the sin of pride, they threaten to upset the structures, rhythms and processes of life that the deity has established for the universal welfare. Indeed, the boundary setting will of God is often identified with the natural world (including the human body), not only in its healthy functioning, but also in its finitude, illness, degeneration and death. The warning not to “play God” promotes a sense of reserve about the aims of science and its uses. It can also be used to avoid human decisions which have an ambiguous impact on life and human well-being, or which appear so momentous that human agents are reluctant to take responsibility for them. Examples discussed by the contributors to this issue, and well-covered in the popular press, include technologically assisted conception of human life, decisions to withdraw life-prolonging medical treatments, and the alteration of the human genotype. Reliance on the will of God to define human destiny can and often does yield a moral stance of noninterference in natural processes, even those that are harmful to humans.

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