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when man plays god

i remember back when the whole "dolly the sheep" thing was going on, i heard this great joke:

"the scientist who cloned dolly is standing before God.  he looks at God and says, "i don't need to be here, i am as you are."  to which God replies, "what do you mean by that?"  the scientist looks at God as says, "i can create human life, just like you - i have the power to create a perfect human from nothing.  in fact, i will prove it to you.  if i can create a human, without your help, you will have to say that i am as you are - deal?"  God simply smiled and said, "deal."  the scientist went to earth and picked up some dirt and some water.  upon returning to heaven he looked at God and said, "ready?"  to which God replied, "let me get this straight, no help from me at all - right?"  the scientist answered, "right."  then the scientist took the dirt and the water and was about to start when God said, "wait - my dirt?  my water?"

form time immortal we have tried to play God, and always with terrible consequences.  i have a friend who reminds people that "the position is filled and beside you would suck at it."  but that does not stop us; we keep on trying.

interesting for me, is the fact that only God can create life - we, as humans, can distort life - but that distortion is not creation.  we have confused distortion with creation, and that is the center of our problem.  see, we can take "what is" and add to it, twist it, rearrange it,  and change it, but we can not make "what is" - it is impossible - we can not make something out of nothing, we need a starting point.  while the area of dna research opens exciting new doors for health, it also opens doors we will find hard, if not impossible, to close.  this summers great new movie is a perfect example - "planet of the apes."

let me start by saying - i loved this movie - i was scared to death at the first one when i was a kid, but this movie rocked - i even like the ending (keeping in mind "part 2" is in the works).  after the movie i thought of two very distinct "theological" or "spiritual" aspects of the movie, and how they both came together at the end - the first is the obvious - where general attar's life is centered on the returning of their savior, semose (?spelling) and the significance that played in his life.  while the second deals with the relationship between science and theology.  in regality they were both intertwined and supported each other perfectly.

attar's life centered on the return of his savior, semose.  his life was centered on the teachings and the beliefs that semose was to return soon.  his faith was ripped apart when he found out that all he believed was based on human science.  as he said - "everything i believed was based on a lie!"  but was it?  i found it interesting that attar saw faith and science as mutually exclusive.  that one could not be seen in the other.  who is to say that God's hand is not in science?

over time we have compartmentalized most of our life's; science, history, work, family, play, friends, church, clubs and so on.  yet what we seem to forget is that we are not compartmentalized as we desire - we are interrelated.  if we look at the end of the movie and attar's reaction to seeing his savior become more "human" and less "god-like."  we see a "man" who has based his faith on very little - if anything at all.  yet, if he would have seen his god acting in the science that created his world would his faith be questioned? 

when we try to play God we mess things up, but when we do not see God in the details we screw things up even more.  we have trained ourselves to not look beyond the human, and we need to look past our humanity - and into the God reality.  when we base our faith on myth, and not fact, our faith falls apart at the smallest shake - attar's did.  he needed to see past, and into the eyes of God.

blessings

pastor john

John O’Keefe is the founder of www.ginkworld.net.  John sees a desperate need for the church as a whole to change and reach a new people for Christ.  He is straightforward, honest and calls it the way it he sees it.  John is a graduate of Drew and has been a Senior Pastor and Church Planter