{"id":45073,"date":"2018-12-02T19:57:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T17:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45073"},"modified":"2022-06-26T17:48:33","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T14:48:33","slug":"playing-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/playing-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing God"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[383,384,401,756],"acf":{"old_id":"45073","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":44969,"related_cahpter":"102","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A message to take the giving, and taking, and maybe also the tinkering, of life more seriously","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the end of November, a news story broke: \u201cChinese scientist creates world&#8217;s first genetically edited babies\u201d. The unconfirmed experiment, which was illegal in China, altered the genes of twin girls, whose father was HIV-positive and mother HIV-negative, so that they could not contract HIV. The news caused an uproar across the world. Experts are worried about the unintended health consequences, both for the children and for their potential offspring, since we can\u2019t actually map out the entire human genome, and therefore can\u2019t anticipate how one change may affect the body in unintended ways. In subverting worldwide standards, this scientist decided to take matters into his own hands and play God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whenever we attempt to play God, we enter into dangerous territory. Leviticus 12 explains that a woman, after a period of rest and time apart from community, brings a chatat, purification, offering, in addition to an elevation offering giving thanks to the Lord. Perhaps this is because a woman\u2019s ability to birth new life is only paralleled by the Creator\u2019s own ability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why, though, does she need purification? Because life and death are the Creator\u2019s domain. This is the idea of the purity laws, as we see in the previous chapter. \u201cIf an animal that you may eat has died, anyone who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening\u201d (Leviticus 11:39). Shortly afterwards, it states the reason:\u201cFor I the LORD am your God: you shall\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy\u201d (Lev. 11:44). <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Death, like life, is in the realm of the holy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we return, we must purify ourselves, or as Everett Fox says, become \u201cdecontaminated from the state of danger between life and death that childbirth represents\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a world without a Temple, \u201cpure\u201d and \u201cimpure\u201d may not be categories we use to guide our lives. So what can this mean for us? Perhaps it can teach us to take the giving of life and the taking of life more seriously. And maybe the tinkering of life as well. Do the potential benefits of \u201cplaying God\u201d outweigh the potentially disastrous consequences?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>image: Jackie Niam \/ shutterstock<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":45090,"id":45090,"title":"shutterstock_1079982929","filename":"shutterstock_1079982929.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1079982929.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/playing-god\/shutterstock_1079982929\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"shutterstock_1079982929","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":45073,"date":"2018-12-02 20:39:26","modified":"2018-12-02 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