GM Science...so God's creation isn't good enough?

[Podshell]

Been thinking about emailing a few senior religious figures lately regarding the very dangerous prolification of GMO's (man's love of money and all that)


Could do with some ideas to put to them, one idea I have is for them to try to get governments to change laws and ban copyrights on living things.

I would greatly appreciate ideas from a variety of faiths.


Thanks

[Honza]

You do realise that natural evolution is breaking down? Natural selection does not really apply to the human race and its dependents....hence the gene pool is slowly corrupting. If people don't start modifying their own genetics then in a few thousand years we will be terribly afflicted by things such as poor eyesight, hearing, appearance, fitness, etc.

Once a species defeats natural selection like we have it is vulnerable to genetic meltdown. unless it can hone its own genes.....

[Fae Rei]

Why do you think GMOs are dangerous?

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Fae Rei

Why do you think GMOs are dangerous?

I googled "dangers of GMOs"....many links.

I'm sure there are many links explaining how they are fine, tho.

I won't touch the stuff. I eat organically....more expensive, I know.

[Podshell]

Originally Posted by Fae Rei

Why do you think GMOs are dangerous?

It's a gamble putting something novel into the foodchain and into our bodies, and the big danger lies in it being an investment so there will be resistence to negative reports.

Our bodies are not evolved or designed for a sudden appearance of new substances, never mind loads of different ones...it is IMO the biggest threat ever to mankind and we probably wont be told of the destruction it causes .

[DavidMcCann]

The trouble with GM is not that they're demonstrably dangerous, but that we just don't know what the side-effects will be.

For example, recent research in Britain showed that the nutritional value of plants has declined over the last century, as they have been bred to grow bigger and quicker, but that did not lead to a corresponding increase in mineral uptake and vitamin production. Similarly, research in China showed that the modern rice varieties produce more grain per hectare but it still costs more per kilo. If conventional breeding doesn't necessarily aim at the right goals, what makes you think that GM will?

When it comes down to it, firms like Monsanto are doing it to make money, not to benefit farmers and consumers. Personally I'm glad that popular resistance has kept GM out of Europe.

[Honza]

There are stories of advanced alien cultures being incredibly physically attractive and fit. How do they manage if they are way beyond the process of natural selection? It must be because they genetically modify themselves.

Obviously before people know what they are doing with GM there will be plenty of mishaps; but it IS a necessity. Otherwise we will deform.

[Podshell]

Originally Posted by Honza

There are stories of advanced alien cultures being incredibly physically attractive and fit. How do they manage if they are way beyond the process of natural selection? It must be because they genetically modify themselves.

Obviously before people know what they are doing with GM there will be plenty of mishaps; but it IS a necessity. Otherwise we will deform.

No need to look at aliens we can look at the animal kingdom here on Earth and find extreme fitness, perhaps because they eat a natural diet and DON'T genetically modify themselves!

[Honza]

Originally Posted by Podshell

No need to look at aliens we can look at the animal kingdom here on Earth and find extreme fitness, perhaps because they eat a natural diet and DON'T genetically modify themselves!

You are totally missing the point that I keep making. Animals are subject to NATURAL SELECTION. Hence only the strongest and fittest survive. No deformed, half blind animal will live long enough to breed. But people are different; disabled and half blind people live long and pro-create - hence their genes get mixed into the gene pool. The next generation will also have deformities and eyesight problems. If this carries on for thousands of years then the entire race of people will have weak genes which give them bad eyesight, disabilities etc.

Animals are only fit because the weak die. In people the weak do not die; they have children. Then bad genes spread like a wildfire.

I think the problem here is that you do not understand genetics!

[Podshell]

To some extent that sort of thing may occur with humans but not to a level that requires the type of gene tampering we see with plants, in finding mates/partners the same rules still applies to humans as it does to animals to some degree