Synthetic Biology and Genetic Manipulation: How Far is Too Far?

10/15/2015

               The Image of the Beast

Revelation 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (15) And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

Introduction

If you are a first time reader, I suggest that you read Singularity and The Image of the Beast about man merging with machines and Genetic Armageddon about man’s DNA being altered. Together they show scientists are on the verge of creating a transhuman: a beast that is part human and part something else. Creating a transhuman is right on top of us!

I believe that tampering with the integrity of man is a KEY sign of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. God will put a stop to this at His return. It appears from Revelation 13:15 that man will succeed in creating a transhuman, which the Bible calls “The Image of the Beast.” What I am posting is NOT science fiction.

From charting the advancement toward a transhuman being, it is possible to get an idea how close man is to God’s judgment. God must stop the creation of transhumans because these creatures are not created in His image and likeness; therefore, they cannot be redeemed through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What I do in this blog is keep the reader on the cutting edge of technology advancements that are directly leading to the Image of the Beast. These advancements are reported under headings that include: Computer Brain, Digitized Mind, Robotic Body, Cyborg, Genetic Armageddon, Chimera, and Advanced Technology.

This blog is the complement to the “666 Surveillance System” which focuses on technological innovations leading to the rise of a government so repressive and controlling that it’s called a “Beast” state.

Revelation 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Commentary

Genetic manipulation has become so commonplace that few still are questioning the ethics of it. But the latest trend is for synthetic biology – man-made DNA, and the biggest proponent of it is DARPA, that black-ops hole of the Defense Department, which does so much under the radar. The government has openly acknowledged spending $820 million on synthetic biology in the last six years, but DARPA is well known for the products created through their hidden budgets.

As usual, there is hype surrounding all of this, focusing on how wonderful it will make the world, if only we have the will to use it for good purposes. But is there such a thing as a good purpose for this manipulation? And is there any will to use such technology for “good” purposes, given that the industry is driven by the desire for wealth and power? The arrogance that assumes mankind can create better than God seems to answer all of these questions even before they’re asked.

Then there’s genetic manipulation using ordinary DNA from humans to animals and from animals to humans. Scientists are working on creating pigs that can be cannabalized for their organs to use in transplants for humans, since there aren’t enough human donors for all of the waiting recipients. The only problem is that pig organs aren’t accepted by human bodies, hence the work on changing pig genetics so that rejection won’t happen. But it’s being done without any research on whether porcine diseases can then adapt to humans and cause even more problems for those recipients.

The reverse is implanting human cells (from those aborted baby parts we’ve been hearing so much about lately) into animals like mice to create smarter mice. I’m not sure that smarter mice are something we really need. Naturally they cite lofty ambitions for this research like understanding the mind and body systems better but this seems to be an odd way to go about gaining knowledge. Again, it’s mixing of species, something God specifically has condemned. It’s important to remember what happened last time the world went down this path – the result was Noah’s flood where almost everyone and everything had to be destroyed. But this progress toward manipulating man’s DNA will continue until the second coming of Jesus Christ, when the entire system will be destroyed.

Genesis 1:24-26  And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

…and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….

High Technology/ “Mad” Scientists

The big trends in synthetic biology you need to know

“[The] U.S. government funded more than $820 million in synthetic biology research programs in the period from 2008-2014.

In the public sector, the role of innovation giant DARPA in funding synthetic biology projects has exploded, eclipsing the role of other prominent U.S. government agencies that fund synthetic biology programs, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the USDA. In 2014 alone, DARPA funded $100 million in programs, more than three times the amount funded by the NSF, marking a fast ramp-up from a level of zero in 2010.

 Given the innovation leadership role that DARPA has played in everything from self-driving cars and robots to the development of the Internet, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on what DARPA is doing in the field of synthetic biology. Through initiatives such as its Living Foundries program, DARPA seeks to facilitate the creation of a manufacturing platform for living organisms. At the end of September, DARPA awarded an MIT synthetic biology lab, the Broad Institute Foundry, a $32 million contract for designing and manufacturing DNA.

 DARPA now represents close to 60 percent of all public funding in the synthetic biology field. If you add in all Department of Defense spending, he says, then nearly two-thirds of all synthetic biology funding from the federal government has a defense industry tilt to it.

That could be worrisome if you consider the prospects for the weaponization of synthetic organisms and the potential to create biological mayhem in countries that are not friendly to the United States. Many of the Department of Defense programs are classified and exact numbers are difficult to come by, so there’s no real way to know what the U.S. Army or Navy might be working on.”

Opinion: Synthetic Biology — The True Savior of Mankind  This article articulates the general attitude toward what is occurring. In a world without God, science is seen as the savior of mankind, instead of Jesus Christ, the only true Savior. Yet as the articles below this one demonstrate, science without ethics is only leading us down a very dark path indeed.

“Once we recognize that the current species are flawed, we will see that only by designing and introducing new species can suffering, poverty and the depletion of natural resources be stopped. Once we look at this option, we find already a perfect and ultimately moral solution to the threats of climate change, disease, overpopulation and the terrible scarcity giving rise to endless injustice and retaliatory terrorism.

Someone who believes in changing the human animal with technology must believe in eradicating poverty, sickness and injustice with technology. For all our talk of equality and human rights in our rhetoric, the West seems determined to prevent poorer countries from possessing their own natural resources. A right guaranteed by the principles of modernization and industrialization, which appears to have been forgotten. Instead, we prefer to watch them being nursed by the richer countries’ monopolies, technology, and workers who are there cultivating, extracting, refining, or buying all their resources for them.

So, quite contrary to the promises of modernity, we have replaced the ideal of the industrialization of poor states with instead the vision of refugee camps, crude water wells, and food aid delivered by humanitarian workers to provide only temporary relief. In place of a model of development that was altruistic and morally correct, we instead glorify the image of non-Westerners as primitives who are impossible to help yet still we try.”

Using pigs for spare human parts?

Genetically-altered pigs to become humanity’s source for “spare” organs  

“Among all the species with which we share the animal kingdom, pigs are the ones whose organs are best suited for transplant in human bodies — they are approximately the same size as our organs and have similar structures, making reconnecting blood vessels much easier. Pigs tend to have large litters and reproduce quickly, making them a very large, very accessible source of “spare parts.”

So far so good, but why aren’t we all running around with an extra pig spleen or a couple of bonus pig kidneys cleaning our blood? Well, there is a[n] itty bitty hurdle when using pig organs — our bodies freak out when we transplant them. Pig organs are coated with specific sugar molecules that trigger an acute rejection response in human bodies — our antibodies attach themselves to these sugar molecules and destroy the newly transplanted pig organ. Hoping to overcome this problem, researchers are working to create pigs that lack the gene that serves as a template for these sugars.

[O]ne concern that has dampened the prospects of xenotransplantation is the possibility of spreading viruses from one species to another. Porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV), for example, is part of a pig’s natural genetic makeup and does not cause any disease in the animal. There is no guarantee, however, that PERV would be harmless in humans.”

Chimeras

When do human brain cells make mice more than mice?

Where Do the Body Parts of Aborted Babies End Up? Scientists Transplant Their Brain Tissue Into Mice  This shows the horror of science without ethics, as humans, like animals, are seen merely as sources for parts with which to experiment.

“The Scientist recently ran commentary by John D. Loike questioning the ethics of transplanting human brains cells into other species. The piece entitled “When Does a Smart Mouse Become Human?” begins describing the research at the University of Rochester where mice were injected with glial cells from human fetuses. Glial cells are cells that support neurons in the nervous systems. The mice incorporated these glial cells into their brain and “outperformed normal mice almost fourfold in a variety of cognition tests.”

The researchers stressed that the mice still had mouse brains, saying “This does not provide the animals with additional capabilities that could in any way be ascribed or perceived as specifically human. Rather, the human cells are simply improving the efficiency of the mouse’s own neural networks. It’s still a mouse.”

But the mixing of human brain cells with those of other species, especially those of other primates, raise serious ethical considerations. These issues are important and Loike discusses them.”

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts

Lab mice 4 times smarter because of human brain cells

Study Of Mice With Human Brain Cells Raises Ethical Concerns 

“A study conducted by Dr. Steven A. Goldman…recently concluded that mice injected with human brain cells were four times as smart as other mice. The mice were injected with human glial cells extracted from donated human fetuses, which multiplied and ultimately displaced the native cells over the course of a year.

As Goldman explains to New Scientist, the human cells did not affect the fundamental nature of the mice brains; they simply strengthened the connections between the existing cells. “It’s still a mouse brain, not a human brain. But all the non-neuronal cells are human,” Goldman said. “It’s like ramping up the power of your computer.”

The brains of the mice used in the study were definitely enhanced, as they performed four times as well as other mice in memory tests. “These were whopping effects,” Goldman said. “We can say they were statistically and significantly smarter than control mice.” 

Miscellaneous

Mammoth specimens found on the arctic Lyakhovsky Islands

Arctic Expedition Finds Woolly Mammoth Remains Ripe for Cloning 

If we’re going to revive extinct species, there appear to be better candidates, such as the eastern American cougar. The last one was seen in the 1930’s when it was killed by a hunter. See:  Eastern Cougar Officially Extinct After More Than 75 Years

“An international expedition to the Lyakhovsky Islands led by scientists from Russia’s North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk has discovered six specimens of woolly mammoth fossils suitable for extracting DNA.

[A]fter waiting a long time for the right weather conditions, we continued to the main target of our expedition, Great Lyakhovsky Island, where we found a great amount of unique remains,” which includes ancient mammoth skin and teeth.

“Take, for example, the tusk of a pygmy mammoth that we found. We calculate that the animal was no more than two meters tall, so now we have to work out what this was – a micropopulation, or the peculiarity of this single individual.”

“Skin is the most interesting for us, for our project ‘The Mammoth Rebirth,’ because our Korean colleagues consider skin to be the best material for an attempt at cloning via the extraction of viable cells.”

Conclusion