Humans have endeavoured to know everything possible, from astronomical objects in deep space to the super micro properties of our genetic makeup, from the dynamics of physics to the biological wonders of creation. These quests for knowledge have always been noble and answers to the secrets of the universe readily applauded.
But how much is knowledge is too much? And how little is ignorance?
And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” ~ Gen 2:16 – 17
From the above passage, you might be able to agree with me that we now have the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. But how has humanity faired with this knowledge? Better or worse?
*pause for contemplation*
We might never know the answer as without this knowledge, humanity might not be what we know of today. And the concept of “better or worse” might be ironic if we did not have the knowledge of good and evil.
I saw a program on BBC “How to build a human” and it gives a good report on the discoveries in Genetic studies. A point that sparked me was, if we were able to determine people with a genetic makeup of being violent and impulsive what then would we do? Would we lock up kids with these genes and put them away so that they will not become criminals in the future? Would we be doing society a favour? Would we be protecting these kids from themselves?
Where then does Hope come into play?
I don’t know where we are heading, but I’m sure these genetic technologies will flourish, as our curiosity would fuel its research and the undeniable benefits would champion for the cause.
Let the quest for knowledge continue and lets just watch how humanity would fair.
the knowledge of good and evil fruit in my opinion didn’t make them realise good and evil existed, I’m sure they knew what was good and what was evil. it was the very fact that they disobeyed God.
you see, I believe if Adam & Eve weren’t kicked out of Eden, today they’d and their extended family wouldn’t need the internet to communicate, they’d only think and they could teleport here and there and talk to each other face to face. Video playback and capture wouldn’t be needed as they would be stored in some supernatural archive (crystals?) They could probably fly around supernaturally without planes. And never would they need any form of medical advancement because nothing needed healing or fixing. I’ve heard that in heaven, things work by faith. You need only to think and believe it, for example – moving mountains. I would love to live in a home where my mansion was carved out from a mountainside – all performed through faith.
My belief is that these violent genes were the result of original sin, and were originally not meant to be there. So there would’ve have been a need to lock up these genes in the first place.
As I’m reading the book “Letters from a Skeptic”, I’ve discovered that God isn’t entirely in control of everything because He’s given us including Adam&Eve freewills. If truly He’s even in control of our freewills then we’re robots. This freewill involves eating forbidden fruit.
You see, we’ve missed out on so much more because they ate the fruit.
if hungry, got fruit eat fruit lor. y think so much?
(x_O)y
you need to watch this movie..
it’s called “Gattaca”
I think that science and religion are essentially in persuit of the same thing… truth.
The problem I see is that in most cases, science does not excercise any discretion. Science has become a quest for knowledge’s for it’s own sake. And when you don’t have a moral fibre in place guiding your decisions, anything can (and does) happen.
Even if we were able to find out what genes were responsible for such things, I don’t think we, as humans, are free to judge such matters.
We are, afterall, created flawed, and both good and evil reside in each and every person.
Let a man be judged by his actions alone.
But even then, do we even know what is ‘good’ from ‘evil’? It is not often easy to tell.
I agree that it would be great if Adam & Eve did not disobey God, probably our lives now would be much more interesting. Hey but thats all in the past and i think there is nothing much we can do about it
So since there are genes that can indicate to us what kind of people we would prone to become can we justify to HOPE to be something else from what we actually are?