The technological possibility of
cloning raises many
ethical and
philosophical questions.
If communion wafers and sacramental wine literally become the
flesh and blood of Christ when they
transubstantiate in the mouth during communion, would it be
possible to extract the DNA of Jesus from them at
this point? Would it be possible to clone Jesus from this DNA?
Would it be possible to clone Jesus by extracting DNA
from one of the Holy Relics that is said to contain some part of
him (such as some of his blood)?
What would be the results of this cloning be?
Would the child be at all divine?
There are also questions raised related to the influence of nature
vs. nurture. Could the child become evil or selfish
if his environment was wrong? Or would this question be a moot
point due to divine influence?
Another question is whether simply the DNA would be sufficient
to clone Jesus. Using only the DNA from the nucleus won't create an identical
physical reproduction, as you're not also cloning the mitochondrial DNA
that was passed to Jesus from the Virgin Mary. How much of a
contribution of a person is from environment versus DNA from the nucleus
versus the mitochondrial DNA passed to them from their mother?
The Second Coming Project claims to be trying to clone Jesus. Are
these people serious, or is this a potentially
offensive hack?
It's also worth noting that you could argue that each of us consumes 2 x 1011
atoms of Jesus every day.
I ask these questions as an agnostic.
I don't have the answers to them, nor do I presume
to have enough information to assert answers as the truth. I do not intend to offend.