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May 25th, 2010
If Craig Venter had been playing God, he’d have destroyed those self-replicating cells in a fit of pique by now.
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September 25, 2019-
- NICE T-SHIRT (Thank you for not provoking my uncontrollable lust). Currently unavailable.
Venter is a much nicer god than that other one. At least, so far…
give it time LOL
Hmm, the Bible reinterpreted as a write-up of an on-going microbial culture experiment… from the perspective of the bacteria. That has possibilities.
wasn’t that what the new testament was about? to turn the genocidal tribal god in OT into Santa in the NT. god sure needs a lot of makeovers
@nina: True. Originally he was multiple gods… as you probably know Elohim is plural. Then he was one angry god. Now he’s a three-in-one nice god who’s going to send you to hell if you don’t believe in him (is that really an improvement, though?).
@AchillesAndTortoise are you sure that’s not part of the storyline from lost?
Much as I dislike the theory of a multiverse, it opens up the likelihood that at least some universes are creations of sufficiently advanced civilisations. Which opens up the further intriguing possibility that our particular universe is the result of some 6th former’s physics project. Whoever the little sod is, I’d give him a D+.
The powers that be are trying to watch the movie, the kids keep scampering back and forth to go potty and get popcorn, then wonder why there is a certain amount of criticism. Pay attention, you’ll learn more from what the wise don’t say than babbling idjuts.
God slipped up when he did not patent everything in his creation. It would have prevented Dr Venter from copying him. It is a mistake that Venter will probably not make, in which case God help us all.
By the way, the present cartoon is superb.
@AchillesAndTortoise
Oh sure, it makes being tortured forever a lot easier if it’s nicely done.
Manners are everything.
I did a review of a book that compares 91 afterlife concepts (well, 90 really because while athiesm is included in the book, there wasn’t anything to discuss) http://tinyurl.com/38tpb5n
@nina — Lovingly! We will all be tortured *lovingly* for alll eternity.
Because, after all, he loves each and every one of us and doesn’t want any of us to suffer.
It’s just that, well, there are *rules* about these things. Never mind that he made up the rules.
Uncle Roger
Right, lovingly, of course – but apparently, not so loving since we don’t get a safe word
Religious trying to bad mouth it. Getting too close 🙂
http://blog.bioethics.net/2008/03/the-ethical-implications-of-synthetic-life-symposi/
@MrGronk, that reminds me of a side story in one of Robert Heinlein’s books – Jehovah, instead of being the omniscient ruler of creation was really a minor and terribly officious bureaucrat in a larger operation.
Craig Venter – Egotistical bastard #1
(And no, he’s not really all that nice .. practically told the scientific community that while they were still in the stone ages in terms of sequencing the human genome, he would’ve mapped all the genes … or something in that line. We all know he lost and it’s funny that he gives the impression that he was the first to succeed nowadays.)
@Nima – that reminds me of a side story in one of Robert HeinleinÃs books
Would that be “Stranger in a Strange Land” ?
Religions would say that god loves you. He loves you SO MUCH that it takes every bit of his infinite mercy and then some to keep him from throwing you into a fire. If you are devoted to him and he is in a good mood.
Who made hell? The Bible I’ve got says God created ‘the heavens and the earth’, and talks about a ‘new heaven and a new earth’, nothing about hell.
Artificial life is neither good nor evil; like everything else, its whether we can use it to serve us well, or we create our own hell.
The Heinlein book in question is Job. His take on the destruction-testing of a human is well worth the time reading imo
>in case anyone catching up on these strips a decade later is curious