I never said I would kill embryos, I said I wouldn’t want to make that choice.
You contradict this statement in the statements you make below.
But there’s a problem. This technology requires testing on human embryos. I heard that the embryos would need less than 1% the number of cells in a fly’s brain. Is it moral to kill a certain amount of these embryos (developing babies) to save the lives of millions of children? I don’t want to be the one making that decision.
Of course it's not moral!
(And ye who are of such moral superiority to God and any of us "hypocritical Christians" can't see that?)
This is different than just killing embryos because you don’t want to raise kids though... even if gene editing does kill embryos at least it’s with good intentions.
So if a greater good comes out of killing these embryos than that's OK.
That is what you are saying here! It's OK for you to decide if it's a greater good; but it's not OK for God to decide if it's for a greater good? That's hypocrisy!
Just because you don't know what the outcome is of the people that God allows (or may even actively kill) does not mean the choices you'd make are more moral than His. You are not omniscient!
The other part of this debate that gets complicated is the biblical stance on abortion. I see clearly that god not only approves, but commands the abortion of bastard children. You can read about this in numbers chapter 5. I encourage you to read the whole chapter, but I’ll highlight a few verses below
Again, passage taken out of context. It is the sin of the individual that has caused the death of the child. If she's innocent the child lives and then the onus bounces back onto the husband's head. Was he honestly mistaken? Is he lying? Is he really the one committing adultery? (If he is; then he gets put to death!)
I’m not going to “take it on faith” that killing babies is somehow good in the long run.
And what happens to that child in the afterlife? Your opinion is awfully short sighted here!
That is an extraordinary claim that absolutely needs a satisfying answer before anyone should accept it. What greater good was done by aborting bastards and killing Canaanite infants?
And I gave you a satisfactory answer. You just refuse to accept it because you're mad at God for things that have happened in your life.
I already quoted to you from Acts 17 that God does not hold someone accountable for something they have no knowledge of. What knowledge would this miscarried child have? Not enough knowledge to commit deliberate sin.
Which this gets into questions of how does the atonement work and who's sin did Jesus actually pay for? His death did cover freeing the creation from the consequence of man's sin. Scripture does say that animals actually can "sin". It also says the land can "sin". (How does land sin?) The creature is not held accountable for sin though because it's not created in God's image.
Infants obviously don't have the cognitive and reasoning capacity that an adult has. Acts 17 says that if there is no knowledge there is no accountability. (That's also in Romans.) So infants who have no cognitive ability to know if they commit or don't commit sin; are like the rest of creation. They are not held accountable for something they have not the cognitive capacity to understand. That is fair and that is just!
Yet I explain this to you and you still rail against God?
Why? (Because of the evil in your own heart!)
What sin has a baby committed? I know the answer is “original sin” but that’s another immoral teaching in my perspective. Babies and especially unborn babies couldn’t possibly be guilty of anything.
I would not use the term "original sin"; because what is inherited from Adam isn't actually guilt of his sin; it's the potential to be corrupted because of living in a fallen world. We inherit from Adam a fallen nature; which means eventually (given the capacity to grow up) we will and do sin.
Once we have the capacity to understand moral obligation we become accountable for our disobedience. That's a gradient of stages. How accountable is a two year old, compared to a 5 year old, compared to a 12 year old, compared to a 30 year old? I'm not even going to pretend I know the answer to that question because I'm not omniscient! That is why I leave the decision making process up to God! I can observe that the capacity to understand varies with the individual. Some kids "get it" earlier than others. Some kids only "partially get it" because of some neurological issue.
On top of this, cognitive capacity does not answer what's known of the soul. Conscience is a whole other aspect of our existence. I know people who are intellectually disabled who are more moral than geniuses. Again, I'm not omniscient and would never claim to know who is actually condemned for their sin and who isn't! Who's sin is atoned for and who's isn't. What someone understands in their conscience may be very different than what they can externally articulate. God knows though, because He's omniscient.
Which this brings me back to your statements here:
But there’s a problem. This technology requires testing on human embryos. I heard that the embryos would need less than 1% the number of cells in a fly’s brain. Is it moral to kill a certain amount of these embryos (developing babies) to save the lives of millions of children? I don’t want to be the one making that decision.
This is different than just killing embryos because you don’t want to raise kids though... even if gene editing does kill embryos at least it’s with good intentions.
How do you know the person you destroyed to "allegedly" save the other would not have been the one who invented his neighbor's cure?
YOU DON'T!
And here is where your own evil intent is exposed. You make that choice of taking a life not knowing and rail against God when He takes life and
HE KNOWS WHAT THEIR OUTCOME WOULD HAVE BEEN; BECAUSE HE IS OMNISCIENT!
YOU ARE NOT!
I quoted the verses. They speak for themselves.
You misquoted the verses. I explained them; gave you the context and you refused to have the humility to admit that you were wrong.
Why? Because you hate God and you don't want to be accountable to Him.
Guess what - you still are accountable to God!
Maybe if all 40,000 Christian denominations could agree on something it would be easier to know what the book actually says.
You "believe" in evolution; yet there is not 100% consensus among the adherents to that belief system as to what all the terms mean either. Yet you
CHOOSE to believe that? Why? You hold evolution to one standard and the Bible to another?
Again, that is hypocrisy!
And here is another way I know the Bible is true! It causes someone like you; who claims they don't even believe in it, to get on a forum like this to debate its validity. If the Scripture was only written by man; why would it be banned in 52 countries? No country bans Cinderella or the 3 Bears.
If this book is a fairy tale - why is it so dangerous?
Until then, I’ll read it myself, and from my perspective it clearly advocates genocide, abortion, slavery, rape, and murder. I don’t think you’re objections were compelling.
Can't conceive of the possibility that your perspective might be wrong? Wow; that's humility!
You obviously have access to the Internet though; which means you have access to concordances, lexicons and interlinear Bibles. So you don't even have the excuse come judgement day that you couldn't study the Scripture yourself to make sure your conclusions were right.
Proverbs 18:13
He that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame unto him.
So there you go; study it; research it. (I dare you!)
(Many 'a sinner who made a serious effort to study the Bible with the intent to discredit it; ended up believing it in the end.)
I’m not whining and that’s very insulting to people who are suffering.
I'm not insulted and I'm suffering!
This will be my last response in this thread.
Good; go study the Bible and then come back and talk to me about what you really find!
Hope you and your son have a great new year
May God bring you to faith!