Life ain't god's intellectual property

(This is probably gonna get me tons of hate mail, but here goes)

There has been considerable brouhaha ever since the creation of the first synthetic organism was announced. There has been too much debate on whether man should be allowed to create life. The popular view is that man shouldn’t obtrude in god’s matters. The mainstream sentiment is that life is god’s personal demesne and should be left to him only. So is Life, god’s personal intellectual property?

No. It is not.

The argument is that man should not interfere with nature and should not create life where it shouldn’t exist. It should be left to god to decide whether there should be life or not.  Amusingly, man has been doing precisely that for a long time and no one seems to have bothered, till now.

With the recent advances in medical science, man has been creating life according to his needs. Life has been created where it shouldn’t have existed had things been left to god only. Stem cell therapy models cells as they are needed, you could make skin cells out of them or any tissue as needed. IVF creates life in wombs where there should be none. Consequently, a baby (or organism, in science speak) spawns which should not have existed had it not been for the intervention of man. Cloning is another example, a creature is made which shouldn’t have existed in nature (remember Dolly, the sheep?)

Hell, even 'condoms' interfere with the divine workings of god by preventing life from existing where it should exist.

So, isn’t this all interference in god’s work?

The risks of creating synthetic life are great but that doesn’t mean that mankind shouldn’t proceed because of them. Every great discovery has been replete with risks. Fire, electricity, ICEs, airplanes, nuclear energy, all of them carry considerable risks.  If that would not have been the case and things would have been left to god alone, we would still be cowering in fear whenever we came across lightening or still rubbing stones together. Or perhaps we still would have been thinking that the Earth is flat and is the center of the universe.

We must continue to make progress. Even if the risks are risibly humongous. We cannot stop making progress simply because we think some things should be left to god.

Which brings me to god. The problem with the theory of god is that the evidence for non-existence of such an entity is massive. Nevertheless, people still believe in the idea of the god and anything that man is not able to comprehend is left to god. But that doesn’t prove zilch .

Any idea that is widely held does not prove its validity. Even though our ancient texts are full of incidences in which god(s) played a significant role, history has given us no superhumans or entities with supranormal abilities. Modern religion is basically nothing but stories embellished over time.

As for man playing god by creating synthetic life. Considering the fact that it took “god” nearly 700 Million (!) years to create the first semblance of life (Prokaryotes) and taking into consideration that humans have been around for only 200,000 years, and we have had only around 800 years of what we call Modern Science, Man has already  created the first living “synthetic cell”; [1]  I think humans have every right to do so.

The math is incomplex, 800 years vs. 700 Million Years. I guess nobody invented microscopes when god needed to create  life.

As for me, if I would be leaving my life in somebody else's hands, I would rather leave it in the hands of somebody who at least thinks he knows what he is doing, rather than something that probably doesn’t exist.

 

 

Note:[1] Earth was created 4.5 Billion years ago while the first life form originated 3.8 Billion years ago. Modern Humans first appeared on earth 200,000 years ago. (Read more)

 

Adversity is the name of the game

I had previously written how India has a four-wheeled fixation. Anything that has four –wheels is the shortcut to nirvana and anything on two wheels is usually shunned. Sadly, this mentality is taken to the roads too.

Anyone riding a bike in traffic is usually considered a poor monger who is on his bike only because he doesn’t have anything else as medium of commute or simply can’t afford a car. Self-righteous car owners consider themselves inherently superior to everyone around them simply because they have got those little 4 wheels, however small they might be is not of importance. For them, Bikers are not traffic. They are targets.

Predictably, these people riding the cars think that they have got the first right of the way on the road and bikers are lesser mortals who have no right to be on the road.

They can’t be more wrong.
Contrary to popular opinion, most of the bikers are on a bike simply because they choose to be. (And by bikers, I don’t mean just anyone who gets on a 100 cc and wrings the throttle.)

Most of the bikers have been riding on for years, if not decades. They usually have access to 2 or more transport choices with them but they choose bikes for the freedom and the involving experience they offer. There are bikers who have got BMWs parked at home but they simply can’t resist the lure of two wheels and the intense ride they offer.

And the saddest thing is that most of these “superior” drivers are secretly in awe of bikers and their rides. They admire them secretly but are too pusillanimous to admit it in open. If they see a biker enjoying the ride on the road, sliding around and banking too much, they will be looking at the spectacle like their eyeballs are gonna pop out but later on they will just say how foolhardy this is.

The cops are no different and they also consider Bikers to be a class lower than all and consider them as targets. Harassing Bikers seems to be their favourite pastime and I don’t think the attitude is gonna change anytime soon.

Perhaps the reason for this is that people think of Biking as an underground activity. And the word ’ underground ‘ conjures up images of everything from mafia to drugs to trafficking. People just don’t understand Biking and motorsports. Their minds are just not willing to accept biking as an activity/sport.

What really flummoxes me is that people are willing to consider figure dancing as a sport but not Biking or motorsports. Hell, people might even consider pole dancing as a sport.

A seditious change in popular mindset is needed but I don’t see it coming anytime soon. Bikers have had to face adversity since the day Bikes were invented. But I take heart in the fact that despite all the adversity from everyone, from one’s own family to cops to maybe even the pope , Biking and bikers have survived and continue to flourish. Perhaps that is enough for me.

But is it enough for biking on the whole? I can’t say.