Many are familiar with the concept of Mary Shelley’s novel, “Frankenstein,” where a crazed scientist creates a monster and explores life, death and man vs. nature via the re-animation of dead tissue.
In September, Metro UK reported that scientists had extracted Ribonucleic acid—a molecule that is present in the majority of living organisms and viruses—from the remains of a Thylacine, a.k.a. a Tasmanian Tiger—a mainland Australian animal that has been extinct for more than 3,000 years.
The RNA was tiny—even microscopic—but scientists believe the ramifications are significant in their efforts to conduct “de-extinction” efforts. Bringing back species that have disappeared has long been a fascination for scientists, but progress has been slow.
In these days where it appears that anything in the realm of immorality goes, could these scientific efforts be a direct assault and challenge on God’s design for life? According to Colossians 1:16, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him.”
“This sounds to me like it is a Frankenstein thing, and that these people are trying to play God,” says Bible teacher Kyle Winkler, the founder of the app Shut Up, Devil. “When our flesh, body and our psyche–the soul part of us–dies and decays, and spirit is separated from our body and goes to one of two places. Those of us who believe go to live in the presence of God.
“Even if you could resurrect a dead carcass, it’s still a dead carcass. Your spirit won’t come back from wherever it is. It will not live in a dead carcass. You want to live in your glorified body in heaven. Only God can create a spirit.”
Nearly 40 years ago, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley said they had extracted DNA from a “scrap of dried muscle tissue” from the remains of an extinct subspecies of the modern Zebra—a quagga. In the decades since, building blocks have been extracted from myriad long-lost species like mammoths, aurochs and even the dodo.
The efforts of Dr. Emilio Marmol Sanchez with the Tasmanian Tiger, however, may simply be the forerunner of even more diabolical experiment.
Although the Metro article claims that no one is suggesting resurrecting ancient humans, Ira Pastor, the chief executive of Philadelphia-based Bioquark, told phillymag.com in 2019 he wants to “help humans tap into their regeneration superpowers.”
But is reviving the brain dead ethical or even possible? As Christians know, it is ONLY possible by the hand of God. Pastor, however, said it is an idea worth exploring.
“We are a company that is very interested in regenerative biology, specifically all of the organisms that are good at regenerating parts of their bodies,” Pastor said.
In 2016, Pastor first declared his intentions to take 20 brain-dead patients and try to “regenerate” their nervous systems. When that announcement was made, his email box blew up with inquiries from all over the world from skeptical scientists grilling him about the details of techniques his team was using, the Washington Post reported.
Desperate families, who had been paying for years to keep loved ones on life support, wondered how to enroll, and outraged representatives from every major religion told him why what he is doing violates the laws of nature.
“You wouldn’t believe how many have said, ‘Please don’t do this. You’re going to start the zombie apocalypse.'”
However, such work, he said, may have more applications for treating traumatic brain injury, mental illnesses, spinal cord issues and Alzheimer’s in the short term that disorders of consciousness.
Still, there are ethical issues, Robert Veatch, a professor of emeritus of medical ethics at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics, says. A skeptical Veatch pointed out that, in all of medical history, there has not been a single documented case of a person who met the criteria for brain death and then was revived in any state.
“It is a bizarre stretch of the imagination to think that all of those billions of billions of cells could somehow be fixed,” Veatch told The Washington Post.
Lazarus, of course, came back from the dead. But CBN founder, the late Pat Robertson, says that was a “resuscitation, not a resurrection.” Lazarus, he said, came back in his original body that was still subject to death.
But Jesus Christ indeed was resurrected from the dead. Robertson said that when Jesus comes back again, He will “resurrect those who have been born again and they will then be joined with the spiritual bodies that have been prepared for their spirits.”
So what are we to make of the efforts to “de-extinct” animals that have been extinct for years and even centuries? For believers, it is not reality.
Remember, “Frankenstein” was only a book and a movie. The “zombie apocalypse” will never happen. {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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