In Chapter 14 of Floodgates, I warn that we are crossing a final line with God by seeking to alter our Adamic nature as humans and overcome our limitations through genetic manipulation, man/machine interfaces, and other biomedical and technological innovations. While much of this scientific activity is motivated by good intentions, such as curing diseases and prolonging lifespans, I argue that it is ultimately pursuing a path to self-deification and eternal life outside of Christ, and thus God will not allow it to continue much longer.
Now comes this CNN article on gene doping which reveals that many athletes are seeking a competitive advantage by gene therapy or gene-editing techniques. In its report entitled “The new frontier of doping will modify athletes’ DNA,” such methods have quickly come into use by athletes in certain sports like cycling, leading to a World Anti-Doping Agency announcement in October 2017 that it was expanding its “gene-doping” ban to “gene editing agents designed to alter genome sequences”, and thereby enhance performance.
According to the Bible, the human race was made a little lower than the angels, with certain limitations and less power than them, but that through Christ we will one day be like them and even rule over the angels (Psalm 8:5; Hebrews 2:7-9; 2 Peter 2:11; Matthew 22:30; Daniel 7:27; Revelation 20:4-6). Yet until then, we are commanded to maintain our unique place in the natural order, as a special creation of God made in His image (Genesis 9:3-6). The driving force behind the mounting scientific efforts to transcend our human limitations is the seductive lie of Darwinian evolution, which says that we now understand how species mutation works and we can control and even accelerate it for our own self-enhancement. But it is an affront to God and will soon draw His wrath.