Blogging the Kintisch Point of Inquiry Show, Part II: Is It Reasonable to Fear “Playing God”? | The Intersection

Once again: If you haven't yet, I encourage you to download or stream my fourth (and so far, I think, best) Point of Inquiry program--with Eli Kintisch on the subject of geoengineering. All this week on the blog, I'm going to be discussing issues raised on the show--so having heard it will be kind of an essential baseline. I'm always trying to become a better interviewer, so with this next post, I want to zoom in on an area where I failed to press my interview subject as I probably should have. And that is the relationship between religious beliefs and opposition to geoengineering. At around minute 9:15, I asked Eli about religious opposition to geoengineering--basically, about the folks who say that we shouldn't "play God." He gave a very detailed answer, essentially signaling that, hey, yeah, this is a lot like genetically modified foods--some people think the impulse to interfere with "nature," to remake it in the way that only "God" is supposed to do, is wrong. I have no doubt this impulse is out there. But I don't find it to be at all a rational argument, or a sound basis for public policy. When it comes to the genetics of ...


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