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 pposition
to human cloning and to research that destroys human embryos is
often said to be essentially "theological." (The word
is usually used pejoratively.) Thus, debate on these topics has
featured forays into the alleged history of Catholic doctrine on
"ensoulment." We've also been told that the opponents'
religious views have all kinds of weird implications — we'd have
to ban in vitro fertilization, have funerals for blastocysts, etc.,
if we took them seriously. The theological commitments of supporters
of new biotechnologies have received rather less comment. (An exception
was Drew Clark's intelligent discussion in Slate
of why so many prominent Mormon pro-lifers are supporting embryonic
stem-cell research.)
This one-sided
reticence was on display in today's New York Times. The front-page,
right-hand story concerned three scientists who told the National
Academy of Sciences yesterday that they would proceed with efforts
to clone human beings. The first quoted source in Sheryl Gay Stolberg's
story is one Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, "who directs a company
in the Bahamas and is a member of a religious sect, the Raëlians,
for whom human cloning is a goal." A previous, short Times
article on Dr. Boisselier's dealings with the FDA referred to "the
Raëlian religious sect, which believes in extraterrestrial
visitors."
These are rather
demure descriptions. The Raëlians' beliefs are summarized at
www.clonaid.com,
the website of Dr. Boisselier's company. Raëlians believe that
Raël — a/k/a Claude Vorilhon — is the "son of Yahwe and
Jesus' brother," whose "mission on Earth is to reveal
to the whole of humanity the truth about our origins and to build
an embassy to welcome our Fathers from space." Vorhilon was
a French racecar driver when these alien Fathers contacted him 27
years ago. They took him to the planet Raël, treated him to
a dinner with Jesus and Mohammed, and used six female robots to
teach him "secrets of sensuality."
It turns out
that the Bible was all a misunderstanding — the name of the extraterrestrials
who created mankind was mistranslated as "God." Jesus's
resurrection was "a cloning" performed by same. Now we
can follow in the aliens' footsteps. Clonaid's goal is nothing less
than immortality. "Once we can clone exact replicas of ourselves,
the next step will be to transfer our memory and personality into
our newly cloned brains, which will allow us to truly live forever,"
says its website.
News outlets
other than the Times — such as CNN and the Washington
Post — have referred to the Raëlians as a "cult";
even the Times did so in a headline. And the Times Magazine
ran a long story on the group in February that detailed its, um,
interesting beliefs. Reporters for the Times itself, however,
tiptoe around the issue. Maybe that's a good thing. Finally, the
Times has found a religion it won't criticize.
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