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May 25th, 2010

If Craig Venter had been playing God, he’d have destroyed those self-replicating cells in a fit of pique by now.

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Discussion (20)¬

  1. Bodach says:
    May 25, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    Venter is a much nicer god than that other one. At least, so far…

  2. Cass_m says:
    May 25, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    give it time LOL

  3. wright1 says:
    May 25, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    Hmm, the Bible reinterpreted as a write-up of an on-going microbial culture experiment… from the perspective of the bacteria. That has possibilities.

  4. nina says:
    May 25, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    wasn’t that what the new testament was about? to turn the genocidal tribal god in OT into Santa in the NT. god sure needs a lot of makeovers

  5. AchillesAndTortoise says:
    May 25, 2010 at 8:29 pm

    @nina: True. Originally he was multiple gods… as you probably know Elohim is plural. Then he was one angry god. Now he’s a three-in-one nice god who’s going to send you to hell if you don’t believe in him (is that really an improvement, though?).

  6. funkatron says:
    May 25, 2010 at 8:35 pm

    @AchillesAndTortoise are you sure that’s not part of the storyline from lost?

  7. MrGronk says:
    May 26, 2010 at 1:03 am

    Much as I dislike the theory of a multiverse, it opens up the likelihood that at least some universes are creations of sufficiently advanced civilisations. Which opens up the further intriguing possibility that our particular universe is the result of some 6th former’s physics project. Whoever the little sod is, I’d give him a D+.

  8. Nassar Ben Houdja says:
    May 26, 2010 at 3:10 am

    The powers that be are trying to watch the movie, the kids keep scampering back and forth to go potty and get popcorn, then wonder why there is a certain amount of criticism. Pay attention, you’ll learn more from what the wise don’t say than babbling idjuts.

  9. Neuseline says:
    May 26, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    God slipped up when he did not patent everything in his creation. It would have prevented Dr Venter from copying him. It is a mistake that Venter will probably not make, in which case God help us all.

  10. Neuseline says:
    May 26, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    By the way, the present cartoon is superb.

  11. nina says:
    May 26, 2010 at 6:05 pm

    @AchillesAndTortoise

    Oh sure, it makes being tortured forever a lot easier if it’s nicely done.

    Manners are everything.

    I did a review of a book that compares 91 afterlife concepts (well, 90 really because while athiesm is included in the book, there wasn’t anything to discuss) http://tinyurl.com/38tpb5n

  12. Uncle Roger says:
    May 26, 2010 at 8:34 pm

    @nina — Lovingly! We will all be tortured *lovingly* for alll eternity.

    Because, after all, he loves each and every one of us and doesn’t want any of us to suffer.

    It’s just that, well, there are *rules* about these things. Never mind that he made up the rules.

  13. nina says:
    May 26, 2010 at 11:55 pm

    Uncle Roger

    Right, lovingly, of course – but apparently, not so loving since we don’t get a safe word

  14. Fuckerless says:
    May 27, 2010 at 2:07 am

    Religious trying to bad mouth it. Getting too close 🙂

    http://blog.bioethics.net/2008/03/the-ethical-implications-of-synthetic-life-symposi/

  15. nima says:
    May 27, 2010 at 3:16 am

    @MrGronk, that reminds me of a side story in one of Robert Heinlein’s books – Jehovah, instead of being the omniscient ruler of creation was really a minor and terribly officious bureaucrat in a larger operation.

  16. Tarras Bulba says:
    May 27, 2010 at 9:57 am

    Craig Venter – Egotistical bastard #1

    (And no, he’s not really all that nice .. practically told the scientific community that while they were still in the stone ages in terms of sequencing the human genome, he would’ve mapped all the genes … or something in that line. We all know he lost and it’s funny that he gives the impression that he was the first to succeed nowadays.)

  17. steve oberski says:
    May 27, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    @Nima – that reminds me of a side story in one of Robert Heinleinís books

    Would that be “Stranger in a Strange Land” ?

  18. EveryZig says:
    May 27, 2010 at 10:45 pm

    Religions would say that god loves you. He loves you SO MUCH that it takes every bit of his infinite mercy and then some to keep him from throwing you into a fire. If you are devoted to him and he is in a good mood.

  19. Crusader Rabid says:
    May 28, 2010 at 9:52 pm

    Who made hell? The Bible I’ve got says God created ‘the heavens and the earth’, and talks about a ‘new heaven and a new earth’, nothing about hell.
    Artificial life is neither good nor evil; like everything else, its whether we can use it to serve us well, or we create our own hell.

  20. OtterBe says:
    March 7, 2020 at 12:59 am

    The Heinlein book in question is Job. His take on the destruction-testing of a human is well worth the time reading imo

    >in case anyone catching up on these strips a decade later is curious

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