Has anyone else come across this bit of extraordinary reporting? Just think of the implications of it all!!
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Second Coming Group Wants To Clone Jesus
NEW YORK, NY (MCNS) -- A secretive group called the Second Coming Project, apparently foreseeing Jesus's second coming using modern technology, intends to one day clone him.
Fox News reports that the 13 member alliance wants to obtain a small DNA sample from one of the historic artifacts that some people trace to Christ's body, maybe the Shroud of Turin. The resulting cloned fetus would then be placed in a female's womb.
"I am hoping it will bring world peace," said one source within the group. "Not some Armageddon as a tremendous battle where everyone dies, as some people believe."
The mother would not have to be a virgin, but it would be an immaculate conception. December 25, 2001 has been chosen as the day the cloned baby would be born, Fox reported.
The infant will appear like any other baby. He would not be raised in a laboratory nor would he be inculcated with beliefs, said the group's spokesperson.
"If this child is what we hope he is, he will not need to be raised that way," the spokesperson added.
Questions surround the historic artifacts from which DNA would have to be taken, perhaps a sample of blood or a hair. The authenticity of most of these relics, including the Shroud of Turin, has been challenged by scholars. Also, it is not known if 2,000-year-old DNA samples can be cloned.
"Any damage to the DNA would likely result in damaged, deformed or just non-starting cloning material," Biologist Arthur Caplan, director the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, told Fox.
Aside from the many scientific problems, established religious groups do not buy the idea. Bill Merrell, vice president of convention relations for the Southern Baptist Convention, told Fox the project is "the height of foolhardiness," "the highest silliness in the category of neither science nor religion" and "perfectly reprehensible."
Maranatha Christian News Service
(Post date: October 13, 2000)
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This could certainly raise some interesting questions - if they managed to pull it off which religion would this child choose to follow? Would he be perfect? What sort of upbringing could the poor lad expect? How do you live with the fact that you are cloned from the supposed son of God? And as for the date of birth, well, they are going to have to do a little bit of revising there, running out of time a bit now! And I wonder if he would look like the representation of himself in the WT publications?!
By the way the Second Coming Project has asked for donations to help them in this work - who's going to be the first to stick their hand in their pocket then?