Stories tagged with: technology

• DNA editing, ethics & biblical truth

  by David Roach, posted Thursday, August 03, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

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  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Scientists have successfully edited the DNA of human embryos for the first time ever. But a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary bioethicist says the research in question was unethical for its destruction of embryos and raises moral questions about genetic engineering.

  The research -- published Wednesday (Aug. 2) in the journal Nature -- used a gene-editing tool known as CRISPR-Cas9 to correct in dozens of embryos a genetic mutation that causes a potentially fatal heart condition. The embryos were purposefully created with the mutation and destroyed following the experiment. Read More

• Teen internet addiction cited as growing concern

  by Daniel Woodman , posted Friday, July 21, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

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  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Gateway Seminary professor Paul Kelly had a friend who once became so addicted to online gaming that he would ignore his family and friends while also skipping meals so he could play more games on the internet. His desire became so severe that he began failing classes and stole from his family to support his habit.

  Amid the emerging challenge of internet addiction, youth ministry experts are calling for churches to raise awareness of the topic and provide resources for parents and students. While pornography is perhaps the most publicized online addiction, internet-based activities that are less sinister in themselves can rise to a harmful level, according to a growing body of evidence. Read More

• Mitchell: Tech recasting 'what it means to be human'

  by S. Craig Sanders, posted Friday, March 10, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

  SBTS photo

  LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Theological reflection must counteract an uncritical approach to technological advancements that threaten human existence, bioethicist C. Ben Mitchell said in a lecture series at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

  "We have to reject uncritical consumeristic adoption of digital technologies," said Mitchell, provost, vice president for academic affairs and Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. Read More

• Planets' discovery said to incite misplaced hope

  by David Roach, posted Thursday, February 23, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

  Rendering from NASA

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- At least some of scientists' enthusiasm over discovery of seven potentially habitable planets seems to reflect the misplaced hopes of a secular worldview.

  That is the assessment of a Union University physicist and a Gateway Seminary Old Testament professor following NASA's Feb. 22 announcement that astronomers have detected the first known system of seven Earth-sized planets rotating around a single star. Read More

• Pig embryos with human cells deemed 'problematic'

  by David Roach, posted Thursday, February 02, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

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  NASHVILLE (BP) -- The first successful growth of human cells in a pig embryo has drawn mixed reviews from pro-life bioethicists.

  Biologists at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., announced Jan. 26 that they generated stem cells from human skin, then injected them into a pig embryo and allowed the embryo to grow four weeks in a sow's uterus. Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: Siri-ously?

  by Brian Hobbs, posted Friday, January 27, 2017 (5 years ago)

  Siri on your iPhone, or a similar program on your smartphone, can answer an array of questions, Brian Hobbs notes, but don't let it become a perpetual distraction that lessens your quality of life. Read More

• Artificial intelligence spawns ethical concerns

  by David Roach, posted Tuesday, October 18, 2016 (5 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- The ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) has drawn comments from the White House and British House of Commons in recent weeks, along with a nonprofit organization established by Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft. Now, Baptist computer scientists have called Christians to join the discussion.

  Louise Perkins, professor of computer science at California Baptist University, told Baptist Press she is "quite worried" at the lack of an ethical code related to AI. The Christian worldview, she added, has much to say about how automated devices should be programmed to safeguard human flourishing. Read More

• Internet change could threaten religious liberty

  by David Roach, posted Friday, September 30, 2016 (5 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- When the U.S. government relinquishes control of a nonprofit organization that oversees internet domain names, a California Baptist University software engineering professor says, the potential for religious liberty violations could increase.

  Since 1998, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has coordinated and administered internet domain names, with oversight from the U.S. Department of Commerce. ... Read More

• Motherless, designer baby specter increases

  by David Roach, posted Monday, September 26, 2016 (5 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Two developing reproductive technologies -- one that could facilitate motherless babies and another that could open the door to so-called designer babies -- have drawn warnings from Christian ethicists.

  In one experiment, researchers at the UK's University of Bath altered unfertilized mouse eggs so they took on properties like "ordinary" cells, such as skin cells, the BBC reported. Then they created mouse embryos by fertilizing the altered eggs with sperm cells, leading scientists to speculate that two human men, or even one man, may one day be able to conceive a child with similar technology using sperm and another donated body cell. Read More

• 'Intergalactic missions': planet spurs questions

  by David Roach, posted Wednesday, August 31, 2016 (5 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Discovery of another planet that might support life has given rise to speculation about intelligent life elsewhere in the universe -- and whether such lifeforms would need the Gospel.

  "Briefly stated, saying that scientists 'think there may be life' on [the newly discovered planet] is greatly overstating what the scientific community is thinking," said Bill Nettles, physics department chair at Union University.

  But "if there is intelligent life on other planets, we definitely need to tell them Earth's Gospel story and learn what their history is," Nettles told Baptist Press in written comments. Read More