‘The creation of part-human, part-monkey embryos will discomfit many’

Baby macquque via Pixabay

A reader sent me a link to the following:

The creation of part-human, part-monkey embryos will discomfit many

April 17, 2021

Physics is famous for mind-bending ideas. Subatomic particles can be in many places at once. The flow of time depends on how fast you are moving. But because such ideas are confined to the realm of the invisibly tiny or the inhumanly vast, most people regard them as little more than diverting curiosities.

Biology has mind-bending ideas, too. Since they may concern the everyday world of living bodies, their impact is often felt much more viscerally. One example is “chimeras”, organisms which, a bit like the mythological beast, are formed from cells of two distinct species. Scientists have already produced goat-sheep and mouse-rats. Now a group of American, Chinese and Spanish researchers has reported significant progress in the quest to create chimeras using human cells—in this case, combining them with cells from monkeys to form functioning embryos. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/04/17/the-creation-of-part-human-part-monkey-embryos-will-discomfit-many

Sadly, the above article considers this good as it also stated “But the potential benefits outweigh the risks.”

Yet, that is wrong on so many fronts. As a published scientist, let me flat out state that 1) Humans cannot possibly know all the risks and 2) There are other ways to accomplish what the claimed goals are, but they tend to be ignored as they are not as potentially lucrative.

The Bible warns:

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, (1 Timothy 6:10a)

Do not be deceived–there are ethical ways to greatly improve human health that do not require blending human DNA with monkeys or other creatures. But, because it is not considered sufficiently profitable or academically desirable, many helpful interventions are not pursued.

22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, (Romans 1:22)

Yes, intellectual vanity is a reason certain helpful interventions, including various preventative steps related to COVID-19, have not be pursued.

Anyway, here is more about what is going on related to humans and monkeys from another source:

April 15, 2021

For the first time, scientists have created embryos that are a mix of human and monkey cells.

The embryos, described Thursday in the journal Cell, were created in part to try to find new ways to produce organs for people who need transplants, said the international team of scientists who collaborated in the work. But the research raises a variety of concerns. …

Such mixed-species embryos are known as chimeras, named for the fire-breathing creature from Greek mythology that is part lion, part goat and part snake.

“Our goal is not to generate any new organism, any monster,” Belmonte said. “And we are not doing anything like that. We are trying to understand how cells from different organisms communicate with one another.” …

But this type of scientific work and the possibilities it opens up raises serious questions for some ethicists. The biggest concern, they said, is that someone could try to take this work further and attempt to make a baby out of an embryo made this way. Specifically, the critics worry that human cells could become part of the developing brain of such an embryo — and of the brain of the resulting animal.

“Should it be regulated as human because it has a significant proportion of human cells in it? Or should it be regulated just as an animal? Or something else?” Rice University’s Matthews said. “At what point are you taking something and using it for organs when it actually is starting to think and have logic?” https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/04/15/987164563/scientists-create-early-embryos-that-are-part-human-part-monkey

A couple of years ago, scientists in China forced human brain tissue into monkeys and claimed that this makes them smarter:

Scientists added human brain genes to monkeys. Yes, it’s as scary as it sounds.

April 12, 2019

Scientists in China have created a new kind of monkey. It’s got a human brain gene. And that just might make its intelligence a little bit more like ours. …

Beijing’s National Science Review journal, researchers took human copies of the MCPH1 gene, which is believed to play an important role in our brain development, and introduced it into monkey embryos by means of a virus that carried the gene.

Of the 11 transgenic macaque monkeys they generated, six died. The five survivors went through a series of tests, including MRI brain scans and memory tests. It turned out they didn’t have bigger brains than a control group of macaques, but they did perform better on short-term memory tasks. Their brains also developed over a longer period of time, which is typical of human brains. …

Bing Su, a geneticist at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, told MIT Technology Review that he’s already testing other genes involved in brain evolution:

One that he has his eye on is SRGAP2C, a DNA variant that arose about two million years ago, just when Australopithecus was ceding the African savannah to early humans. That gene has been dubbed the “humanity switch” and the “missing genetic link” for its likely role in the emergence of human intelligence. Su says he’s been adding it to monkeys, but that it’s too soon to say what the results are.

Su has also had his eye on another human gene, FOXP2, which is believed to have graced us with our language abilities. Pondering the possibility of adding that gene to monkeys, Su told Nature in 2016, “I don’t think the monkey will all of a sudden start speaking, but will have some behavioral change.” …

Su’s prediction that his tinkering would cause behavioral change raises a slippery slope concern: If we deem it acceptable to make an animal slightly more human-like, we may end up normalizing that process and find ourselves generating animals that resemble humans to ever greater degrees.

Changing monkeys’ behavior and intelligence raises major ethical issues

If you make primates smarter and more human-like, you’re not doing them any favors — not least if you’re going to then keep them locked up in a lab. In the words of University of Colorado bioethicist Jacqueline Glover, “To humanize them is to cause harm. Where would they live and what would they do? Do not create a being that can’t have a meaningful life in any context.” https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/12/18306867/china-genetics-monkey-brain-intelligence

“This was the first attempt to understand the evolution of human cognition using a transgenic monkey model,” said lead geneticist Bing Su of the Kunming Institute of Zoology.

The experiments, described on March 27 in a Beijing journal, National Science Review, and first reported by Chinese media, remain far from pinpointing the secrets of the human mind or leading to an uprising of brainy primates.

Instead, several Western scientists, including one who collaborated on the effort, called the experiments reckless and said they questioned the ethics of genetically modifying primates, an area where China has seized a technological edge. –MIT Technology Review

“The use of transgenic monkeys to study human genes linked to brain evolution is a very risky road to take,” said University of Colorado geneticist James Sikela, who conducts comparative studies on primates. He is concerned that the research will open the door to more extreme modifications.

“It is a classic slippery slope issue and one that we can expect to recur as this type of research is pursued,” added Sikela.

Research using primates is increasingly difficult in Europe and the US, but China has rushed to apply the latest high-tech DNA tools to the animals. The country was first to create monkeys altered with the gene-editing tool CRISPR, and this January a Chinese institute announced it had produced a half-dozen clones of a monkey with a severe mental disturbance. –MIT Technology Review

“It is troubling that the field is steamrolling along in this manner,” says Sikela.

Scientists have long sought the genes which, according to evolutionary theory, caused human brains to become intelligent while those of chimpanzees and other simians were left behind despite our genes sharing similarities of around 98%. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-11/monkeys-injected-human-brain-genes-and-it-made-them-smarter

This is wrong to do, but is happening anyway. I first warned about monkey-human experimentation just over seven years ago (see Russia looking at total GMO food ban; the frightening chimera research).

As far as the difference between human and monkey brains goes, it is more than some tissue differences.

Notice what the Bible teaches:

8 But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. (Job 32:8)

Here, also, is a video that goes into some of the differences:

10:09

Scientists search for the human soul, but …

It has been reported that Chinese scientists are trying to find the ‘human soul’ by using a state-of-the-art brain scanner. What is a soul? Can a soul die? How are human brains different from animal brains? Can scientific equipment find out how? Is there a ”spirit in man” that imparts intellect? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more. A related written article is available: ‘Chinese scientists to try to find the HUMAN SOUL with £100m state-of-the-art brain scanner’

Here is a link to the sermonette video: Scientists search for the human soul, but …

Frightening, ‘frankenstein-monsters,’ are being worked on in labs.

We also made a video related to that, including the use of simian species:

13:51

Half human, half pig: What’s the difference?

BBC reported about what it called an animal that would be half-human and half-pig. Is such a thing possible? Are chimeras for real? What about a “humanzee”? Are scientists really working on these type of creatures? Is this good? Can something truly be half human and half animal? How are humans different from animals? What is the ‘spirit in man’? What is man? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more with biblical-based responses.

Here is a link to our video: Half human, half pig: What’s the difference?

The Bible teaches that God made everything to reproduce after its own kind (Genesis 1).

Of course, those of us who believe the Bible should not be surprised that humans are going the wrong way with aspects of genetic research. Notice that the Bible warned about human knowledge increasing and problems in the end time:

6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:6-7)

4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” (Daniel 12:4)

1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-6)

How much ‘love’ do scientists have for the inter-spliced animal-human entities they are sometimes creating? Do they not brutally experiment and then destroy most of what they are currently creating that way?

This is going the wrong direction. We need to turn away from such.

The Bible warns:

12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

Blending human and monkey DNA is not right.

As far as leading towards death, DNA experiments may well lead to the coming pandemics associated with the ride of the 4th horseman of the Apocalypse (Revelation 6:7-8).

This should not be encouraged.

UPDATE 04/25/21: We just put up the following related video:

10:16

Human-Monkey Embryos and Death

A “group of American, Chinese and Spanish researchers has reported significant progress in the quest to create chimeras using human cells—in this case, combining them with cells from monkeys to form functioning embryos.” The hope of mixing genes and DNA is to be able to grow better organs for human transplantations. This was something discussed in the journal ‘Cell.’ But are there other, better options? Could greed and intellectual vanity be a reason for this research? Could this type of research lead to the ride of the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse (Revelation 6:7-8)? Is there a spirit in humans that the Almighty gives people understanding (Job 32:8)? Are there warnings about this type of direction in the Bible? Could this way that various humans endorse lead to death? Dr. Thiel addresses these and other issues.