Designer Babies and the Future?

A column in Current Diagnosis of the Catholic Peace Weekly by a Bio-ethicist gives us some thoughts to reflect on and begins with the words of Klaus Schwab, founder, and chairman of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland: "Advances in technology push us to the boundary of new ethics."
 
Schwab said in his book "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" in which he deals with the following questions. Will the tremendous development of science and technology be used only to treat diseases and recover from injuries, or can it be used to create a better human being? If we choose the latter, wouldn't it be a risk of expanding consumer society by turning our children into custom-made products? What is the definition of a 'better human being, etc?

We may have heard of concerns about customized babies. However, customized babies are likely to appear only in science fiction movies and novels. No room to worry about customized babies since we have difficulties overcoming Covid-19. Is it just Corona? There are more and more problems that we need to solve, such as the climate crisis caused by global warming and the New Normal in the post-corona era. Nevertheless, we need to talk about this issue in some way. Because a custom baby is no longer a story that appears in science fiction movies.

In 2016, Chinese scientists created the first genetically modified human embryo in human history. We can think of the first and the best as good, but not only the scientific community but also the whole world was shocked. Two years later, even before the shock went away, a genetically modified twin was born in China. And Western society struggled to draw up guidelines to apply genetic modification technology to human embryos, perhaps because of the impatience that it may lose its lead to China.
 
Of course, the voices of criticism were also loud. But starting to make guidelines means that we will now practically use genetic modification technology directly in human embryos. However, by distinguishing restrictions and allowances for their use, it seems to be ethical at first glance. In the meantime, it seems clear that governments will actively carry out clinical trials that modify the genes of human embryos and implant them in the uterus. But not many people will know about this. While everyone is making all-out efforts to overcome the Corona 19 crisis, it is proceeding quietly.
 
Paul Knoepfler a professor at the University of California School of Medicine, says a baby born through genetic modification, whether for medical reasons or simple parental choices, becomes an advanced new human being. He explains that all humans are special, but the reason why genetically modified babies are special is that genetic design makes them healthier or better babies. He then says that the meaning of what is "better" reflects social perspectives. At this point, let's think about what is the definition of a 'better human being that Klaus Schwab mentioned?
 
As Knoepfler said, if the meaning of 'better' reflects the social perspective, let's think about where that view comes from. There may be many factors, but the first thing that comes to mind is the Internet Global Companies present us with algorithms that predict consumer tastes.
 
The development of science and technology in the future is likely to put us on the border of new ethics in various ways. But within that boundary, a customized baby is coming. This is not just a question of whether parents can arbitrarily modify their children's genes. We need to wake up and see where the consciousness of 'excellent' and 'better' on what we understand 'humanity' to mean will be going?

 

Climate Awareness Survey in Korean Catholic Church

An article in the Catholic Times reviewed the results of a Climate Awareness Survey that was made by the Catholic Climate Action Movement of Korea on January 20th to find out the perception of believers, religious, and priests about the climate crisis and seek the church's response.

Even though all agree on the seriousness of the climate crisis, the perception of the problems are low
as are the methods and efforts of practice.
 

The survey was conducted by lay believers, religious and priests , each consisting of 20 questions. A total of 3,576 people (2,717 lay believers, 619 religious, and 240 priests) responded on January 21-31. 

 

They all sympathized with the seriousness of the climate crisis and participated to some extent in personal practice. However, awareness of the social and structural problems of the climate crisis and willingness to improve them fell short of expectations. In addition, negative and reserved evaluations were higher than positive ones both in the diocesan and the parish level.
 

The consciousness and practice of  believers did not make much progress from the time of the 2005 consciousness survey for the Making of Green Church conducted by the Seoul Diocese. Accordingly, the  church communities' full-scale transformation toward ecological repentance and efforts to implement it are needed.

Of the laity,  2,717 respondents, 2,685 (98.8%) responded that the current climate crisis is "very serious" (69%) or "serious" (29.8%). However, personal practices were only common activities such as carrying a shopping bag and reducing the use of plastic and disposable products. On the other hand, the reading of 'climate-related articles and interest in climate policy' were relatively low. Reasons for not practicing what they believe: "laziness" (63.7%), "Burnout and annoyance" (36.3%), and 17.8% of the respondents said they did not know what to do.

Regarding the practice in the parish, the responses:"doing well" (34.2%), "only words and not practicing" (27.6%), and "I don't know" (29.3%). On the practices in the  parish, 40.4 percent said they did not know. This reveals the need for active education and action on the parish level.

51.6% of the respondents said that they had read or knew the contents of the Encyclical Laudato si . Some respondents said they only knew the title (27.2 percent) and others said they had no idea (20.8 percent).

Members of Religious Orders in their  practice of the climate crisis was relatively high. However, the reasons why personal practice is not working well were similar, such as "laziness" (69.8%), "difficulty" (33.1%), and "Don't Know Practical Methods" (9.7%).
 

General personal practices appeared similar to other members, but it is noteworthy that 84.3% of the members of (Justice, Peace, Creation and Conservation)  at the congregation level were high.This shows in the religious response to the climate crisis that a shift to ecological education is needed to change consciousness.

Regarding the negative assessment of the church's environmental issues over the past two decades, the Religious Members viewed the key to responding to the climate crisis as a "change in the perception of the pastors." This is considered to be a responsibility not only for priests but also for religious as co-operators.

All 240 priests who responded to the survey agreed on the seriousness of the climate crisis, with 174 respondents trying to reduce carbon footprint in their life style. However, there is little consensus on institutional measures such as "energy efficiency for church buildings" or "urging for climate policy" in parishes.

In terms of the response in parishes, the negative responses, such as "talking but little is done" (63.7%), were overwhelmingly higher than the positive responses (17.9%), or "doing very well" (0.4%).

95.4% of the clergy know the contents of the Encyclical"Laudato si" but in reality, it was rarely used except "in lectures." About 58.8 percent, or about half, said they knew about the "special civil service textbooks."

Like the religious, in order for the church's efforts to pay off on environmental issues, "change in the perception of pastors" (42.1%) is the top priority, and "recognition of survival in all areas beyond environmental issues" (30.8%), "so that faith can lead to social practice" (27.9%).
 

According to the results of the survey, the Korean Catholic Church's environmental movement has a problem that despite its own efforts, it has not led to enough structural changes and has not taken root at the parish level. As a result, an integrated outlook for the church's environmental issues should be sought.

Based on the results of the survey, Catholic Climate Action plans to establish an unified approach of activities at the spiritual, daily, and policy levels. In particular, in order to cope with the climate crisis challenges facing the entire human race, it will carry out activities with the diocese, parish, and the different religious communities within the Church.

New Social Network: Clubhouse

I was invited to the Clubhouse. It's not a club where you enjoy alcohol, no food, no tables, no lights. I just 'connect' through my iPhone. So begins the column on the Diagnosis of the Times in the Catholic Peace Weekly on the new SNS media. But Isn't this already common? Internet communities, online clubs, various messengers, group chat rooms, and social networking sites?

Nevertheless, Clubhouse is the talk of the town. Bitcoin's stock price soared recently after innovator CEO Elon Musk, who can make U.S. stock prices fluctuate, had a discussion about Bitcoin in the Clubhouse. Elon Musk's Tesla announced that it will buy Bitcoin and use it as a method of payment. Microsoft founder Bill Gates also popped into the clubhouse and talked to thousands of ordinary users about the coronavirus vaccine. Every day, interesting articles about the clubhouse are pouring out.

He gave the Clubhouse a great deal of thought. They're trying to attract attention from the so-called celebrities, trying to make it well known for marketing purposes. Then he was invited to the clubhouse. So he had another experience of traveling around in a new world.

There are several interesting features to why the Clubhouse is receiving social attention. The first is that you can enter only through an invitation. This method is very fairytale-like, it may indicate a secret door to escape from some of the bitter experiences of daily life.

Second, if you install an app and enter through an invitation, this is possible only with iPhone users. What online service covers iPhones and Android phones these days? It's not a very small company, there is a suspicion that it is hiding its strategy.

But thirdly, the most important feature of the clubhouse is the voice-based chat service. When you create your own account and enter the clubhouse, users gather in twos and threes, or hundreds or even thousands, to talk about living with a purpose-oriented theme or without any purpose, and all this communication consists only of your own voice. Voice chat, which feels like many people are talking on the phone at the same time, a digital non-face-to-face service, but stimulates our sensibility and conveys the feeling of people.

It has been about a year since the service began in the U.S. due to strange restrictions, which are now not accessible to everyone, but it has been described as a new virtual space; only been a month or two since its explosive popularity. The scene of deep conversation with people whose faces you don't see and meet only with their voices remind us of the young people in the movie "About Time" turning off all the lights and having a blind date in a dark restaurant.

At this point, a fundamental question comes to mind. We already have a lot of tools for non-face-to-face communication, but why do we need a new SNS? The answer he gives for the Clubhouse is our terrible loneliness.

Trauma from Bullying

In the latest issue of the Catholic Times, a special feature was an article on school violence, covered also in an editorial. Recently, the seriousness of school violence has been re-examined as some athletes, celebrities and well-known people have made known the bullying they received as children.

School violence (academic violence) is shaking up Korean society. Confessions and revelations of victims of school violence have made the news daily and don't want to stop. The disclosure of new facts and the dispute over the truth between the victims and those identified as perpetrators are pouring into major media sources.

The fact that most school violence is known more than 10 years after it occurred means that the wounds in the heart are difficult to erase and remain a long time;  easy to understand the need to hear an apology to heal the pain

Students who are victims of school violence often cannot get over their experience even after they become adults due to low self-esteem and depression. One authority in the field said, "If you get unfair violent treatment from the outside, you will have trauma, which is an unhealed wound, and because you remember it vividly from childhood, you want revenge." The heart has no statute of limitations.

This is the reason school violence is serious since tends to instill feelings of retaliation in victims and produce other acts of violence. Consequently, families and schools need to accompany those who have been bullied with personal attention on a level that they can understand.

Victims will continue to expose celebrities' past school violence. Those identified as perpetrators flee the public eye, announcing their retirement because of strong public criticism.

However, experts also express concern about school violence perpetrators taking steps to bury themselves. The opinion is that protecting victims should be the top priority, more important than the punishment of the perpetrator is their guidance. One lawyer said: "There is a positive aspect that school violence disclosure is a great comfort to the victims but the victims can in this situation become the perpetrator again and the violence repeats."  
 
Christianity is essentially a religion that teaches peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness as core values. It is sad to see the cases of school violence that stimulate people's interest and curiosity in the world with the lament: "What's wrong with the world?"

The role of families and religious schools should set a better example for preventing school violence. In fact, there is little school violence in religious schools, but efforts to restore relationships between both perpetrators and victims should continue.

From a Closed to an Open World

 

A permanent member of the Christian Life Community has an article in the Kyeongyang magazine on moving from a closed world to an open world.

He mentions a Gallup report made among the religious people of Korea from 1984-2014 which showed the majority were looking for peace of mind and heart. Among these were many who didn't want to watch the news. They preferred hearing a good uplifting talk or listening to music which gave them a feeling of peace.

This is similar to the talk in Korean society about 'healing' heard often. With the rise of competition considered as a virtue by society, we have stress and the desire for healing. Is this not the reason for the ongoing search for peace.

One European sociologist said with the appearance of neoliberalism we have a large number of cases of depression. Because of competition many rather than trying to solve the problems in society try to build up their capacity to fit in and find that they are not able to do so, consequently the feeling of failure and depression.

Since each believes the answer will be found from within oneself we have the increase of New Age Spirituality where each becomes absorbed in their personal development. The writer finds this assessment of the situation right on.

"Our redemption has a social dimension because God, in Christ, redeems not only the individual person but also the social relations existing between men. To believe that the Holy Spirit is at work in everyone means realizing that he seeks to penetrate every human situation and all social bonds: The Holy Spirit can be said to possess an infinite creativity, proper to the divine mind, which knows how to loosen the knots of human affairs, even the most complex and inscrutable." (The Joy of the Gospel #178)

Love of God that is not only a  subjective feeling requires our neighbor and the world in which we concretely live this love. God's love is experienced in the world. When we don't have the proper relationship with God we will not have a proper relationship with others and the world. This is revealed often in the Scriptures.

When we become the center of all our judgments on what is good and evil and try to satisfy this appetite we call this a sinful situation. We become the center of all action, God is absent. When living as if there is no God to be revered and seeing neighbors not as brothers but as rivals, opponents to be subjugated, and objects that provide what is needed to fathom the world, this is called a broken world. God's creation order and right relationships are broken.

Jesus came to put the right order back into the relationship. This brings happiness into our lives. History shows us how strong personal desires are in determining what is done. Each one's desires compete fiercely,  sometimes closing one's eyes and justifying any means.

Christians try to break away from their personal desires in a closed world to an opened one and try to lead others to do the same. That is our mission and we must value this call and be strong in carrying out what is entailed. We need to break down the values given to wealth, honor, and power and replace them with those that Christians have been given.

Christians need to have faith in God's love for the world and hope for an open world and invite everybody to participate.

Routine in Life

 

Due to Corona 19, the space in which we move is restricted to the room or house in which we live, spending a lot of time alone. Many try to manage and fill the time with meaningful activities. A pastor writing in the Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Times introduces us to the book Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod and his 6 step morning routine.

 

The steps are called Life S.A.V.E.R.S: Silence, Affirmation, Visualization, Exercise, Reading Writing. This is practiced repeatedly and regularly every day, ranging from studying foreign languages to small acts such as drinking 1 liter of water or folding blankets. These become the morning 'routine'.

"Routine"originally referred to habitual behavior of athletes to keep in shape, but recently it is continuous movements or actions repeated every day." Routines are habits, not boring, that allow control in the way one spends their time meaningfully for a better daily life since there is a sense of peace and achievement, in controlling your daily life. 

Above all routines are becoming a means of revealing one's identity. It reveals what you like, what kind of daily life you try to keep, and what you consume, showing where you are different from others.

For example, people who are concerned with the environment use Eco bags and refuse to receive plastic bags or disposable containers. The act of 

protecting and preserving the environment in everyday life when it becomes a routine, persons show their identity as an environmental guardians to save the groaning earth.

 

Another example, in the morning, many people read to cultivate knowledge for self-development. Some believers who wake up early in the morning read or transcribe the Bible every day, and spend time praying. These routines represent an identity as a believer.

Even in the Corona situation, believers who appear at the dawn Mass of the parish continue to do so because it has become routine for them.

 

Among the believers, he introduces an elderly person who is approaching his nineties. He has been coming out every morning to Mass for a long time and comes at least two hours in advance to make the way of the cross in the churchyard. It doesn't matter whether it snows or rains. For him, the routine is a joy. Maybe that's why he is so healthy and has a very good memory that everyone envies.

 

Having lived half his life as a businessman and poet, he now lives happily, dedicating the rest of his life to God. The priest will next year on his ninety birthday celebrate Mass for him. After all, isn't our daily routine what reveals our foremost self-identity and for a believer, the routine lived as "Child of God"? If the routine of faith life is  naturally practiced in our daily lives, we become missionaries who testify to God's word anytime, anywhere.

What is Meant by Fairness?

 

In the column of the Catholic Times on the Social Gospel, a priest answers the question that a believer asks: " I also sympathize with the thinking on Justice and the practice of love. But isn't it difficult to look at society from this perspective? In a capitalist society, competition is inevitable. To win in competition isn't that fair?

 

■ Controversy over fairness

Everyone wants to work hard and succeed, as in the American and Korean dream. But the controversy in our society today is fairness. Do we have fairness in our social system with wrong practices and irregularities? Do we have an even field in which to dream? The inequality continues to increase. We continue to have dissent on university entrance exams, education, employment, medical care, income, and welfare, etc. The Corona 19 pandemic has just intensified the problems.

Does this controversy arise because society is unfair? Of course, competition and culling are definitely a phenomenon and process of a capitalist society. However, the beginning of the problem is that fairness in Korean society is evaluated by competition, competence, and rewards. The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the new future will force us to intensify competition. The essence of the problem is the question of whether meritocracy is really fair. This is because the starting line and competitiveness itself are not fair: family, growth environment, stability, and economic power are different.

■ What is necessary for fairness

Getting rewards for your sweat and work, and applying fair standards to everyone, are the basic elements of fairness. The problem is that this becomes capability-based and does not reflect structural inequality, what was handed down from parents, and environmental factors. For example, the recent education gap caused by non-face-to-face classes for students has become a problem. Can we say that the results are fair when there are students who study with private tutors, private education, in ideal surroundings, and students who have to study in their small homes with poor conditions and difficult circumstances? Is that fair?

■ Community and love of neighbor based on fairness

Bill Gates, one of the world's richest people, was asked about his success and said, "I'm just lucky, and I'm responsible for reducing inequality." Competition is definitely inevitable. But with the competition, we need brotherly love, maturity, and humility. Humility is not the arrogance of ignoring social solidarity and community and ignoring those who are less fortunate. Humility turns away from the harsh success ethics that divide society and leads us to generous community life. (Michael Sandel, Tyranny of Merit (The illusion of fairness) Furthermore, it is the love of neighbors, the dignity of human nature, and the commandment of God.

The Catholic Church declares community and love of neighbor, the most important foundation for fairness, not capability. It also teaches that fairness should be realized through sharing, the universal purpose of goods, more considerate assistance and a choice for the weak, solidarity with others, the principle of the community-oriented common good, and the principle of human dignity: I am precious and others are precious. Here, brotherly love, the sincerity of faith  help us to live this kind of life.

"The commandment of love in the gospel awakens Christians to the deepest meaning of political life...The goal for believers is to build community relationships between people. The Christian view of political society puts the value of a community, which is the epitome of social life and a form of daily life, at the top of its agenda." (Summary Social doctrine, paragraph 392).