CMDA's The Point

Human-Animal Chimeras and Scientists Deluded by a God Complex

July 1, 2021
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by Jonathan Imbody

The battle in Congress over human-animal chimera experiments highlights the gulf between communists and Democrats and Republicans on the distinctions and boundaries between humans, animals and God.

A Chinese-led research team injected human stem cells into monkey embryos and let the chimeric creature grow for 19 days before killing it. As avowed atheists, Chinese Communists do not believe that God created each of us human beings in His image, with inestimable worth incomparable to the animals He created, each “after their kind.”

Americans have long subscribed to the understanding of unalienable human rights as conferred upon us by our Creator. So when Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma offered an amendment to ban U.S. funding for human-animal chimeric research, one would have expected bipartisan, unanimous support for drawing a distinct moral boundary between animals and humans. 

Yet every single Democrat present voted down the amendment.

In the absence of faith, we are tempted to fill what Blaise Pascal described as a “God-shaped vacuum” by imagining ourselves as autonomous deities. We make our own rules and determine our own destiny—or so we imagine.

Scientists who are not deluded by a god complex note that creating chimeras and hybrids will enable diseases to cross species lines, bypassing normal barriers and resistance, imperiling both the individual and the species. Further, transferring genes encoding disease may cause novel virulence, or create new diseases, gravely threatening the host species and public health.

The ancients, who unlike some modernists believed that divine authority lay outside of themselves, cast chimeras as monstrous creatures to be feared and avoided. We should take the same view and ban the abominable.

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About Jonathan Imbody

Jonathan previously served as CMDA's Federal Policy Analyst and as CMDA's liaison with the federal government in Washington, D.C. A veteran writer of more than 30 years, Jonathan authored Faith Steps, which encourages and equips Christians to engage in public policy issues. He has published more than 100 commentaries in The Washington Post, USA Today, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times and many other national publications. Jonathan's writing focuses on public policy issues including freedom of faith, conscience and speech; human trafficking; abortion; assisted suicide; stem cell research; the role of faith in health; international health; healthcare policy; sexual risk avoidance and HIV/AIDS. Jonathan received his bachelor's degree in journalism and speech communications from the Pennsylvania State University, a master's degree from Penn State in counseling and education and a certificate in biblical and theological studies from the Alliance Theological Seminary in New York. Jonathan's wife Amy is an author and leads the Redemptive Education movement. They have four children and four grandchildren.

1 Comment

  1. Avatar Jerry Wittingen on August 7, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    Thank you for this update. As more Americans reject or are unaware of our Christian world view, the dominant societal viewpoint will be that we are “autonomous deities”. Only revival of faith in our nation will save us from self destruction.

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