Stephanie Errigo
Dr. Adam Johns
Essay #3
When you type in the phrase, “What is the meaning of life?” in a Google search, you come up with over 34,700,000 results. This makes me think that many people may think that they know what the meaning of life is and that they understand why people are put on this earth. Some people may believe that a great philosopher holds the answer to what we are here for, but I don’t think that is the case at all. I believe that we are put on this earth for many reasons and it depends on your religious beliefs for the most part. I also think that bringing designer babies into the mix would make us lose our sense of individuality. Individualism as we know it today would disappear and I also think that once people found out that everyone was engineered to have their special “niche” that people would want to escape the path they are told they have to follow.
The meaning of life can be a hard thing for people to comprehend or even want to think about. Even thinking about this question made me question why I think that people are on this earth. Obviously we can’t just be here for nothing. I feel like a lot of people look toward their religion for the answer to this question. In the case of my religion, Catholic, I look at this question in a spiritual way. I think that Pope Benedict XVI puts it best when he said, “Life is not just a succession of events or experiences; it is the search for the true, the good and the beautiful.” (Catholic.com) If we feel we aren’t here for a real reason, then we believe that life is just a succession of events and experiences. I think the things that make this world beautiful is helping each other which makes things good and true. Don’t we always seem to search for the true, good and beautiful? Aren’t we always thinking looking for the good in the world today? I feel like McKibben would agree with me in the sense that people do have a purpose even if we can’t put our finger on the reason completely.
Silver would not agree with my preceding paragraph in the least. He would say that we are here for no reason, just to better the earth and make a Utopia for us to live in. I feel like he shows the selfish side of human nature. As he says in his book, “Slowly, inevitably, human nature will remake all of Mother Nature in the image of the idealized world that exists within our minds—which is what most people really want subconsciously.”(Silver, xvi)
What if people are like Silver and belief that we aren’t here for a reason, that we’re here to make a Utopia, and what if people don’t look to their spiritual or religious background? What do they believe? I think that many people would say that they have never even thought of the answer to such a question. I know that before this was brought up in prompt, I never had thought about it before. These people may say that we are here to live for ourselves, maybe thinking that it is the “Every Man for Himself” type of society, which could be true.
Whether we think we know the meaning of life or not means that we can form opinions on designer babies. Some people like Silver may think that we are here to make a Utopian world, so of course we would make designer babies. But I feel that making designer babies would cause our meaning of life to disappear along with our sense of individuality. If we make designer babies that are specialized in the areas that the parents believe are the greatest aspects, what happens to all the other great talents that someone may have that people may forget? I’m a licensed auctioneer and have been since the age of 17. I wouldn’t trade anything for that. I don’t care that I’m not an outstanding runner or the next Mozart. People like me would be gone, and other jobs that people enjoy but may not be perceived as prestigious would disappear.
What if these designer babies found out they were designer and wanted to switch the way they were? They couldn’t because they were programmed to be that way. McKibben states in Enough that, “If you’ve been designed and programmed to run, what meaning can running hold? It becomes an endless round on a treadmill, except that the treadmill is inside you—you take it out into the woods when you go for a trail run, and onto the beach when you run beside the breakers.” (McKibben, 55) I feel like McKibben is forming a metaphor for the treadmill such that the “treadmill” is the engineered genes. You can’t escape them, you take them everywhere, and if you want to be an individual, that choice is gone.
Designer babies also mean the end of very talented people. Everyone would be the same, and how much competition could really exist if everyone is really good at so many things? There would be no more Micheal Phelps, there would be 1,000,000 and there would no longer be Ludacris dropping beats, there would be 500,000 of them. Babies would no longer be a surprise either, no more “It’s a boy!” It would turn into, “Cool, we knew this was going to be a boy who excels at sports.”
The meaning of life is not found through designer babies, neither is it found anywhere for many people. I think many people turn to their spiritual beliefs for what to think about the meaning of life, but if you don’t have a faith, you may think that we have no purpose. Designer babies take away from our meaning of life I think, and they cause the whole population to lose their sense of individuality. If we allow designer babies we might as well say goodbye to life as we know it.
Silver, Lee Challenging Nature. Harper Collins Publishers, 2006
McKibben, Bill Enough. Owl Books, 2003
www.forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?p=4820894 (Feb 18, 2009)
3 comments:
Stephanie,
First off, Id like to say that I really enjoyed reading your paper. It has a great introduction and throughout the paper you list various examples that help defend your argument.
I also liked how you incorporated Silver into your paper by pointing out what he argues and why you disagree with him.
I also enjoyed the quote from page 55 and how you analyzed it with the metaphore.
I think that you can build up your conclusion a little bit. I do however like the last sentence alot.
Overall, I really enjoyed your paper. I think that you can maybe make the paragraphs flow together a little bit, using better transition sentences. But very nice job!
Melanie
Stephanie Errigo
Dr. Adam Johns
Essay #3
When you type in the phrase, “What is the meaning of life?” in a Google search, you come up with over 34,700,000 results. This makes me think that many people may think that they know what the meaning of life is and that they understand why people are put on this earth. Some people may believe that a great philosopher holds the answer to what we are here for, but I don’t think that is the case at all. I believe that we are put on this earth for many reasons and it depends on your religious beliefs for the most part. I also think that bringing designer babies into the mix would make us lose our sense of individuality. Individualism as we know it would disappear and also once people found out that everyone was engineered to have their special “niche” that people would want to escape the path they are told they had to follow in their genes.
The meaning of life can be a hard thing for people to comprehend or even think about. Even thinking about this question made me wonder why I think that people are on this earth. Obviously we can’t just be here for nothing. I feel like a lot of people look toward their religion for the answer to this question. In the case of my religion, Catholic, I look at this question in a spiritual way. I think that Pope Benedict XVI puts it best when he said, “Life is not just a succession of events or experiences; it is the search for the true, the good and the beautiful.” (Catholic.com) If we feel we aren’t here for a real reason, then we believe that life is just a succession of events and experiences. I think the things that make this world beautiful is helping each other which makes things good and true. Don’t we always seem to search for the true, good and beautiful? Aren’t we always thinking looking for the good in the world today? I feel like McKibben would agree with me in the sense that people do have a purpose even if we can’t put our finger on the reason completely.
Silver would not agree with my preceding paragraph in the least. He would say that we are here for no reason, just to better the earth and make a Utopia for us to live in. I feel like he shows the selfish side of human nature in the book Challenging Nature. As he says in his book, “Slowly, inevitably, human nature will remake all of Mother Nature in the image of the idealized world that exists within our minds—which is what most people really want subconsciously.”(Silver, xvi) That quote could show us that we are mostly egocentric people who are only concerned with making it better for ourselves.
What if people are like Silver and belief that we aren’t here for a reason, that we’re here to make a Utopia, and what if people don’t look to their spiritual or religious background? What do they believe? I think that many people would say that they have never even thought of the answer to such a question. I know that before this was brought up in prompt, I never had thought about it before. These people may say that we are here to live for ourselves, maybe thinking that it is the “Every Man for Himself” type of society, which could be true. If we don’t believe in a higher power, options are limited for the answer to this question. What does this mean for genetics?
Whether we think we know the meaning of life or not means that we can form opinions on designer babies. Some people like Silver may think that we are here to make a Utopian world, so of course we would make designer babies. But I feel that making designer babies would cause our meaning of life to disappear along with our sense of individuality. If we make designer babies that are specialized in the areas that the parents believe are the greatest aspects, what happens to all the other great talents that someone may have that people may forget? I’m a licensed auctioneer and have been since the age of 17. I wouldn’t trade anything for that. I don’t care that I’m not an outstanding runner or the next Mozart. People like me would be gone, and other jobs that people enjoy but may not be perceived as prestigious, would disappear.
What if these designer babies found out they were programmed to be a certain way and wanted to switch the way they were? They couldn’t because they were programmed to be that way. McKibben states in Enough that, “If you’ve been designed and programmed to run, what meaning can running hold? It becomes an endless round on a treadmill, except that the treadmill is inside you—you take it out into the woods when you go for a trail run, and onto the beach when you run beside the breakers.” (McKibben, 55) I feel like McKibben is forming a metaphor for the treadmill such that the “treadmill” is the engineered genes. You can’t escape them, you take them everywhere, and if you want to be an individual, that choice is gone.
Designer babies also mean the end of very talented people. Everyone would be the same, and how much competition could really exist if everyone is really good at so many things? There would be no more Micheal Phelps, there would be 1,000,000, and there would no longer be Ludacris dropping beats, there would be 500,000 of them. Babies would no longer be a surprise either, no more “It’s a boy!” It would turn into, “Cool, we knew this was going to be a boy who excels at sports.”
The meaning of life is not found through designer babies, nor is it found anywhere for many people. I think many people turn to their spiritual beliefs for what to think about the meaning of life, but if you don’t have a faith, you may think that we have no purpose. Designer babies take away from our meaning of life I think, and they cause the whole population to lose their sense of individuality. The meaning of life may never be solved, but if we allow designer babies we might as well say goodbye to life as we know it.
Silver, Lee Challenging Nature. Harper Collins Publishers, 2006
McKibben, Bill Enough. Owl Books, 2003
www.forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?p=4820894 (Feb 18, 2009)
Melanie - You don't really say anything at all about Stephanie's main argument, which means that it is, at best, a very incomplete response.
Stephanie - Your introduction is very scattered. Look at this: "I believe that we are put on this earth for many reasons and it depends on your religious beliefs for the most part. I also think that bringing designer babies into the mix would make us lose our sense of individuality." These are two completely separate ideas, put together with no transition. This is typical of your introduction. On the good side, I think your turn to the pope is interesting - most of all, because his answer is one which could work for anyone, of any religion or no religion at all (strangely, though, you don't seem to recognize that it's not a particularly religious answer).
Look at this line from your response to Silver: "He would say that we are here for no reason, just to better the earth and make a Utopia for us to live in." First - you say that he would say that we have no purpose, then immediately tells us our purpose. Second, I don't see how this is incompatible with the quotation from the pope: a Utopia is a good, beautiful and (stretching the point) true world - as we might see in the prototypical utopias of Isaiah and Revelation. In other words - many religions are, in fact, focused on the imminent arrival of a new, perfect world (utopia), with Christianity and Islam among them. It's true, though, that this utopian drive is restrained in Catholicism (St. Augustine had a lot to do with that).
The fundamental issue here, I think, is that you aren't thinking about ways in which Silver's ideas are connected with the Judeo-Christian tradition; in other words, you aren't making the connection (which we discussed in class) between secular utopianism and the older, Biblical varieties.
I don't understand your transition from talking about spirituality and utopias in general. You seem to basically be repeating some of McKibben's main points, but I'm not sure *why* you're doing so; I feel like you abruptly jumped from an interesting but incomplete argument about spiritual meaning (which I don't really understand, but I'd like to) into a rather straightforward and overly-easy repetition of McKibben's ideas...
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