- When Mary Shelley's
"Frankenstein" came out in 1818,
00:00:01.03\00:00:02.13
it rattled a lot of people.
00:00:02.13\00:00:03.83
The question is, though,
00:00:03.83\00:00:05.07
what does this book
have to do with the Bible?
00:00:05.07\00:00:07.50
[chill introspective music]
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The story of "Frankenstein,"
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which was first published
00:00:30.26\00:00:31.49
more than 200
years ago back in 1818,
00:00:31.49\00:00:34.60
is just a work of fiction.
00:00:34.60\00:00:35.83
It never actually happened.
00:00:35.83\00:00:38.50
It's the story of a scientist
00:00:38.50\00:00:40.10
by the name of
Victor Frankenstein,
00:00:40.10\00:00:42.07
who tries to figure
out the secret of life
00:00:42.07\00:00:43.87
by cobbling dead tissue together
00:00:43.87\00:00:46.17
into an oversized human
body and then reanimating it.
00:00:46.17\00:00:50.45
The basic building
blocks for his experiment
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came from, and I quote,
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"The dissecting room
and the slaughterhouse,"
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pretty grisly stuff.
00:00:57.02\00:00:59.19
The author, Mary Shelley,
00:00:59.19\00:01:00.46
apparently gathered
the ideas for this book
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after visiting
Frankenstein Castle in Germany,
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where back in the 1600
an alchemists and occult
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practitioner was engaged in all
kinds of strange experiments.
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So there was a
lot of speculation
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about what he was
doing inside the castle.
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Add to that the
fact that philosophers
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and scientists of that
day were absolutely fascinated
00:01:21.84\00:01:25.55
by the prospect of
discovering the secrets of life,
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and, well, Shelley's
imagination went wild.
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When her husband,
the poet Percy Shelley,
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and Lord Byron,
another famous poet
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suggested a competition
to see which one of them
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could write the best
horror story back in 1816,
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she put her ideas to paper.
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The result was
one of the most famous
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horror stories of all
time. [thunder crashes]
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And what you'll
find is that the book
00:01:51.07\00:01:52.61
has a lot of
references to the philosophy
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and literature of
Mary Shelley's day.
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And because it deals
with the subject of life
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and our inability
to master its secrets,
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the book also has a lot
of religious and biblical
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allusions. Take, for example,
this speech that comes from the
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monster who is so hideous
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that the world wants
nothing to do with him.
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The creature somehow finds a
bag of books out in the forest
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and somehow
teaches himself to read.
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And this is how he
suddenly becomes conversant
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in the great classics.
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And he mentions in the book
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that he's also read John
Milton's "Paradise Lost,"
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and that leads the
monster to express this thought.
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He says, "Like Adam, I
was created apparently united
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by no link to any
other being in existence;
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but his state was
far different from mine
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in every other respect.
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He had come forth from the
hands of God a perfect creature,
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happy and prosperous,
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guarded by the
especial care of his Creator;
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he was allowed to converse with,
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and acquire knowledge from
beings of a superior nature:
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but I was wretched,
helpless, and alone.
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Many times I considered Satan
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as the fitter
emblem of my condition;
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for often, like him,
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when I viewed the
bliss of my protectors,
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the bitter gall of
envy rose within me."
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The monster in this novel
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realizes he is
not the work of God,
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but the work of a
man who is playing God.
00:03:19.69\00:03:22.50
And that's
exactly where this novel
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touched on some of
our very worst fears.
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As the world came
out of the Dark Ages
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and launched itself
into the Enlightenment
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and the Scientific Revolution,
00:03:31.71\00:03:33.94
we were tempted to
believe that human beings
00:03:33.94\00:03:36.14
are capable of
just about anything.
00:03:36.14\00:03:39.15
Our worst problems, we thought,
00:03:39.15\00:03:40.65
were gonna be solved
through sheer ingenuity,
00:03:40.65\00:03:43.02
through discovery
and logic and science.
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And maybe, just maybe,
00:03:46.59\00:03:49.26
we might even unlock the
secrets of life and death.
00:03:49.26\00:03:52.16
And if we could do that, maybe
we could finally quit dying.
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But here in Mary Shelley's book,
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a work of fiction from
a very active imagination,
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we suddenly get this
warning that maybe dabbling
00:04:02.30\00:04:05.87
in the secrets of the
universe is a really bad idea,
00:04:05.87\00:04:09.98
especially when we consider
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just how faulty
human beings are.
00:04:11.48\00:04:14.15
We almost never seem
to be able to foresee
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all the horrible
unintended consequences
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that come from even
our very best intentions.
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In the case of
Victor Frankenstein,
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that unforeseen consequence
is a horrible monster
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who ends up ruining
the rest of his life.
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And in our case, who
knows where it's going to lead?
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It's the same with another
19th century horror novel,
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this one written by
Robert Louis Stevenson.
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Even if you've
never read this one,
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I guarantee
you've heard of his book,
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"The Strange Case of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
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It's the story of
a man, Dr. Jekyll,
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who is bothered by the fact
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that he seems to have
this propensity for evil
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that keeps coming back
again and again and again,
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no matter how hard
he tries to suppress it.
00:04:58.83\00:05:01.30
So he heads into the lab,
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he creates a potion he hopes
will drive the evil tendencies
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out of his life.
00:05:06.94\00:05:08.50
But what happens in the story
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is that he splits himself
into two separate identities,
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one good and the
other one a moral monster
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who wreaks havoc
on the neighborhood.
00:05:16.24\00:05:18.41
So again, it's the
story of a human being
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trying to conquer the
worst things about human nature
00:05:21.42\00:05:23.95
by using logic and science,
00:05:23.95\00:05:26.39
and the results are disastrous.
00:05:26.39\00:05:28.49
So Mr.
Stevenson managed to issue
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yet another 19th century warning
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that human ingenuity has some,
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well, rather frightening limits.
00:05:36.83\00:05:39.43
It's really the problem
of unintended consequences,
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and I guarantee this is
something you've seen happen
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many times over the
course of your life.
00:05:44.64\00:05:47.04
The government comes up with
a solution to a sticky problem,
00:05:47.04\00:05:50.45
but the end result is worse
00:05:50.45\00:05:51.75
than the problem
was in the first place.
00:05:51.75\00:05:53.78
Medical science works on
a solution to a situation,
00:05:53.78\00:05:56.85
say like the
discomfort of morning sickness.
00:05:56.85\00:05:59.59
And the end result is the
horror of thalidomide babies.
00:05:59.59\00:06:02.99
Now, please don't
misunderstand what I'm saying.
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I'm not some
anti-science Luddite
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who doesn't believe in
modern medicine, far from it.
00:06:07.40\00:06:10.63
I've been the beneficiary
of modern medical technique
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more times than I can remember.
00:06:13.37\00:06:15.74
But what I am pointing out
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is how our best
intentions as humanity
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always seem powerless to
stop the very big problems.
00:06:19.81\00:06:23.55
Maybe not the little
ones, the everyday situations,
00:06:23.55\00:06:25.85
but the biggest problems.
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And at the top of
that list of big problems,
00:06:27.82\00:06:29.85
you'll find things like our
natural propensity toward evil.
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And of course the big
problem, which is death.
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That was at least part
of the point being made
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in some of these 19th
century horror novels.
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Let me give you an example
from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
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and see if this
doesn't at least match
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some of your own
personal experience.
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This passage is the good doctor
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trying to figure
out why he seems to love
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good and evil at the same time.
00:06:53.41\00:06:55.58
And it says this,
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"It was on the moral
side, and in my own person,
00:06:58.05\00:07:00.22
that I learned to recognize
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the thorough and
primitive duality of man."
00:07:01.62\00:07:04.62
In other words,
00:07:04.62\00:07:06.12
that we seem to be both
good and evil at the same time.
00:07:06.12\00:07:08.62
"I saw that of the two natures
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that contended in the
field of my consciousness,
00:07:10.76\00:07:13.43
even if I could
rightly be said to be either,
00:07:13.43\00:07:16.50
it was only because
I was radically both.
00:07:16.50\00:07:19.10
If each, I told myself,
00:07:19.10\00:07:20.37
could be housed in
separate identities,
00:07:20.37\00:07:22.57
life would be relieved
of all that was unbearable."
00:07:22.57\00:07:26.54
Now, in some respects,
00:07:26.54\00:07:28.31
that's not a lot different
00:07:28.31\00:07:29.71
than the writings
of the Apostle Paul,
00:07:29.71\00:07:31.65
who points out
that he also struggled
00:07:31.65\00:07:33.55
with two distinct natures,
00:07:33.55\00:07:34.95
two different forces
operating on his heart.
00:07:34.95\00:07:37.72
On the one hand,
00:07:37.72\00:07:38.92
he says he wanted to
follow the will of God,
00:07:38.92\00:07:40.79
but on the other,
00:07:40.79\00:07:41.72
he found this irresistible force
00:07:41.72\00:07:43.26
that kept pulling him
in the opposite direction.
00:07:43.26\00:07:45.86
He says in this agonizing
moment in Romans chapter seven,
00:07:45.86\00:07:50.43
"I find then a law, that
evil is present within me,
00:07:50.43\00:07:53.80
the one who wills to do good."
00:07:53.80\00:07:56.24
The authors of
both these two books,
00:07:57.54\00:07:59.64
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde" and "Frankenstein,"
00:07:59.64\00:08:03.11
are kind of taking us to
the same inescapable point.
00:08:03.11\00:08:06.55
When human beings try to tackle
00:08:06.55\00:08:08.02
the really big
questions of life,
00:08:08.02\00:08:09.65
like the problem of suffering
or the problem of death,
00:08:09.65\00:08:13.22
for some reason, we
find ourselves powerless.
00:08:13.22\00:08:16.83
And some of the science
we did in the 20th century
00:08:16.83\00:08:20.13
seems to confirm that.
00:08:20.13\00:08:21.66
I'll be right back after this.
00:08:21.66\00:08:23.53
- [Announcer] Dragons,
beasts, cryptic statues.
00:08:25.27\00:08:29.54
Bible prophecy can be
incredibly vivid and confusing.
00:08:29.54\00:08:34.14
If you've ever read
Daniel: a Revelation
00:08:34.14\00:08:36.34
and come away scratching
your head, you're not alone.
00:08:36.34\00:08:39.38
Our free Focus
on Prophecy guides
00:08:39.38\00:08:41.75
are designed to help you unlock
the mysteries of the Bible
00:08:41.75\00:08:44.55
and deepen your understanding
00:08:44.55\00:08:46.12
of God's plan for
you and our world.
00:08:46.12\00:08:48.66
Study online or
request them by mail
00:08:48.66\00:08:51.06
and start bringing
prophecy into focus today.
00:08:51.06\00:08:53.96
- Back in 1912,
00:08:55.23\00:08:56.70
a French scientist by
the name of Alexis Carrel
00:08:56.70\00:08:58.97
was working at the Rockefeller
Institute in New York
00:08:58.97\00:09:02.10
when he took a bit of tissue
from an embryonic chicken heart
00:09:02.10\00:09:05.27
and bathed it in a solution
of chicken blood plasma.
00:09:05.27\00:09:08.94
Now, I know that sounds like
the work of a mad scientist,
00:09:08.94\00:09:12.05
but trust me, there was
a method to his madness.
00:09:12.05\00:09:15.12
He was looking for
a way to culture cells
00:09:15.12\00:09:17.95
that would enable
us to start conquering
00:09:17.95\00:09:20.12
some of the worst diseases.
00:09:20.12\00:09:21.86
The cells in that solution
00:09:23.06\00:09:24.56
started
separating and multiplying,
00:09:24.56\00:09:26.43
and after moving them to
containers 18 different times,
00:09:26.43\00:09:29.50
all of the cells
miraculously were still alive.
00:09:29.50\00:09:32.97
In fact, Carrel
describes these heart cells
00:09:32.97\00:09:36.40
as still beating.
00:09:36.40\00:09:38.24
And they were still
alive a couple of years after
00:09:38.24\00:09:40.51
the great
scientist himself died.
00:09:40.51\00:09:42.24
The conclusion
that everybody came to
00:09:43.41\00:09:45.41
was that if you remove
living cells from an organism,
00:09:45.41\00:09:48.15
say from an animal
or even a human being,
00:09:48.15\00:09:51.79
they could go on
living practically forever
00:09:51.79\00:09:54.32
provided that you
kept them nourished.
00:09:54.32\00:09:56.73
Unfortunately, though,
00:09:57.63\00:09:59.09
the cell culture he created
didn't actually live long enough
00:09:59.09\00:10:02.10
to determine whether or not
the cells were in fact immortal
00:10:02.10\00:10:05.73
because his assistant Albert
00:10:05.73\00:10:07.90
disposed of the
culture back in 1946.
00:10:07.90\00:10:11.21
But still, you got to admit
00:10:11.21\00:10:13.04
34 years is a
pretty impressive lifespan
00:10:13.04\00:10:16.04
for a clump of
cells in a beaker.
00:10:16.04\00:10:18.45
So even though the
cells all perished in 1946,
00:10:18.45\00:10:22.35
everybody assumed they
would have been immortal.
00:10:22.35\00:10:26.02
And for a really long time,
00:10:26.02\00:10:27.86
this was considered
established science.
00:10:27.86\00:10:29.76
Cells could be immortal.
00:10:29.76\00:10:32.29
In fact, in 1951,
00:10:32.29\00:10:34.93
a cancer researcher
by the name of George Gey
00:10:34.93\00:10:37.67
appeared to do the
same thing with human cells.
00:10:37.67\00:10:40.87
And that was exciting
because having an everlasting
00:10:40.87\00:10:44.97
and always growing supply
of human cells for experiments
00:10:44.97\00:10:48.41
was really, really important.
00:10:48.41\00:10:50.98
It enabled
researchers to do things
00:10:50.98\00:10:52.65
like study how cancer begins,
00:10:52.65\00:10:54.75
or it allowed them to
infect some of those cells
00:10:54.75\00:10:57.62
with viruses so
they could develop
00:10:57.62\00:10:59.19
life-saving vaccines
against monstrous diseases
00:10:59.19\00:11:01.86
like, well, rubella or polio.
00:11:01.86\00:11:04.63
But then in 1960,
00:11:05.76\00:11:07.50
another researcher by
the name of Leonard Hayflick
00:11:07.50\00:11:10.23
suddenly noticed
something really troubling
00:11:10.23\00:11:12.73
in his own
collection of cell cultures.
00:11:12.73\00:11:15.90
Every time a collection
of cells grew too big,
00:11:15.90\00:11:19.07
he would split it and move some
of the colony into new jars.
00:11:19.07\00:11:22.88
But after a number of years,
00:11:22.88\00:11:24.18
one of those collections
suddenly turned murky
00:11:24.18\00:11:27.28
and the cells
appeared to be disintegrating.
00:11:27.28\00:11:29.35
They were dying.
00:11:29.35\00:11:31.19
At first, he wondered
if some kind of contaminant
00:11:31.19\00:11:33.92
had made its way
into his doomed colony.
00:11:33.92\00:11:36.29
He wondered if maybe the bottles
00:11:36.29\00:11:38.36
hadn't been washed properly,
00:11:38.36\00:11:39.96
or maybe an unseen
virus was lurking in the cells
00:11:39.96\00:11:43.26
causing them to die.
00:11:43.26\00:11:45.47
But it turns out
none of that was true.
00:11:45.47\00:11:48.34
There was no contamination.
00:11:48.34\00:11:50.34
And eventually he
realized something important:
00:11:50.34\00:11:53.44
cells, just like you
and me, get old and die.
00:11:53.44\00:11:57.15
They weaken over time.
00:11:57.15\00:11:59.68
A cell's ability to replicate
00:11:59.68\00:12:01.62
gradually slows down and stops,
00:12:01.62\00:12:04.29
and their resistance to
infection also plummets over
00:12:04.29\00:12:08.62
time. The idea that human cells
could live forever in the lab
00:12:08.62\00:12:11.73
was nothing but a myth,
00:12:11.73\00:12:13.40
and Leonard Hayflick
established a principle
00:12:13.40\00:12:15.63
that we now call
the Hayflick Limit.
00:12:15.63\00:12:18.27
The Hayflick Limit says
that a colony of human cells
00:12:19.67\00:12:21.90
will divide only somewhere
between 40 and 60 times
00:12:21.90\00:12:25.31
before the cells finally die.
00:12:25.31\00:12:28.04
With each passing
generation of cells,
00:12:28.04\00:12:30.25
the telomeres,
00:12:30.25\00:12:31.48
the little caps at
the end of your DNA
00:12:31.48\00:12:33.01
that protect it from damage,
00:12:33.01\00:12:34.95
well, those get shorter
00:12:34.95\00:12:36.62
and eventually the
cells begin to die.
00:12:36.62\00:12:39.22
So what that really
means for you and me
00:12:39.22\00:12:42.22
is that it's not just our
bodies as a collective whole
00:12:42.22\00:12:45.09
that are getting older,
00:12:45.09\00:12:47.10
aging is a process that
happens at the cellular level.
00:12:47.10\00:12:50.70
What this discovery did
00:12:50.70\00:12:52.00
was open up a whole
new field of research
00:12:52.00\00:12:53.87
in the area of aging and death.
00:12:53.87\00:12:56.84
In fact, if I
remember this right,
00:12:56.84\00:12:58.91
some of Hayflick's children
00:12:58.91\00:13:00.14
are now
specialists in that field.
00:13:00.14\00:13:02.81
And of course, what
they're hoping to do
00:13:02.81\00:13:04.75
is figure out what
causes our cells to age
00:13:04.75\00:13:07.45
and stop that process.
00:13:07.45\00:13:09.38
Because if we can stop it,
00:13:09.38\00:13:11.82
maybe we can
finally conquer death
00:13:11.82\00:13:13.56
or at least put it off for
a really, really long time.
00:13:13.56\00:13:18.36
Now, there's another
interesting development
00:13:18.36\00:13:20.56
that came out of this
same field of research,
00:13:20.56\00:13:22.83
and it relates to our
attempts to clone animals.
00:13:22.83\00:13:25.93
You might remember back in 1996,
00:13:25.93\00:13:28.24
the scientists at
the Roslin Institute
00:13:28.24\00:13:30.37
succeeded in cloning a sheep.
00:13:30.37\00:13:32.01
They named her Dolly.
00:13:32.01\00:13:33.91
And what made Dolly special
00:13:33.91\00:13:35.78
was the fact that she had
been created from adult cells
00:13:35.78\00:13:38.88
in her mother's body,
00:13:38.88\00:13:40.35
something that had
never, ever been done before.
00:13:40.35\00:13:43.55
But when Dolly
was about a year old,
00:13:43.55\00:13:45.55
they discovered
something really troubling.
00:13:45.55\00:13:48.49
The telomeres in Dolly's cells
00:13:48.49\00:13:51.09
were much shorter than
they were supposed to be
00:13:51.09\00:13:53.26
for a sheep that age.
00:13:53.26\00:13:55.10
So in other words, her
cells were older than she was.
00:13:55.10\00:13:58.50
They figured the reason
was that her original material
00:13:58.50\00:14:01.40
had come from an adult sheep
00:14:01.40\00:14:02.90
whose telomeres had already
been shrinking for a long time.
00:14:02.90\00:14:06.94
And I guess it's
almost like what happens
00:14:06.94\00:14:09.18
when you make
photocopies of photocopies.
00:14:09.18\00:14:11.95
The first
generation might be pretty good
00:14:11.95\00:14:13.65
with minor imperfections,
but when you copy the copy,
00:14:13.65\00:14:17.52
more imperfections show up
00:14:17.52\00:14:19.09
and even more in the
next generation and so on.
00:14:19.09\00:14:22.09
So Dolly the sheep
was a copy of her mother
00:14:22.09\00:14:25.56
and she already carried
her mother's imperfections.
00:14:25.56\00:14:29.66
And what we had in a field
00:14:29.66\00:14:31.17
where we were exploring the
idea of creating life in a lab
00:14:31.17\00:14:34.50
was the discovery that death
is always going to be there.
00:14:34.50\00:14:38.17
And sometimes when we tamper,
00:14:38.17\00:14:40.21
we actually make problems worse.
00:14:40.21\00:14:42.51
Now, again, please, please
don't take what I'm saying
00:14:42.51\00:14:45.75
and run to the
goalpost of absurdity.
00:14:45.75\00:14:47.62
I am not speaking out
against medical research.
00:14:47.62\00:14:50.85
I for one am glad for
some of the discoveries
00:14:50.85\00:14:53.36
that came out of Hayflick's lab,
00:14:53.36\00:14:55.46
because he's one of the people
who helped eradicate polio
00:14:55.46\00:14:58.86
here in the Western world.
00:14:58.86\00:15:00.56
And thanks to
this kind of research,
00:15:00.56\00:15:02.60
smallpox has been wiped
off the face of the earth
00:15:02.60\00:15:05.10
and things like
stepping on a rusty nail
00:15:05.10\00:15:07.54
no longer threaten our lives.
00:15:07.54\00:15:10.44
But at the same time,
00:15:10.44\00:15:12.27
when we cross that blurry line
00:15:12.27\00:15:14.11
between saving
lives and playing God,
00:15:14.11\00:15:16.98
we almost always run
into a world of trouble
00:15:16.98\00:15:20.35
because the actual secret
of life does not belong to us.
00:15:20.35\00:15:25.32
That was at least
part of the warning
00:15:25.32\00:15:27.69
being issued by writers at
the dawn of the scientific era.
00:15:27.69\00:15:31.16
When Victor Frankenstein in
that story tried to create life,
00:15:32.56\00:15:35.40
he made a monster.
00:15:35.40\00:15:36.73
When Dr. Jekyll
tried to eradicate evil
00:15:36.73\00:15:39.63
from his life through ingenuity,
00:15:39.63\00:15:41.07
he made the problem worse.
00:15:41.07\00:15:43.64
And now our best
attempts at immortality
00:15:43.64\00:15:46.81
are coming up, well,
unsurprisingly empty.
00:15:46.81\00:15:50.28
I mean, sure, we've
extended the human lifespan
00:15:50.28\00:15:53.25
by sharply
mitigating our exposure to risk,
00:15:53.25\00:15:56.45
but going from 60-some
years of life to 80-some years
00:15:56.45\00:15:59.72
is hardly eternal life.
00:15:59.72\00:16:01.86
And who knows, maybe we
will push the boundaries
00:16:01.86\00:16:04.59
even a little bit
further and I'll be glad for it.
00:16:04.59\00:16:07.83
I mean, the
other day I found out
00:16:07.83\00:16:09.63
that my childhood piano teacher
00:16:09.63\00:16:11.03
died at the ripe old age of 105.
00:16:11.03\00:16:13.27
And the people living
in Loma Linda, California,
00:16:13.27\00:16:16.00
a bunch of
Seventh-day Adventists
00:16:16.00\00:16:17.54
who take healthy living and
biblical principles seriously,
00:16:17.54\00:16:21.14
they're outliving most
people by a decade or more.
00:16:21.14\00:16:24.41
So extending life a
little bit is possible,
00:16:24.41\00:16:28.35
but that's not eternal life
00:16:28.35\00:16:30.79
because that's a prospect that
seems to be beyond our grasp.
00:16:30.79\00:16:35.16
Today, we talk about
artificial intelligence,
00:16:35.16\00:16:37.79
the ability to create computers
that know how to learn.
00:16:37.79\00:16:40.70
And some of them, to be honest,
00:16:40.70\00:16:42.10
are getting,
well, a little spooky
00:16:42.10\00:16:43.87
because they create the illusion
00:16:43.87\00:16:46.20
there's a ghost in the machine,
00:16:46.20\00:16:47.70
some kind of
intelligent presence.
00:16:47.70\00:16:50.24
And if that was true
00:16:50.24\00:16:52.24
and a computer could be
programmed to keep repairing
00:16:52.24\00:16:55.91
itself, some
people are convinced
00:16:55.91\00:16:57.35
that might be a
form of eternal life,
00:16:57.35\00:17:01.35
except for the fact that
it's not really life at all.
00:17:01.35\00:17:05.02
I know that science fiction
has programmed us to believe
00:17:05.02\00:17:07.76
that machines
might become self-aware
00:17:07.76\00:17:09.89
at some point in the future,
00:17:09.89\00:17:11.33
that they might
become sentient beings,
00:17:11.33\00:17:13.63
preachers that can
actually sit around
00:17:13.63\00:17:15.53
and contemplate
their own existence.
00:17:15.53\00:17:17.30
But they are not.
00:17:17.30\00:17:18.73
I like the question that Brian
Christian and Tom Griffiths
00:17:20.17\00:17:22.50
ask their book,
"Algorithms to Live By."
00:17:22.50\00:17:26.71
Here's what they say.
00:17:26.71\00:17:27.78
"Why are
four-year-olds, for instance,
00:17:28.81\00:17:30.85
still better than
million-dollar supercomputers
00:17:30.85\00:17:33.28
at a host of cognitive tasks,
00:17:33.28\00:17:35.05
including vision,
language, and causal reasoning?"
00:17:35.05\00:17:39.22
Now, honestly,
00:17:39.22\00:17:40.66
I doubt they're
suggesting the same thing I am
00:17:40.66\00:17:43.36
because these guys seem hopeful
00:17:43.36\00:17:45.33
that we might
actually get there.
00:17:45.33\00:17:46.90
But I maintain that computers
will never be entirely human
00:17:46.90\00:17:51.37
because they're
incapable of real,
00:17:51.37\00:17:53.94
conscious, self-aware thought.
00:17:53.94\00:17:56.40
It's not just cognitive tasks
00:17:56.40\00:17:58.17
and causal reasoning
that are a problem, either.
00:17:58.17\00:18:00.34
It's the fact that computers
00:18:00.34\00:18:01.88
are really nothing
but programmed algorithms
00:18:01.88\00:18:04.35
and human beings are certainly
00:18:04.35\00:18:06.75
something more
than just programming.
00:18:06.75\00:18:10.02
We do not seem to
have the capacity, folks,
00:18:10.02\00:18:12.69
to actually create real life.
00:18:12.69\00:18:15.66
So why did Alexis
Carrel's chicken cells
00:18:15.66\00:18:18.43
appear to be eternal?
00:18:18.43\00:18:20.63
I'll be right back
after this to tell you why.
00:18:20.63\00:18:23.13
- [Announcer] Here at
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00:18:25.03\00:18:26.50
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00:18:48.76\00:18:51.93
- Scientists were
completely baffled
00:18:55.40\00:18:57.30
by Hayflick's
discovery that disembodied cells
00:18:57.30\00:19:00.40
are not in fact eternal.
00:19:00.40\00:19:03.67
So if Hayflick was right
00:19:03.67\00:19:05.47
and in our cells
naturally get old and die,
00:19:05.47\00:19:08.34
then why did Alexis
Carrel's chicken cells
00:19:08.34\00:19:11.01
appear to live forever?
00:19:11.01\00:19:13.72
You've got to
understand something.
00:19:13.72\00:19:15.18
The belief in
immortal chicken cells
00:19:15.18\00:19:17.02
at that point in
history was so strong
00:19:17.02\00:19:19.42
that people
actually warned Hayflick
00:19:19.42\00:19:21.06
not to reveal his discovery
00:19:21.06\00:19:22.76
because they thought
it would kill his career.
00:19:22.76\00:19:25.93
And that of
course is very telling.
00:19:25.93\00:19:28.43
Our drive to
overcome the prospect of death
00:19:28.43\00:19:30.83
is so overpowering that when
we think we're onto a solution,
00:19:30.83\00:19:34.44
when we think we're
within spitting distance
00:19:34.44\00:19:36.84
of real immortality and
somebody's challenges our hope,
00:19:36.84\00:19:40.64
most people want to
shoot the messenger.
00:19:40.64\00:19:42.94
Hayflick did it anyway.
00:19:42.94\00:19:44.45
He risked the possibility
that revealing his findings
00:19:44.45\00:19:47.35
would actually kill his career.
00:19:47.35\00:19:49.92
Now, I know this sounds like
00:19:49.92\00:19:52.29
a chicken
crossing the road joke,
00:19:52.29\00:19:54.06
but why did those chicken
cells appear to be immortal?
00:19:54.06\00:19:58.09
The answer was contamination.
00:19:58.09\00:20:01.30
Hayflick
determined that the fluid
00:20:01.30\00:20:03.30
Carrel was using
to nourish those cells
00:20:03.30\00:20:06.03
was contaminated with new cells,
00:20:06.03\00:20:08.44
and those new
cells started replicating
00:20:08.44\00:20:10.94
as the old ones died,
00:20:10.94\00:20:12.51
and that created the
illusion of immortality.
00:20:12.51\00:20:15.84
It turns out the old
cells had been dying all along.
00:20:15.84\00:20:20.48
And sure enough in the 1960s,
00:20:20.48\00:20:22.82
one of Carrel's
former assistants
00:20:22.82\00:20:24.49
confirmed Hayflick's suspicions.
00:20:24.49\00:20:26.79
She had actually told Carrel
this is what was happening,
00:20:26.79\00:20:29.79
and she had been told
by the powers that be,
00:20:29.79\00:20:33.03
"Never mention that again
or you're gonna get fired."
00:20:33.03\00:20:36.10
So it turns out there
never was immortality,
00:20:36.10\00:20:39.47
which brings me to
the Book of Ecclesiastes,
00:20:39.47\00:20:42.40
which spends a lot of time
examining the subject of death.
00:20:42.40\00:20:46.17
We're reminded in Ecclesiastes
nine verse five that,
00:20:46.17\00:20:49.74
"the living know
that they will die."
00:20:49.74\00:20:53.08
We know, all of us, full well
00:20:53.08\00:20:55.08
that nobody has ever
escaped the clutches of death,
00:20:55.08\00:20:58.49
but there's a big part of us
00:20:58.49\00:20:59.69
that kind of
refuses to believe it.
00:20:59.69\00:21:02.19
We still think
that somehow, someday,
00:21:02.19\00:21:04.16
we're gonna conquer the grave
00:21:04.16\00:21:05.33
and learn how to live forever.
00:21:05.33\00:21:07.13
On another show last season,
00:21:07.13\00:21:09.00
I discussed the
way that some people
00:21:09.00\00:21:10.53
have turned to cryogenics,
00:21:10.53\00:21:11.73
actually freezing
their heads when they die,
00:21:11.73\00:21:14.57
hoping to be thawed out
00:21:14.57\00:21:16.07
when science finally finds a
cure for whatever killed them.
00:21:16.07\00:21:18.94
And they plan to be
reattached, I guess,
00:21:18.94\00:21:21.34
to a cloned body
and then live forever.
00:21:21.34\00:21:24.28
But I'm gonna wager
this: it's not gonna happen
00:21:25.68\00:21:28.45
because you and I do
not hold the secret of life.
00:21:28.45\00:21:31.82
The way the Book of
Genesis tells the story,
00:21:31.82\00:21:33.96
the secret of life belongs
exclusively to the Creator.
00:21:33.96\00:21:38.16
It says this.
00:21:38.16\00:21:39.66
"The Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground
00:21:39.66\00:21:42.90
and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life;
00:21:42.90\00:21:46.60
and man became a living being."
00:21:46.60\00:21:49.97
You and I have
absolutely no power to do that.
00:21:49.97\00:21:52.74
We have failed, utterly failed,
00:21:52.74\00:21:54.58
to generate any kind of life.
00:21:54.58\00:21:56.81
And that realization generates
00:21:56.81\00:21:58.78
one of our most fundamental
scientific principles.
00:21:58.78\00:22:01.48
You just can't get
life from non-life.
00:22:01.48\00:22:05.65
And yet somehow we're
still trying to do it,
00:22:05.65\00:22:08.56
even though we know at the
level of pure empirical science
00:22:08.56\00:22:12.66
it never, ever happens.
00:22:12.66\00:22:15.23
You know, there
was a time historically
00:22:15.23\00:22:17.27
when people believed that the
spontaneous generation of life
00:22:17.27\00:22:20.64
really occurred.
00:22:20.64\00:22:22.10
After all, it appeared to
them that a lump of dead meat
00:22:22.10\00:22:24.64
appeared to magically
give birth to maggots.
00:22:24.64\00:22:27.88
But then in 1665, as you
probably learned in high school,
00:22:27.88\00:22:31.45
Francesco Redi
conducted an experiment
00:22:31.45\00:22:33.68
that proved beyond
any shadow of a doubt
00:22:33.68\00:22:36.55
that the maggots
were coming from flies
00:22:36.55\00:22:39.19
and not spontaneously
generating from the meat.
00:22:39.19\00:22:42.69
Then 1864, Louis Pasteur proved
00:22:42.69\00:22:46.13
that microorganisms do not
magically appear out of nothing.
00:22:46.13\00:22:49.96
And now today,
it's established science
00:22:49.96\00:22:52.80
that life does not
come from non-life.
00:22:52.80\00:22:55.90
And apparently, it also
doesn't come from our ingenuity.
00:22:57.27\00:23:00.28
The art of reviving the
nearly dead or the newly dead
00:23:00.28\00:23:04.55
is not the same
thing as creating life.
00:23:04.55\00:23:07.25
And we should probably
note that we find ourselves
00:23:07.25\00:23:09.45
incapable of reviving,
well, the decidedly dead.
00:23:09.45\00:23:12.92
Why? It's because the secret
of life does not belong to us.
00:23:12.92\00:23:17.23
The opening words
of the Gospel of John
00:23:17.23\00:23:19.43
are some of the most
profound language in the Bible.
00:23:19.43\00:23:21.53
And here's what it says
where it's talking about Christ.
00:23:21.53\00:23:25.00
It says, "In the
beginning was the Word,
00:23:25.00\00:23:28.40
and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God."
00:23:28.40\00:23:31.47
Now, we could probably dedicate
00:23:31.47\00:23:32.91
an entire show to that sentence
because it's so powerful.
00:23:32.91\00:23:36.21
And I think maybe
we'll do that on another day.
00:23:36.21\00:23:38.41
It continues,
00:23:38.41\00:23:39.58
"He was in the
beginning with God.
00:23:39.58\00:23:42.38
All things were
made through Him,
00:23:42.38\00:23:44.39
and without Him
nothing was made that was made.
00:23:44.39\00:23:47.26
In Him was life, and the
life was the light of men."
00:23:47.26\00:23:51.49
So in other words,
00:23:51.49\00:23:52.99
there is only one source
of life in this universe.
00:23:52.99\00:23:55.70
Here's another
statement that Paul makes
00:23:55.70\00:23:57.50
over in Colossians chapter one.
00:23:57.50\00:23:59.17
And I'm pretty sure you and I
00:23:59.17\00:24:00.44
have looked at
this passage before.
00:24:00.44\00:24:01.87
And again, it's
speaking about Christ.
00:24:01.87\00:24:04.24
It says, "For by Him
all things were created
00:24:04.24\00:24:08.24
that are in heaven
and that are on earth,
00:24:08.24\00:24:10.21
visible and invisible,
00:24:10.21\00:24:11.78
whether thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers.
00:24:11.78\00:24:15.45
All things were created
through Him and for Him.
00:24:15.45\00:24:19.39
And He is before all things,
and in Him all things consist."
00:24:19.39\00:24:24.39
What that's saying
00:24:25.46\00:24:26.86
is the only reason that
anything even continues to live,
00:24:26.86\00:24:30.20
well, also the Creator.
00:24:30.20\00:24:32.20
You and I are not
just biological machines
00:24:33.37\00:24:35.64
that were set in motion by a God
00:24:35.64\00:24:37.21
who then left to go
and do something else
00:24:37.21\00:24:38.91
somewhere else in the universe.
00:24:38.91\00:24:40.84
God is not only the
original source of life,
00:24:40.84\00:24:43.61
He's the reason
that it continues at all.
00:24:43.61\00:24:46.18
And at the end of the day,
00:24:46.18\00:24:47.62
that's the reason
you and I are powerless
00:24:47.62\00:24:49.68
to solve the problem of death.
00:24:49.68\00:24:51.52
It's because the power of
life does not belong to us.
00:24:51.52\00:24:56.52
I'll be right back after this.
00:24:57.39\00:24:59.36
- [Announcer] Life
can throw a lot at us.
00:25:01.50\00:25:03.90
Sometimes we don't
have all the answers,
00:25:03.90\00:25:07.27
but that's where
the Bible comes in.
00:25:07.27\00:25:09.74
It's our guide to a
more fulfilling life.
00:25:09.74\00:25:12.81
Here at the Voice of Prophecy,
00:25:12.81\00:25:14.34
we've created the
Discover Bible guides
00:25:14.34\00:25:16.51
to be your guide to the Bible.
00:25:16.51\00:25:18.11
They're designed to
be simple, easy to use,
00:25:18.11\00:25:20.58
and provide answers to many
of life's toughest questions.
00:25:20.58\00:25:23.62
And they're absolutely free.
00:25:23.62\00:25:25.65
So jump online now,
00:25:25.65\00:25:27.16
or give us a call and
start your journey of discovery.
00:25:27.16\00:25:30.23
- You know, I
find it fascinating
00:25:31.36\00:25:32.56
how the basic story of Genesis
00:25:32.56\00:25:34.50
is found in almost every culture
on the face of the planet.
00:25:34.50\00:25:38.40
Many years ago,
00:25:38.40\00:25:39.67
there was a guy by
the name of Alonzo Bunker
00:25:39.67\00:25:41.14
who used to spend time
listening to the stories
00:25:41.14\00:25:43.24
told around the campfire by
the Karen people of Myanmar,
00:25:43.24\00:25:46.54
and fortunately he
wrote some of them down.
00:25:46.54\00:25:48.51
I mean, listen to this
story he published back in 1902.
00:25:48.51\00:25:52.55
The Karen said, "When Yuah,"
00:25:52.55\00:25:54.65
that's the name
of their creator god,
00:25:54.65\00:25:56.15
which is suspiciously
close to the Hebrew word Yahweh,
00:25:56.15\00:25:59.55
"When Yuah had
made Tha-nai and Ee-u,
00:25:59.55\00:26:01.89
he placed them in a garden,
00:26:01.89\00:26:03.06
and gave them
commandments saying,
00:26:03.06\00:26:04.56
'In the garden I
have made for you
00:26:04.56\00:26:06.16
seven different kinds of trees,
00:26:06.16\00:26:07.60
bearing seven
different kinds of fruit.
00:26:07.60\00:26:09.73
Among the seven, one
tree is not good to eat.
00:26:09.73\00:26:12.13
Eat not its fruit.
00:26:12.13\00:26:13.07
If you eat, you will become old,
00:26:13.07\00:26:14.40
you will sicken, you will die.'"
00:26:14.40\00:26:16.91
This basic story
permeates our human existence.
00:26:16.91\00:26:20.21
All around the
world, all of us realize,
00:26:20.21\00:26:22.24
like the Book of
Ecclesiastes says,
00:26:22.24\00:26:24.15
that we're gonna
die and it bothers us.
00:26:24.15\00:26:27.38
All of us realize there's
something wrong with death.
00:26:27.38\00:26:30.45
So we spend our
lives pushing back on it,
00:26:30.45\00:26:32.65
hoping that somehow
the promise of death
00:26:32.65\00:26:34.62
will never come for us.
00:26:34.62\00:26:36.06
I'm reminded of that
famous poem by Dylan Thomas,
00:26:36.06\00:26:39.16
one of my favorites.
00:26:39.16\00:26:40.43
"Do not go gentle
into that good night,
00:26:40.43\00:26:43.00
old age should burn
and rave at close of day;
00:26:43.00\00:26:45.93
rage, rage against
the dying of the light."
00:26:45.93\00:26:49.54
But you know you know and
I know that try as we might,
00:26:49.54\00:26:52.87
you can't fix this problem.
00:26:52.87\00:26:55.64
You rage all you want.
You're still going to die.
00:26:55.64\00:26:58.68
And I wanna suggest
that scientifically speaking,
00:26:58.68\00:27:00.92
eternal life is always
going to be beyond our reach.
00:27:00.92\00:27:04.25
It's always going to be elusive
00:27:04.25\00:27:05.72
because the secret
of life is not ours.
00:27:05.72\00:27:08.36
We might be
able to prolong life,
00:27:08.36\00:27:10.09
we might be able to generate
pregnancy in a test tube,
00:27:10.09\00:27:12.76
we might even be able
to print replacement organs
00:27:12.76\00:27:15.23
with a 3D printer and
use them to save a life.
00:27:15.23\00:27:18.17
But at the end of the
day, everybody still dies.
00:27:18.17\00:27:20.84
The specter of death is such
an integral part of who we are
00:27:20.84\00:27:24.01
that we even find it
down at the cellular level.
00:27:24.01\00:27:27.54
Our attempts to finally
conquer it have ended in failure
00:27:27.54\00:27:30.45
or even catastrophe.
00:27:30.45\00:27:31.95
And the warnings of a
19th century horror novelist
00:27:31.95\00:27:34.72
who could predict the disaster
that comes from playing God,
00:27:34.72\00:27:38.79
well, those warnings
still make really good sense.
00:27:38.79\00:27:42.06
There are things that will
always, always belong to God
00:27:42.06\00:27:45.29
and not to us.
00:27:45.29\00:27:46.96
Here's the good news, though.
00:27:46.96\00:27:48.50
That same Creator has
not left us without hope,
00:27:48.50\00:27:51.27
and He offers to
fix the problem for us.
00:27:51.27\00:27:53.50
In fact, the Bible
ends with this promise.
00:27:53.50\00:27:55.77
"And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes.
00:27:55.77\00:27:58.41
There shall be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor crying.
00:27:58.41\00:28:01.81
There shall be no more pain,
00:28:01.81\00:28:03.11
for the former
things have passed away."
00:28:03.11\00:28:05.88
Let me ask you this.
00:28:05.88\00:28:07.25
Who do you really
wanna trust with your future?
00:28:07.25\00:28:09.82
I'm Shawn Boonstra.
This has been "Authentic."
00:28:09.82\00:28:12.92
[chill introspective music]
00:28:12.92\00:28:16.59