Petra Scandali: Are monkeys 98% of the image of God?

Petra Scandali: Are monkeys 98% of the image of God?: To read Dr. Patrick Dixon's latest book "The Future of almost everything" is a great challenge for me as a believer, even t...

Are monkeys 98% of the image of God?

To read Dr. Patrick Dixon's latest book "The Future of almost everything" is a great challenge for me as a believer, even the process of reading is very exciting.
I'll show just one example, how challenging is the book and how "crazy" can/will be our future.

In chapter "How close is a monkey to a human?" Dr. Dixon writes: "It will not be long before humonkeys are with us. Perhaps such embryos already exist. The technology is proven. Hybrids are very easy to create….

But how many human genes does an animal have to have gain human rights? We differ genetically from monkeys by less than 2%, and from amoeba by around 14%. So if you are adding 1% of human material to a fertilized monkey egg you had better brace yourself for the results – mere 0.3% of human gene material could be more than enough to give the monkey speech.

Many biotech inventions are already blurring the distinction between animals and humans. It could all produce a crisis of faith for many, brought up on the traditional teaching that humans have been created ‘in God’s image’. So what is that image? Are monkeys 98% of the image of God? Is all life a manifestation of the image of God to some degree or another?"

If I had ethics students I would strongly recommend them to read the book - it's great.