Back from the Past

The woolly mammoth, which has been extinct since prehistoric times, could be brought back to life in four years through cloning. In order to create a living mammoth, scientists need samples of flesh, and some has been found in Siberian permafrost, but early samples were badly damaged by the cold. Recently, however, a mouse has been cloned from the cells of a mouse that were frozen for 16 years. The plan is to insert the woolly mammoth nuclei into the egg cells of an African elephant, which will act as the surrogate mother.

In the January 13th edition of the Telegraph, Julian Ryall quotes cloning expert Teruhiko Wakayama as saying, "Now the technical problems have been overcome, all we need is a good sample of soft tissue from a frozen mammoth." Is the next step creating a clone of a Tyrannosaurus Rex? Imagine a zoo where kids could see REAL examples of these extinct creatures from the past. Dinosaurs may walk the earth again! However, this also resurrects the tricky moral question of whether or not parents should clone a dead child.

If you’re intrigued by "tricky moral questions," you should know that in Whitley’s Room, just for subscribers, there are now several short (15 min.) discussions by Whitley Strieber on bible verses. The first covers the meaning of the phrase "because man goeth to his long home" in Ecclesiastes 12:5. It explains this enigmatic phrase in a startling and deeply moving way. The second in the series covers John 13: 34: "Love one another." When Whitley begins talking about what the imposition of doctrine did at the Council of Nicea, this quickly becomes one of the most powerful discussions on any biblical passage you are going to hear. These brief fifteen minutes have the potential to free us from thousands of years of unacknowledged bondage to doctrine, and bring vivid new life to the experience of Jesus. The third is on the opening lines of Genesis (you’ve never heard an interpretation like THIS before)! In another, Whitley Strieber talks about how the Romans saw Jesus, and uses the gospels and his deep knowledge of Roman history to explain what Jesus meant to them and why they executed him, and why they did it in the precise way that they did. And the latest is on the REAL meaning of the "marriage feast at Cana."