I am watching the first in this animated series with the boys. I hope that this time I will be able to watch it all the way through. The boys have seen it several times now. In one of my first attempts to watch it, I was struck by what I then thought was a quite dumb thing to say, when Obi-Wan Kenobi says to a group of clone troopers (they are actually ARC troopers, who, I have learned are different than normal clone troopers but I digress), that these clones are different than other clones. How could one clone be different from another clone…aren’t they the same? Watching it this time, and doing some thinking…(Yes, I know that is hard in and of itself for challenged people like me.) Clones could be different from each other. While they do resemble each other and have the same physical weaknesses and strengths, they will not have the same experiences and therefore will develop differently.

Let’s say, for example, that I have two clones of me. For some amount of time they are in the same location with me. We are with each other constantly. I then take and place them on opposite sides of the US from each other for another amount of time. At some point we come back together. We are given some sort of challenge. I believe that we would each approach this challenge differently. We would apply our different experiences, knowledge, skills, and wisdom.

While we we appear genetically, physically, to be the same, we would be different people. This in someways bolsters my believe that cloning would be OK (ie ethical)…I have yet to reconcile some of my religious beliefs with cloning….that may be because the church has taken no position on it…that I know of.

I like what is said here. I usually try to avoid discussing this with other Mormons….they seem to be less open to the possibility.

The religious issues arise when you start talking about the soul. You believe in it or you don’t. I do. Thus, when you do believe in the soul, you complicate the issue. Is a soul unique to an individual? When does the soul enter the body? Can the body exist without the soul? And a whole host of others…That’s why I avoid discussing it. We complicate the debate with religious passion…which is both good and bad.

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