Clones and Souls

[unicorn]

Would clones have souls? Maybe that's why they die so quickly...because God does not endow them with souls...they are copies of the biological aspect of a being--souls cannot be replicated. Souls are what spark life/animate the biological being. What do you guys think?

[USIncognito]

Identical twins?
Even before birth they start to develop separately. They each have their own experiences and respond and grow. Sure they are weird. They do the same things but there are differences.

Hey now! They're not "weird," they're just not the norm.

Actually you've brought up a perfectly salient point. Identical twins (or triplets, etc.) aren't that far removed from clones, and that presents a conundrum for the life begins at conception crowd. If the soul is infused the moment sperm penetrates ova, then what happens when the embryo or zygote splits? Does only one twin have a soul? Or will they flip-flop and claim that the soul only enters the body after the completion of cell division resulting in the mutliple babies?

This might be a tangent, but it just popped into my head, for those of you who use scriptural justfications regarding your position on cloning and souls, how do you reconcille Scripture with ambiguous genitals? Genesis clearly states (according to the "plain reading" Creationsts so often refer to) that God creates male and female. Why then are so many babies born of indeterminate gender?

[McCulloch]

Identical twins (or triplets, etc.) aren't that far removed from clones, and that presents a conundrum for the life begins at conception crowd. If the soul is infused the moment sperm penetrates ova, then what happens when the embryo or zygote splits? Does only one twin have a soul? Or will they flip-flop and claim that the soul only enters the body after the completion of cell division resulting in the mutliple babies?

Or maybe the soul splits too. Maybe each sperm or ova has ½ a soul. One could speculate forever about imaginary entities such as souls.

[F]or those of you who use scriptural justfications regarding your position on cloning and souls, how do you reconcille Scripture with ambiguous genitals? Genesis clearly states (according to the "plain reading" Creationsts so often refer to) that God creates male and female. Why then are so many babies born of indeterminate gender?

Probably has to do with sin and the Fall.

[USIncognito]

Probably has to do with sin and the Fall.

8)
Unfortunately the cutting edge of your sarcasm was blunted by the fact that I've seen an identical response from apologists previously. Knee jerk responses don't erase the problem though.

How can a God who creates "male and female" in one part of Scripture, yet who "knows in the womb" in another part be responsible, or allow sin to taint the very nature of what apparently is a very serious issue in the Bible - gender? How exactly does one explain a God who creates "male and female" creating one who is neither or both?