Gene editing may reveal something about our worldviews

Photo by Jimmy Conover on Unsplash

The headline in New York Times told a wonderful story. A baby whose life would almost certainly be cut short by a rare disease was healed by doctors who edited its genes. Personalized gene editing to save lives and restore health is now a reality.

What is your response to that? If you consider it a great accomplishment and a way to make the world a better place, that tells you something about your worldview. If it causes concern and raises fears about what it means and where it will lead, that also tells you something about your worldview.

Ryan Burge is a political scientist and statistician from Eastern Illinois University, specializing in understanding religious views in America. His popular Substack channel, Graphs about Religion, has shown that overall, Americans are uncertain and divided over the question of gene editing. Diving into the divide reveals how our worldviews determine our responses to questions such as certain kinds of medical advances.

As Burge points out, most medical technologies and advances are not very controversial. New drugs dealing with mental health issues, obesity, cancer, cystic fibrosis, etc., are welcomed. Every day, our screens are filled with advertisements for some great new treatment for almost anything that ails us. We had no idea so many people suffered from…