Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Biotechnology as religion

Nature Biotechnology volume 22, pages 659–660 (2004)Cite this article

Since the early days of the Human Genome Project, numerous scholars have explored how genetics often serves not just as a scientific research program, but also as a theology or quasi-religious belief system. Dorothy Nelkin, a longtime observer of popular understandings of genetics, drew attention to “promotional metaphors” characterizing the genome as “The Book of Life” and the Human Genome Project as the quest for the “Holy Grail”1. Nelkin noted the spiritual aspects of “genetic essentialism” in which genes are imbued with all the properties of the person or self. Developing this line of analysis, Brian Alexander's book2 explores the prophets, disciples and spiritual creed of biotech.

Many individuals draw a bright line between religion and the sciences. Religious narratives, according to this account, contain beliefs about the universe, the creation of the cosmos and notions of afterlife and resurrection. Science, in contrast, is asserted to provide not value-laden beliefs, but factual understandings of the world denuded of theological or religious significance. Popular accounts of genetics, however, do not merely include scientific understandings of natural processes. Rather, genetics—and biotech more broadly—has all the social power of a belief system or surrogate religion.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Nelkin, D. Public Understanding Sci. 3, 25–31 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Alexander, B. Rapture: How Biotech Became the New Religion (Basic Books, New York, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Hall, S.S. Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension (Houghton Mifflin, New York, USA, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  4. West, M. The Immortal Cell: One Scientist's Quest to Solve the Mystery of Human Aging (Doubleday, New York, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Studies of Medicine, Biomedical Ethics Unit, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, 3647 Peel Street, Montreal, H3A 1X1, Quebec, Canada

    Leigh Turner

  2. Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science, Princeton, 08540, New Jersey, USA

    Leigh Turner

Authors
  1. Leigh Turner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Turner, L. Biotechnology as religion. Nat Biotechnol 22, 659–660 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0604-659

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0604-659

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing