Ancestry DNA – A Cool Party Trick or Privacy Violation?

(c) 2016

I am in great fear of all the ads Ancestry.com is placing you get folks to willingly give up their DNA just to see their ethnic origins. It’s the ultimate privacy violation yet thousands are flocking to do it like lambs to the slaughter.

I have to ask the basic but obvious question: 

• If you won’t willy nilly give out your Social Security Number or your credit card number, then why would you give someone a sample of your DNA - the most personal, private part of yourself? 

 
What real guarantee of privacy do you have? Everything gets hacked, even the Pentagon! 

Handing over your DNA for no good cause makes it easier for you to be found by authorities and insurance companies are always looking for a reason to exclude the insured from getting their claims paid.  As science marches on, you know they will find a way to charge extra if your DNA has a gene for some disease. Or not cover you at all because of a congenital condition.

 Why just hand it over for what is a cosmetic purpose? After all, who really cares if you’re Irish or Italian or something else? When all is said and done, you are you.  If you aren’t sure who you are, you need psychotherapy or a life coach, not a DNA test.

More importantly, Ancestry.com LLC was started by the Mormons as a recruiting tool regardless of what the PR says. If you are not familiar with their brand of religion and especially if you are not religious at all, their goal is to get everyone inducted into Mormonism in the afterlife - whether you want to be or not. They get your name, family tree, and now your DNA.

I say “NO”. Be afraid. Do not do it.

Source: The Power Of DNA And The Potential For Misuse

http://wideshut.co.uk/the-power-of-dna-and-the-potential-for-misuse/

Creationism and Evolution

Today was our first Fall 2011 Bible study class using the FaitherWeaver curriculum.  The plan is for both parents and children study the same topic so they can discuss it later at home. While I don’t have children, I am always interested in how to start small in spreading God’s word.

Our class started with Genesis and how to explain the difference between the Bible’s description of creation and the scientific theory of evolution espoused in all public schools. BTW-I am old enough to remember when God was not a forbidden public school subject and feel we declined as a nation when the Evil one got judges to say it’s not allowed any more.

Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church (GPC) is an amazing church. We have scientists and theologians and a wide diversity in members from Africa to Korea and in-between. So, we had a variety of views.

The overarching conclusion was that the two are not mutually exclusive. God is the who and science is the how. God created the world but we don’t yet know exactly how (i.e., science’s contribution).

My life’s learning brought these items to their attention:

• Time is not linear. The expanse of time that awes scientist is based on time being a straight line so they incorrectly conclude the Bible is wrong.
• A day wasn’t ‘24 hours” until the Earth was fully created and rotating on its axis.
• Humans decided what category ancient skeletal remains fit into. It was not God who said “man starts with Homo Sapiens”.
• Francis Collins, one of the decoders of the Human Genome, says that DNA evidences proves that all humans come from a single ancestor.

When all is said and done, science proves the Bible’s point of man’s origin starting with a single source. Not the opposite. I love it when turn about is fair play! Amen.

PS: Click here to see the description of the course: http://www.gpchurch.org/Adults/AdultEducation/2011AdultEducationFallCourses/tabid/47692/Default.aspx

See also the Internet Monk for a great explanation on how literal or not to take the Christian Bible: http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/my-view-of-scripture