It bothers me that science and faith are so often at war.  As a person without faith- or at least religious faith - perhaps I oversimplify the difficulty of rationalizing deeply held beliefs with another view point that is so rigid that it can be doctrinaire.  It pains me to see centuries old science dismissed as mere guesswork, but when religious views are repeatedly undermined perhaps it is natural to eventually believe that there is malicious intent.  Some days, even I wonder if perhaps the scientists aren't just sticking it to them; exhibit A, Stanford researcher have discovered a process to make sperm and eggs from embryonic stem cells- a process that works no matter what the gender of the donor is.  Christians believe life begins at conception so this is murder, though to be fair, turning an embryo into sperm and eggs which can become another embryo is pretty muddy ethically.  I suppose their answer would be that either way it thwarts God's will, but that does seem to skirt the larger questions.  How can life begin at conception if it can be restarted and become a different life?  If embryos are capable of being unwound back to their parts then how can they be a completed human life?  

Unfortunately, that is just the beginning of the head ache for the devout.  This research allows things like delaying menopause (further meddling with God's will), advanced treatments for infertility (like those that allowed a 66 year old to give birth in Britain) and, here's the kicker, allowing gay couples to have their own genetic children.  Eventually, scientists hope that by reverting skin cells back to their stem roots and then forming eggs, men would be able to create eggs capable of fertilization.  It is thought that because they miss the Y chromosome it probably will not be possible for women to create sperm.  The men would still need a surogate to carry the baby to term, and major advances in anti-rejection drugs would be necessary to allow that to happen.  Obviously this research is probably decades away from allowing this to happen, but it still a huge step towards the previously impossible goal of allowing gay couples all of the freedoms- including those rendered impossible by nature- that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy.  

In the meantime, if I was a Book of Revelations Christian I would get my heart right because this pretty much has to be a sign of the Apocalypse.