The continuous and constantly accelerated introduction of
advanced new     technologies allowing an unprecedented variety
of radically novel     applications is inundating our social and
private life. One important     species of these technological
breakthroughs is biotechnology and     concerns a vital aspect
of our scientific knowledge of the biological     world and its
inner laws. As such, it inevitably poses itself as a
challenge to religion which may be seen as either a more
pronounced     version of the old antagonism between science and
religious belief or     rather as a radically new conflict. The
most controversial area of     applied biotechnology concerns
human germline modification and     enhancement beyond mere
therapy, sometimes referred to as the "new     eugenics", as
well as human cloning.     Biotechnology is quite different from
purely scientific speculation for     the sake of knowledge only
as well as from mere invention of tools. It     embodies a new
type of merging science and