By Chad Groening and Jody Brown
January 15, 2003

(AgapePress) - A Christian discernment ministry says believers in the Lord Jesus Christ must refute the claims of the Raelian cult that the science of cloning can give man virtual immortality.

Since its claim last month of successfully cloning a baby, Clonaid -- a research organization founded by the Raelians -- has been greeted with great skepticism. In fact, a company vice president has been subpoenaed by a Florida court to appear and answer questions about the supposed birth and the baby's whereabouts.

Skeptical scientists have asked for proof of the baby's birth, which so far has not been forthcoming. The company appears to have backed away from its promise to allow DNA testing to verify that the baby girl, nicknamed "Eve," is indeed a clone of her mother. The company has since announced that a second cloned baby was born to a Dutch woman on January 3.

But James Walker of the Watchman Fellowship says it is religious reasons -- not scientific reasons -- that drive the UFO cult to pursue cloning. He says to Raelians, cloning a baby is just the first step toward what they believe is a path to immortality.

"The Raelians teach [that] the second phase is going to be eliminating the growth process," Walker explains. "You can clone a 30-year-old human being without having to wait 30 years for that embryo to develop."

The final stage, which Walker says is the "most far-fetched," involves transferring memories out of a person who recently died or is close to death.

"[Raelians believe] those memories can be transferred to the cloned body, and that that can go on indefinitely, [leading to] virtual immortality through cloning and moving memories from the old body to the new body," he says. "It's a very interesting blending of science and theology."

Walker says Christians need to be bold in refuting the Raelians' claims, by proclaiming that true immortality only comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

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