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Claim: A group known as 'The Second Coming Project' is seeking to clone Jesus from the DNA of holy relics.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2000]
Origins: No, nobody is seriously planning to clone Jesus. This scheme was a put-on from the year 2000, an explanation of which could be found on the now-defunct 
Second Coming Project web site, where the link for more information provided adequate evidence that their notion of cloning Jesus was just a provocative put-on. (The person behind this stunt was Kristan Lawson, who is primarily known for having published the Unabomber's manifesto in book form, and the address provided for readers to use to send their donations to "The Second Coming Project" is in fact the address of his publishing house, Jolly Roger Press.)
Even if we considered this scheme seriously, a good many "splinters of the true cross" and samples of the "real" blood, hair, and foreskin of Christ for a few dozen Jesus are of questionable origin. Determining which, if any, of these samples were genuine would be a matter of sheer trial and error, with no guarantee that we'd even know if we were successful. How could we tell if we'd really cloned Jesus? He almost certainly wouldn't look like the modern image of Christ, and it would be rather arrogant of us to assume His divinity was simply a matter of genetics. In any case, it's not for us to take matters upon ourselves to "save the world from sin" and "initiate the second coming of the Christ." The Book of Matthew says to "keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come," and Thessalonians tells us we "know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." Those sound like pretty good "Biblical reasons not to take advantage of" cloning technology. Sightings: The notion of cloning Jesus (or some other long-dead spiritual leader) is a familiar plot, turning up in the 1997 John Case novel The Genesis Code, a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Rightful Heir," in which Kahless, a deified Klingon warrior, seemingly returns from the dead), and a 1999 episode of The Outer Limits (entitled "The Shroud"). Last updated: 14 July 2007 This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com. |
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