Greg,

Quite true! Naturally occuring clones, identical twins, grow up to be distinctly different people. Despite being genetically identical, those differences begin showing very early. The reason, of course, is that experience, perception, environmental influences, etc., cannot be duplicated identically, even in two identical humans raised together. Just consider the difference of perception between your two eyes. The left and right eye do not see identical images. If they did you wouldn't have binocular vision and depth perception. And if you close one eye for a few seconds, the memory history recorded in your brain is slightly different for that eye from that of the other eye. Now separate that into two independently functioning humans and you greatly magnify those possibilities. Accumulate those little divergences of experience over a lifetime, multiplied by all the senses and the cumulative effect on cognition, emotion, judgment, etc. and the differences become profound. And because our life experiences and behaviour have distinct physiological effects, the physical similarities of identical twins gradually diminish over time. Have you ever noticed and wondered why older twins look less alike than younger twins? Or how the inverse sometimes happens with a closely bonded married couple who after sharing a lifetime of experiences gradually look and act more alike as they get older? (Something to think about in the spiritual lesson of that!)

The very same would be true of clones. It would be impossible to take Ted Williams' DNA and create a human that would replicate what the original Ted Williams achieved, that of being a great baseball player, because it is impossible to recreate his lifetime of experience. Life and time do not remain static and cannot be repeated, so creating and maintaining absolute carbon copying of any lifeform would be impossible. The dynamic environmental and internal influences for each life molds each toward infinite diversity. Just consider the tremendous diversity of human life on earth today, realizing it all started with two humans that may well have been genetically identical (even if they were not, it is still amazing!) except for a minor xy chromosome manipulation that made their self-replication possible.

Tom

Hopefully, if cloning is ever perfected, they will be able to isolate good and bad propensities so that they can create better people. In reality though I doubt enough time remains between now and when Jesus returns for scientists to perfect the science of cloning. So for now, and as always, we'll have to rely on the old fashioned, time tested way of resisting our sinful flesh propensities - Trust Jesus.