Raelian Revolution
(A group believing in UFOs now claims to be involved in human cloning.)
We have to admit that until the 1/4/2003, we'd never heard of the Raelians.  The news which Reuters reported on this date consists of the Raelian claim to have cloned a 2nd human being (see [1] below).  We quickly found the "Raelian Revolution" website.  NOW WE WISH THAT WE STILL HAD NEVER HEARD OF THE RAELIANS!  They appear to be out for publicity to further their beliefs by claiming to be involved in human cloning - All of which is unsubstantiated.  They have refused access to DNA testing of the children.  They promised access to testing of the children's DNA prior to their births, yet now refuse the testing.  Should we believe their claims?  Well, no.  As many scientists have expressed, "They do not have the scientific expertise to perform human cloning and cannot even claim to have successfully cloned a mouse - let alone a human."
If it were not for the unique (and humorous) claims of the Raelians, we would stop here.  However, as you will see in the following, the Raelians expect us to believe many other unsubstantiated claims.  For example, they not only believe in UFOs and the fact that we've been visited by life from other galaxies, but they also want us to believe that these alien life forms created life on earth and control our DNA.  Read on and enjoy the false claims...

The Raelians believe in UFOs and also believe that:
Life on Earth is not the result of random evolution, nor the work of a supernatural 'God'.  It is a deliberate creation, using DNA, by a scientifically advanced people who made human beings literally in their image" what one can call "scientific creationism".
According to their beliefs, on the 13th of December 1973, French journalist John Rael was visited by aliens who provided him "messages" for the world.  Rael has published the following books of these alien messages: From the Raelian Revolution website:
SCIENTISTS FROM ANOTHER PLANET CREATED ALL LIFE ON EARTH USING D.N.A.

"From References to these scientists and their work, as well as to their symbol of infinity can be found in the ancient texts of many cultures. For example, in Genesis, the biblical account of creation, the word "Elohim" has been mistranslated as "God" in the singular, but it is a plural, which means "those who came from the sky".  Leaving our humanity to progress by itself, the Elohim nevertheless maintained contact with us via prophets including Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, all specially chosen and educated by them. The role of the prophets was to progressively educate humanity through the messages they taught, each time adapted to the culture and level of understanding at the time."

They believe the aliens need an Embassy:  "Now that Man has put his foot on the moon, and our scientists are creating life through the synthesis of DNA, we are finally capable of understanding our creators rationally instead of mystifying and dumbly adoring them. For this reason the Elohim have contacted French journalist Rael. They have asked him to make their final message known throughout the world and to establish an embassy for them where they will officially meet with us and our world governments."

Human Cloning
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP )
By Kevin Christopher, CSICOP Public Relations Director
January 10, 2002
Clonaid, Raël, and the media seem to have got things backwards, says Paul Kurtz, chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). It should have been science first, publicity second. Without a shred of corroborative evidence, the French UFO cult visionary Raël (formerly known as Claude Vorilhon) and his strange brand of extraterrestrial futurism were catapulted into the world spotlight by the suspect announcement that Clonaid, the human cloning company founded by Raël, had achieved its first success.

Now that it has become clear that the first alleged human clone will not be verified through DNA testing after all, several media watchers are sifting through the smoking wreckage of this crashed media cycle. Kurtz is one of them. In 1997, he debated Raël on MSNBC. CSICOP's official journal, Skeptical Inquirer, has covered and criticized many the previous claims and exploits of the Raëlians.

Kurtz is distressed by the recent coverage. "It exposes the decreasing standards of many in the media business," he says. "Here you have an unsubstantiated claim from dubious sources acting on a bizarre agenda, and it makes newspaper headlines and leads cable news for weeks. Coverage for Raël and Clonaid has dumbed down an import scientific issue. Meanwhile, the genuine understanding of scientific issues like therapeutic cloning among legislators and the general public is next to nil, and many in Congress and the Bush administration have been acting to undermine this very type of critical scientific research."

Indeed, a January 9, 2003, Fox News Channel online story by Liza Porteus announced the introduction of a new Human Cloning Prohibition Act bill in the House of Representatives the previous day. "The bill got a jump start this session," writes Porteus, "after Clonaid... claimed it had delivered a human clone baby and had three more on the way." The bill, sponsored by Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI), Rep. David Weldon (R-FL) and 80 other House co-sponsors, would ban both reproductive and therapeutic cloning. This has many scientific groups worried, since therapeutic cloning is a promising technique for replicating specific types of cells rather than an actual embryo. A ban, say researchers, would undermine efforts to find cures for Alzheimer's and diabetes.

"The media are not serving the public debate by rolling out the red carpet to a pack of ludicrous UFO cultists," says Kurtz. "Coverage of the Raëlians' cloning efforts only reinforces an ill-informed public's Frankensteinian fears."

Several months ago, Michael Guillen, the former ABC Science Editor who had been organizing the independent testing of Clonaid's results, was pitching a lucrative reality-based TV program about the cloning efforts to Fox Entertainment and other TV networks, according to the New York Times. Guillen has now publicly distanced himself from the fiasco. Nevertheless, on ABC's "Good Morning America" (January 8, 2003), Guillen said he was still holding out hope. "I think there's a small chance [that the claims are true]. And the stakes are so high ... that's why I want to test." That small chance has gotten far smaller, says Kurtz, with every delay and excuse from Clonaid.

An anonymous Food & Drug Administration official told the New York Times that the company's cloning facilities were, in many ways, inadequate for the task. A January 1, 2003, story by Kenneth Chang and Gina Kolata quotes the official about conditions at Clonaid's Nitro, West Virginia, facility. Though the lab- a rented room at an abandoned high school-did have state-of-the-art equipment, "[t]here was no place where sterile conditions could be had." Insects flew in and out of open windows, possibly from a nearby barn. The research staff at the facility amounted to a woefully unprepared graduate student tracking work on cow ovaries with notebooks "inadequate" to document scientific research. Such testimony casts even more doubt on Clonaid's ability to pull off what would be one of the great scientific achievements of the 21st century.

At best the Raëlian/Clonaid PR coup will do no damage and fade from public memory. At worst, however, as Kurtz and others fear, the UFO cult's media high jinks may be contributing to the death of legitimate cloning research in the United States.

References:
1 Raelian Revolution website
2 "Second Cloned Baby Girl Born, Say Dutch Raelians", Reuters, 1/4/2003
3 "Raelian leader says cloning first step to immortality", CNN, 1/28/2002
4 "Clonaid" - claims to be the first human cloning company
5 Contact ClonAid - clonaid@rael.org
- Ethical Atheist
[Created: 01/14/2003]
[Last Update: n/a]