Context
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was born into a large well-off family in the Puy-de-Dôme, central France. His mother was a great-grandniece of Voltaire and his father a descendant of an ancient family of magistrates, ennobled under Louis XVIII. He entered the Jesuit society as a teenager and was trained in palaeontology and theology.
Early in his life he made a commitment to Darwin's evolutionary theory, which at the time appeared to challenge conventional religious faith. He developed an evolutionary vision of the universe: developing from a sphere of life, or biosphere, towards a sphere of mind, or noosphere.
In 1941 Teilhard submitted his most important work, Le Phénomène Humain (The Phenomenon of Man), to Rome for approval. By 1947, Rome had forbidden him to write or teach on philosophical subjects. In 1962 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith condemned several of Teilhard’s works based on their alleged ambiguities and doctrinal errors. This was basically an attempt to protect the Creation account in the Book of Genesis as 'scientific’. However, none of his writings were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books.
In 1925 Teilhard de Chardin was allowed to go to China, where he worked on paleoanthropological discoveries, far from theological disputes. His team discovered the dome of a skull. Black and Teilhard de Chardin examined it. Black verified the hominoid nature of the skull and Teilhard de Chardin established the geological era in which the cave was inhabited.
His work The Phenomenon of Man was an attempt to synthesise what he learned through scientific discovery and what scientific discoveries tell us about the nature of ultimate reality. Teilhard describes evolution as a process that leads to increasing complexity, terminating in the unification of consciousness. The text was written in the 1930s, but was only published, posthumously, in 1955.
Summary
Teilhard opens his book by analysing the meaning of being human. His argument is that we are both biological organisms and conscious beings, capable of creativity, reflection and transcendence. Through our abilities to think, feel and love, we can transcend the limitations of our material world.
He then follows the development of life from its origins to the emergence of Homo Sapiens, through a process of the progressive complexity of consciousness and an increase in the capacity to love. He sustains that evolution is not a mechanistic process, but rather a meaningful unfolding of the universe under the guidance of a teleological force.
The core of the author's philosophy is the Omega Point, the final objective of the evolutionary process. He imagines a future where humanity, through its own efforts and spiritual growth, unites in a single consciousness, transcending human limitations and communing with the divine.
The book is a call to action encouraging readers to accept a conscious role in the process of evolution. It is through love, creativity and cooperation that humans can arrive at the Omega Point faster and fulfil their destiny.
Themes
Evolution
Teilhard followed Aquinas in considering that truth and not truth are opposites and he applied this rigorously to religion and science. He harboured doubts about Darwinism since it did not contemplate final causes. For the author final causes meant goals that pull evolution onwards, whereas natural selection is a series of trials and errors. Teilhard saw purpose and meaning in evolution as part of the final goal of the world.
For him evolution advances through diverging into different forms and species; on the other hand the mind evolves by convergence, through the increasing complexity of neural networks and societies driving the growth of mind and culture. This forms part of noogenesis, the evolution of mind leading to the unification of humanity.
Noosphere
Noosphere is a term that comes from the Greek νοῦς (nous “mind”) and σφαῖρα (sphaira “sphere”). It is connected to geosphere (inanimate matter) and biosphere (biological life). Teilhard envisioned the creation of the Big Bang by God. This started the process of evolution and led to the complexity of matter, life forms, human consciousness and collective human consciousness (the noosphere). As humanity gradually organises itself in more and more complex societies, the noosphere will gain added consciousness. The apogee will be the Omega Point, the Cosmic Christ, the second person of the Trinity.
“How can we fail to see that the process of convergence from which we emerged, body and soul, is continuing to envelop us more closely than ever, to grip us, in the form of—under the folds of, we might say—a gigantic planetary contraction?"
Science and Faith
Teilhard recognises that his contemporaries see a conflict between religion and science. He considers that the solution to this problem will require a rethinking of the Christian message in the light of science, particularly including the ideas of cosmic evolution. He views science as a means of comprehending the universe and also understanding reality, which in itself has a religious character. Science cooperates to move the world in a cosmic evolution to its final destination of the Omega Point, God.
However, through the incarnation the pole of universal convergence is Christ, who is God at the heart of matter, the driver of the movement of evolution. For the author scientific work consists in developing the conscience of the world through knowledge and this is a priestly operation. It prepares humanity to find the meaning of the mystery of reality: the evolution towards God through increasing consciousness. In this way science acquires a religious meaning.
Scientific materialism is also a source of the religion-science confrontation. It is based on the premises that the fundamental reality of the universe is matter and energy and science is the sole valid knowledge. The first assertion is metaphysical, the second epistemological, based on the first.
Teilhard rejects the matter-spirit dualism and presents a synthesis where matter integrates a spiritual aspect. He approaches matter, not through its particles, like quarks, but from the evidence of human consciousness. He argues that consciousness must be present in all matter. This leads him to propose that matter has an inside (dedans) and an outside (dehors) which is the object of science. Matter also has a dual character in energy: tangential, physical energy; radial energy corresponding to the converging force of evolution towards more complexity and consciousness. Radial energy is also named spiritual energy because Teilhard identifies spirituality with consciousness.
For the author matter is dynamic as it evolves until it reaches the human spirit, and ultimately a union with God. This idea counters the ancient Greek philosophers' vision of matter as an obstacle to the spirit, a source of much dualism in Western thought.
Human Responsibility
Evolution for Teilhard is cosmic, an unfolding of the universe along a line of increasing complexity and spirituality, from material particles through living beings (biosphere) to consciousness in humans (noosphere). It proceeds further, through human evolution, to convergence at the Omega Point, a personal God.
Progress in human evolution can move towards a convergent unity or a divergent reality, seen in the advancement of one group against another. To avoid the latter it is necessary to have a pole of personalised attraction that accomplishes the final unification of all consciences. This is the Cosmic Christ.
Convergence may be seen today in phenomena such as the increase in world communications, global transportation, and strengthening of the United Nations. However, there are also divergent movements of violence, wars and terrorism. Teilhard developed his vision during the division of the Cold War, yet it is optimistic. How realistic is it?
No comments:
Post a Comment