Evolution Series at St Bride's - Part 2
What's Behind the Mask? Human Beings No Longer the Centre of Creation Discussion Notes by Stephen Shakespeare for St Bride's 12th June 2011
The story of the evolution of the universe and of all life challenges the idea that human beings are in some way the centre or pinnacle of reality in a number of ways.
Scale
In a universe that is 13.7 billion years old, and in a history of life that stretches back possible 4 billion years, humanity has only been around for a microscopically small amount of time.
The universe has not been about us for the vast majority of its existence, and across the vast majority of its expanse.
Chance
We all now about the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But not everyone is aware that there are four other documented events of mass extinction, all of which may have fundamentally affected the evolution of life and humanity as we know it. In the most serious, at the end of the Permian age 250 million years ago, 83 per cent of all life was wiped out.
There was nothing inevitable about the emergence of life or the course it took.
Origins
In addition, the origin of life itself could have been the result of a chance combination of the right elements. One current theory, supported by experiments, suggests that in the right conditions - in water between layers of clay which alternates in temperature - RNA molecules can form, and begin the slow road to life which can reproduce itself.
There is no special act of creation.
Boundaries
The philosopher Donna Haraway suggests that we are facing three major ways in which the boundaries which have defined reality for us are breaking down. These are the boundaries between the physical and the non-physical; between organisms and machines; and between humans and animals.
For instance, organic life is transmitted or reproduced through genetic codes - it is essentially like information. And consider the way our brain works: the electrical firing of neurons. In order to send a signal over any distance without it degrading, neurons need to supply it with electricity. So they have evolved their own batteries - a series of gates which let sodium and potassium ions flow in and out, changing the electrical charge along the neuron's connecting wires. Scientists refer to this and other similar examples as 'molecular machinery'.
In relation to animals, we obviously share a lot of DNA, and we have clearly evolved from nonhuman (and even nonliving) roots. Many nonhumans have complex symbolic cultures and patterns of communication.
We can no longer justify attempts to define humanity simply over against everything else.
Consequences
Often in the West, we have tried to assert human uniqueness by referring to the soul, assuming it is something essentially spiritual and immortal. This is looking less and less credible - and potentially harmful too. When human beings think they are the only ones with souls, the rest of creation can be treated as raw material, stuff for us to use, eat, experiment on and destroy at will. And there have often been lots of human beings who have been judged to be subhuman, or further down the scale of rationality and spirituality (e.g. women being associated with matter and the body; Jews and non-white races associated with animal or 'savage' characteristics). The way we treat nonhuman animals affects the way we treat each other.
At the same time, the complexity and consciousness that emerge with humanity do seem to be significantly advanced. But is this necessarily a sign of superiority? Or that all creation has been building up to us? (After all, the vast majority of life remains happily 'stuck' at the single cell level, in a huge diversity of ways). Perhaps evolution will continue, and we are only a stage on the way to something else.
Suggestions
Taking human beings off the throne of creation is not just a negative move. It frees us for a new understanding of the world and our connectedness with it. It can help us to change the way we relate to our environment and the nonhuman life with which we share it. It can also help us to think more clearly about the promises and threats of technology - when we already have machines inside us, technology is as natural as anything else (which is not to say that it can’t be dangerous!).
When we stop anxiously defining ourselves as unique, perhaps we can undergo that loss of self - a loss of egoism, clinging and fear - of which religious traditions speak. As Bishop James has pointed out, when Jesus is called Son of Man, this literally means 'Son of One Hewn From the Earth'. Christ's ministry, death and resurrection can pass judgement on our abusive attempts to control and dominate the earth, its creatures and one another. The new creation is reconciliation for all things - not just us. It is a way of dying to self and loving the strangeness of earthly life.
Questions
1. If human beings evolved by chance, how does it affect our understanding of our place in the world and our uniqueness?
2. Can nonhuman animals or machines have a soul? Or rights?
3. From a Christian point of view, what is spiritually positive and empowering in our growing knowledge of human evolution?