LAUDATO SI'

Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’

Three comments concerning human beings from a Christian (Catholic) scientist.

The Holy Father writes:

81. “Human beings, even if we postulate a process of evolution, also possess a uniqueness

which cannot be fully explained by the evolution of other open systems.”

Comment # 1:

Scientists will not only postulate a process of evolution but will point to the overwhelming

evidence that evolution is the unique, general, natural process. It started with an unimaginable

powerful explosion. Some of its energy froze into that we call “matter” and some was, and still

is, driving the evolutionary process.

The Holy Father continues: (81ff).

“The sheer novelty involved in the emergence of a personal being within a material universe

presupposes a direct action of God and a particular call to life and to relationship on the part of

a “Thou” who addresses himself to another “thou.”

Comment #2:

Emergence is the central phenomenon of the universal evolutionary process. Emergence is

rooted in the Gestalt phenomenon; it is the marvel, already pointed out in antiquity by

(Chinese?) Persian and Greek philosophers, namely that the whole is more than the sum of its

parts; this not only quantitatively, but surprisingly also qualitatively.

How so?

Some of the energy released in the original explosion is driving the process of sequential

syntheses. The amazing aspect of synthesis is that by uniting parts into unity, novelty emerges.

As Teilhard de Chardin pointed out, the evolutionary process works by uniting parts, (that have

already been synthesized) into unities that may become parts for the next synthetic event.

Each such event generates novelty that has properties that the parts, from which it was

synthesized, do not have. Compared to the level of reality of the parts, the emergent novelty is

on a new level of reality. If one thinks in terms of hierarchies, the emergent unity is at a higher

level than its parts.

By sequential syntheses, the process increases complexity but it must be integrated

complexity. The reason is that emergent complexity must be a unity because it can only exist

as “one” (Plotinus, Ennead #9).

The first atoms came into existence this way. Their complexity increased through the synthetic

events in the life and death of the stars. As they die, the materials left over may form planetary

systems in which syntheses might continue. On Earth, the synthetic process generated pre-life

molecules from which life emerged, then plants and animals. From there, different hominids

appeared,

from which several of our more closely related evolutionary ancestors emerged. Modern man

evolved about three hundred thousand years ago with several other species of humans that

have quite recently died out.

Concerning humans as personal beings:

From science, there are two major points here:

First: Homo sapiens emerged out of the general evolutionary process and is therefore deeply

rooted in nature.

Second: There is no abyss between matter and mind. The fundamental marvel in evolution is

the Gestalt phenomenon. Why? Because the synthesis of new Gestalts brings forth radical

novelty, e.g. mind out of matter. Complexity is the difference between matter and mind and of

course the level of reality: as our self-conscious mind emerged from the mind of animals, a

totally new spiritual reality emerged with it.

A model for an updated Christian theology of nature:

The crux: For human logic, something cannot be that, which it is not. For God, however, this is

not so. God demonstrates that He can be God in that which is not God in the Christmas event.

There God becomes a human being, that which certainly is not God. Furthermore, God also

proves His “logic” of incarnation in the Eucharist. There, the flesh and blood of the Son of God,

Jesus Christ, become bread and wine, both also not God. In addition, the paradox that God

can be God in that which is not God is also at the center of creation. Here, the Word of God,

that is God, becomes the creative center of nature, of that, which is also essentially not

God.

From the perspective here described, the Christmas event, the Eucharist, and creation are all

anchored in God’s “logic” of incarnation. The Holy Father continues writing:

239. “For Christians, believing in one God who is trinitarian communion suggests that the

Trinity has left its mark on all creation. Saint Bonaventure went so far as to say that human

beings, before sin, were able to see how each creature “testifies that God is three”. The

reflection of the Trinity was there to be recognized in nature “when that book was open to man

and our eyes had not yet become darkened” [170]. The Franciscan saint teaches us that each

creature bears in itself a specifically Trinitarian structure, so real that it could be readily

contemplated if only the human gaze were not so partial, dark and fragile. In this way, he points

out to us the challenge of trying to read reality in a Trinitarian key.”

Comment #3:

The Bible teaches in its first chapter that God speaks, and creation becomes (GN 1: 3-26).

Christianity knows that this Word, that God the Father speaks, is God, the Son of God. This

Word is Trinitarian because it is God, One in the difference of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. God

speaks His Word out, the Word leaves and separates from God. It moves away from God so

that that, which is nothing has the power of becoming something. How? Because of God’s gift,

the gift of His Word which is Trinitarian. Why? Because it is God.

What about Saint Bonaventure’s challenge to see reality in this Trinitarian structure? Modern

science discovered that throughout the entire universe all creative events are the outcome of

syntheses. The nature of synthesis is to bring forth unity. Synthesis brings forth novelty through

uniting different parts into unity. All created existence has this ontological structure, identity

through difference.

From a Christian perspective, the fact that unifying difference into unity brings forth existence

is seen as a reflection God’s absolute “existence. It is absolute because God is "existence” as

United “difference” of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In this view, there is an analogy between

the absolute “existence” of God and the ontology of created existence as unity in diversity, as

identity in difference. This ontological architecture is seen as the watermark of the Trinitarian

Word of God.

In summary:

From the perspective that God is love, it seems “logical” to conclude that creation is God’s gift.

If one asks what precisely this gift might be, the answer from Christian revelation is clear:

Creation is created through the Word of God. It follows, that all of creation is rooted in this

Word but because it is given away, it has become the creative center of nature.

In this view, Saint Francis invited all of creation to praise God because he saw that all creation

has its existence in the Trinitarian Word of God. The Holy Father’s urgent appeal to protect and

care for nature is, therefore, a form of reverence and respect for the gift of the Word of God, the

creative source of all creation.

Humans are the creatures of nature capable of discovering the mystery of existence at the

center of themselves. In this innermost inner they are capable of touching this creative source,

the worlds transcendent roots, the Word of God in the total otherness of all that is. This

encounter with the human deep-self is the fundamental origin of all religions, of worship in all

cultures.

Christianity is special because of its revelation that God is love-that He gave away His Word

not only to create creation but also to save it.

Rudolf B. Brun

https://bit.ly/2nglAV