Evolution: Human Beings and Life
By Tomás Núñez, ThD
In the understanding of the great cosmologists who study the processes of
cosmogenesis and biogenesis, the culmination of this process does not occur in human
beings. The remarkable emergence of Life is in its immense diversity, and that which
essentially belongs to it is care. Without the necessary care, no form of Life will subsist.
It is imperative to emphasize that the culmination of the cosmogenic process is
not realized in anthropocentrism, as if human beings were the center of everything, and
other beings only had meaning when they were ordered to it and its use and enjoyment.
The greatest event of evolution is the emergence of Life in all its forms, including the
human form.
Biologists describe the conditions under which Life emerged from a high degree
of complexity and how chaos reigns when this complexity is out of balance. But chaos is
not only chaotic; it is also generative. It generates new orders and various other
complexities.
Scientists do not know how to define Life. It is the most surprising and mysterious
emergence of the entire cosmogenic process. Human Life is a subchapter of the
chapter on Life. It is necessary to emphasize that centrality belongs to Life. The
physical-chemical and ecological infrastructure of evolution, which allows for immense
biodiversity, is organized around it, and within it, human Life is conscious, speaking, and
caring.
Life is understood here as the self-organization of matter in a very high degree of
interaction with the universe and everything that surrounds it. Cosmologists and
biologists uphold life as the supreme expression of the "Original Source of all being,"
which for us is another, and more appropriate, name for God. Life does not come from
outside but emerges from the core of the cosmogonic process itself, reaching an
extremely high degree of complexity.
Nobel Prize winner in biology, Christian de Duve, went so far as to affirm that
when such a level of complexity occurs anywhere in the universe, life emerges as a
cosmic imperative (Vital Dust, 1997). In this sense, the universe is teeming with life.
Life displays a sacred unity in the diversity of its manifestations, as all living
beings carry the same basic genetic code, consisting of 20 amino acids and four
phosphate bases, which makes us all related to one another. Caring for Life, allowing it
to expand, entering into communion and synergy with the entire chain of life, and
celebrating Life: this is the meaning of life for human beings on Earth, also understood
as Gaia, the living superorganism, and we humans as the portion of Gaia that feels,
thinks, loves, speaks, and worships.
The centrality of Life specifically involves ensuring the means of Life, such as
food, health, work, housing, security, education, and leisure. If we extended the
advances in technoscience already achieved to all of humanity, we would have the
means for everyone to enjoy the quality services to which only privileged and opulent
sectors have access today.
Until now, knowledge has been understood as power at the service of the
accumulation of individuals or groups that create inequalities and, therefore, at the
service of the prevailing, unjust, and inhumane system. We postulate a power at the
service of Life and the necessary changes it demands. Why not establish a moratorium
on research and invention, in favor of the democratization of knowledge and the
inventions already accumulated by civilization, to benefit the millions and millions of
dispossessed members of humanity?
This is a great challenge for the 21st century. We self-destruct since we have
already built the means to do so, or we finally begin to create a truly just and fraternal
society with the entire Community of Life.
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