Theological attention to the Catholic doctrine of original sin has a history that extends from the letters of Saint Paul through the Council of Trent and Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical, Humani generis . The doctrine has traditionally been articulated through the Genesis narrative of Adam and Eve as the first human beings from whom all others descend, an account known as monogenism. In the course of the nineteenth century, scientific research into human origins increasingly relied upon polygenism, the descent of humanity from non-human ancestors through a transitional population. Subsequent Catholic engagement with evolution included resistance to polygenism from the Vatican due to a perceived conflict with the doctrine of original sin. Humani generis included a prohibition that remains in place today in spite of widespread de facto acceptance of polygenism among theologians. Understanding the origin and persistence of this disparity stands to benefit from comparison to a corresponding ambivalence toward the sixteenth century Copernican hypothesis of a moving earth, only conclusively resolved in 1992. In Part I of this essay I introduce this historical comparison and describe the origins of monogenism and polygenism terminology in nineteenth century debate over the unity of the human race. I then describe the conceptual changes that transpired during the first half of the twentieth century and the resulting role of polygenism in the nouvelle theologie of the decade prior to Humani generis . Subsequent developments and implications follow in Part II.
{"title":"Catholicism and Evolution: Polygenism and Original Sin Part II","authors":"J. R. Hofmann","doi":"10.12775/SETF.2021.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/SETF.2021.003","url":null,"abstract":"Theological attention to the Catholic doctrine of original sin has a history that extends from the letters of Saint Paul through the Council of Trent and Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical, Humani generis . The doctrine has traditionally been articulated through the Genesis narrative of Adam and Eve as the first human beings from whom all others descend, an account known as monogenism. In the course of the nineteenth century, scientific research into human origins increasingly relied upon polygenism, the descent of humanity from non-human ancestors through a transitional population. Subsequent Catholic engagement with evolution included resistance to polygenism from the Vatican due to a perceived conflict with the doctrine of original sin. Humani generis included a prohibition that remains in place today in spite of widespread de facto acceptance of polygenism among theologians. Understanding the origin and persistence of this disparity stands to benefit from comparison to a corresponding ambivalence toward the sixteenth century Copernican hypothesis of a moving earth, only conclusively resolved in 1992. In Part I of this essay I introduce this historical comparison and describe the origins of monogenism and polygenism terminology in nineteenth century debate over the unity of the human race. I then describe the conceptual changes that transpired during the first half of the twentieth century and the resulting role of polygenism in the nouvelle theologie of the decade prior to Humani generis . Subsequent developments and implications follow in Part II.","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"10 1","pages":"63-129"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73634529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
. Mind transfer is the most important concept of transhumanists. Its tech nological implementation is to copy and transfer the human mind to a computer, by exact mapping of all neural connections in the human brain and their precise copying in a computer simulation. The idea of mind transfer also brings some dangers, related to the denial of human nature, the placing of hopes for future life in digital spaces and the liberation from the limitations imposed on man by his biological structure. Transhumanists believe that in order to achieve mind transfer, various technologies defined by the acronym NBIC (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Cognitive Science) currently available, should be used. The very dynamic development of these technologies in recent years, and in particular the latest AI (Artificial Intelli -gence) algorithms seem to be very fast approaching the moment when practical mind transfer will be possible. The paper contains a very brief description of these technical capabilities with the necessary short commentary on their ethical aspects.
{"title":"Theological and Ethical Aspects of Mind Transfer in Transhumanism","authors":"G. Osinski","doi":"10.12775/SETF.2021.005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/SETF.2021.005","url":null,"abstract":". Mind transfer is the most important concept of transhumanists. Its tech nological implementation is to copy and transfer the human mind to a computer, by exact mapping of all neural connections in the human brain and their precise copying in a computer simulation. The idea of mind transfer also brings some dangers, related to the denial of human nature, the placing of hopes for future life in digital spaces and the liberation from the limitations imposed on man by his biological structure. Transhumanists believe that in order to achieve mind transfer, various technologies defined by the acronym NBIC (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Cognitive Science) currently available, should be used. The very dynamic development of these technologies in recent years, and in particular the latest AI (Artificial Intelli -gence) algorithms seem to be very fast approaching the moment when practical mind transfer will be possible. The paper contains a very brief description of these technical capabilities with the necessary short commentary on their ethical aspects.","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75177238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
. With his bestselling publication, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking in-troduced in 1988 a new genre by connecting modern science with the question of the existence of God. In the posthumous publication Brief Answers to the Big Questions, he continues his quest for the ultimate truth. The current study presents a philosophical analysis of this search in terms of Aristotle’s and Aquinas’s classical philosophy. Causality is the central concept employed by Hawking. However, in modern scientific and philosophical literature, its meaning is limited to temporal causality compared to the view of classical philosophy. Only the latter one accepts causality from outside space and time, in other words, a reality transcending the material world. In a quote presented in the discussion, Hawking defines himself as an atheist. After a careful reading of his writings, however, doubts arise about his unbelief.
{"title":"The quest for truth of Stephen Hawking","authors":"Alfred Driessen","doi":"10.12775/SETF.2021.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/SETF.2021.002","url":null,"abstract":". With his bestselling publication, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking in-troduced in 1988 a new genre by connecting modern science with the question of the existence of God. In the posthumous publication Brief Answers to the Big Questions, he continues his quest for the ultimate truth. The current study presents a philosophical analysis of this search in terms of Aristotle’s and Aquinas’s classical philosophy. Causality is the central concept employed by Hawking. However, in modern scientific and philosophical literature, its meaning is limited to temporal causality compared to the view of classical philosophy. Only the latter one accepts causality from outside space and time, in other words, a reality transcending the material world. In a quote presented in the discussion, Hawking defines himself as an atheist. After a careful reading of his writings, however, doubts arise about his unbelief.","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74525865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transhumanism has enormous affect on temporary philosophical thought by forcing philosophers to take on many intellectual challenges generated by scientists who try to create technological solutions that enable implementation of transhumanistic ideas. The question is whether all these ideas will be realized. The purpose of the article is to show that the ulitmate goal of transhumanism, to create posthumanistic society, is impossible to realize. The first reason is that transhumanism limits human’s understanding to the material dimension (from a theological viewpint). While this is understandable in the naturalistic paradigm, this approach is insufficient when it comes to all complexity of human being and for this reason transhumanism represents too narrow a human’s understanding to be able to implement its all assumptions. The second reason is that to enable people to become posthumans the latest technologies would have to be available to everyone and this seems impossible. If so, such a situation will divide people into ordinary ones and posthumans and this could lead to conflicts that transhumanists want to avoid after all. Finally, the body-mind problem is essentially limited to emergentism, which corresponds to the naturalistic paradigm. It seems, however, that without the concept of the soul it is impossible to understand who a man is, their identity and consciousness and this is crucial for mind uploading.
{"title":"Is transhumanism heading towards redefinition of human being or towards Utopia?","authors":"Rafał Szopa","doi":"10.12775/SETF.2021.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/SETF.2021.007","url":null,"abstract":"Transhumanism has enormous affect on temporary philosophical thought by forcing philosophers to take on many intellectual challenges generated by scientists who try to create technological solutions that enable implementation of transhumanistic ideas. The question is whether all these ideas will be realized. The purpose of the article is to show that the ulitmate goal of transhumanism, to create posthumanistic society, is impossible to realize. The first reason is that transhumanism limits human’s understanding to the material dimension (from a theological viewpint). While this is understandable in the naturalistic paradigm, this approach is insufficient when it comes to all complexity of human being and for this reason transhumanism represents too narrow a human’s understanding to be able to implement its all assumptions. The second reason is that to enable people to become posthumans the latest technologies would have to be available to everyone and this seems impossible. If so, such a situation will divide people into ordinary ones and posthumans and this could lead to conflicts that transhumanists want to avoid after all. Finally, the body-mind problem is essentially limited to emergentism, which corresponds to the naturalistic paradigm. It seems, however, that without the concept of the soul it is impossible to understand who a man is, their identity and consciousness and this is crucial for mind uploading.","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"25 1","pages":"197"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74539856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
María Teresa Enríquez Gómez, Jorge Martín Montoya Camacho
{"title":"Imperium and causality in Thomas Aquinas","authors":"María Teresa Enríquez Gómez, Jorge Martín Montoya Camacho","doi":"10.12775/SETF.2021.013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/SETF.2021.013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"36 1","pages":"329"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75116590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper offers new arguments to reject the alleged dream of immortality. In order to do this, I firstly introduce an amendment to Michael Hauskeller’s approach of the “immortalist fallacy”. I argue that the conclusion “we (normally) do not want to live forever” does not follow from the premise “we (normally) do not want to die”. Next, I propose the philosophical turn from “normally” to “under these circumstances” to resolve this logical error. Then, I review strong philosophical critiques of this transhumanist purpose of immortality in the literature. There are two key questions related to the possibility of fulfilling this goal: the hard problem of consciousness and the personal identity dilemma. Finally, I defend a specific type of indefinite life and justify that it is more desirable than our current limited life.
{"title":"Transhumanist immortality: Understanding the dream as a nightmare","authors":"Pablo García-Barranquero","doi":"10.12775/SETF.2021.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/SETF.2021.006","url":null,"abstract":"This paper offers new arguments to reject the alleged dream of immortality. In order to do this, I firstly introduce an amendment to Michael Hauskeller’s approach of the “immortalist fallacy”. I argue that the conclusion “we (normally) do not want to live forever” does not follow from the premise “we (normally) do not want to die”. Next, I propose the philosophical turn from “normally” to “under these circumstances” to resolve this logical error. Then, I review strong philosophical critiques of this transhumanist purpose of immortality in the literature. There are two key questions related to the possibility of fulfilling this goal: the hard problem of consciousness and the personal identity dilemma. Finally, I defend a specific type of indefinite life and justify that it is more desirable than our current limited life.","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"12 1","pages":"177"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84496934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"¿Ciencia versus moral? Revisión histórico-científica sobre el síndrome del zika congénito y la reivindicación del aborto","authors":"Hélio Tadeu Luciano de Oliveira","doi":"10.12775/SETF.2021.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/SETF.2021.012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"26 6 1","pages":"309"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82704439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human beings, as we know and understand them today, are the result of a lengthy, two million year old process that has made them one of the most powerful and beautiful biological beings. The process of encephalisation in humans, combined with the development of areas of speech, brought about by a neurological reorganisation that may have taken place before the increase in brain size, has enabled humanity to generate a tremendous cognitive capacity that in turn has led to the development of what we know of as culture. Culture influences biological development. No other species has achieved the like anywhere. For human survival, culture is a new dimension, a new habitat, which humanity has to adapt as it creates it. Culture is not written into the genome, but it can be transmitted and communicated thanks to speech. This enables knowledge to be shared and transmitted to other members of the group or society, to communicate ideas, concepts and abstractions. Knowledge enables a society to form a structure and make it more complex than a simple agglomeration of individuals while also creating an environment where raising children is viable since it can guarantee their survival, giving them the right treatment to enable them to reach adulthood. It has been said that ‘humanity is a spirit in time ’ , hence the need to understand the essence of human natural history; the importance of paying it sufficient attention to ensure that what is attractive about its history does not become indigestible.
{"title":"The distinctive character of human being in evolution","authors":"D. Turbón","doi":"10.12775/setf.2020.015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/setf.2020.015","url":null,"abstract":"Human beings, as we know and understand them today, are the result of a lengthy, two million year old process that has made them one of the most powerful and beautiful biological beings. The process of encephalisation in humans, combined with the development of areas of speech, brought about by a neurological reorganisation that may have taken place before the increase in brain size, has enabled humanity to generate a tremendous cognitive capacity that in turn has led to the development of what we know of as culture. Culture influences biological development. No other species has achieved the like anywhere. For human survival, culture is a new dimension, a new habitat, which humanity has to adapt as it creates it. Culture is not written into the genome, but it can be transmitted and communicated thanks to speech. This enables knowledge to be shared and transmitted to other members of the group or society, to communicate ideas, concepts and abstractions. Knowledge enables a society to form a structure and make it more complex than a simple agglomeration of individuals while also creating an environment where raising children is viable since it can guarantee their survival, giving them the right treatment to enable them to reach adulthood. It has been said that ‘humanity is a spirit in time ’ , hence the need to understand the essence of human natural history; the importance of paying it sufficient attention to ensure that what is attractive about its history does not become indigestible.","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"10 3","pages":"65-93"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72479529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Scientific discoveries and the emergence of cosmological theories such as the Big Bang Theory and evolution have challenged the Christian doctrine of creation and its reliability on many fronts, because the discoveries appear to contradict the Christian account as to how creation unfolded. Hefner sees the situation as an additional interpretative task to theologians. He, however, posits that scientific discoveries are an opportunity to communicate the Christian message through social and scientific experience to bring meaning to broader society. He expresses the notion that religion will remain relevant only if it measures up to science, because we are in a science and technology era. Hefner, therefore, introduced the concept of created co-creator as a metaphor and analytical tool to explain the meaning and purpose of humans within the biosphere. The concept is characterized by the ability to communicate religion through science and to relate with available models of origin. This work expounds on the concept of created co-creator’s ability to explain human technological trajectory in theology. There is also an effort to establish a relationship between Hefner’s concept and Haraway’s cyborg with an emphasis on the concept’s ability to communicate the Christian doctrine of creation through scientific knowledge and why such an enterprise is useful.
{"title":"Created Co-creator, a Theory of Human Becoming in an Era of Science and Technology","authors":"Ahenkora Siaw Kwakye","doi":"10.12775/setf.2020.022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/setf.2020.022","url":null,"abstract":"Scientific discoveries and the emergence of cosmological theories such as the Big Bang Theory and evolution have challenged the Christian doctrine of creation and its reliability on many fronts, because the discoveries appear to contradict the Christian account as to how creation unfolded. Hefner sees the situation as an additional interpretative task to theologians. He, however, posits that scientific discoveries are an opportunity to communicate the Christian message through social and scientific experience to bring meaning to broader society. He expresses the notion that religion will remain relevant only if it measures up to science, because we are in a science and technology era. Hefner, therefore, introduced the concept of created co-creator as a metaphor and analytical tool to explain the meaning and purpose of humans within the biosphere. The concept is characterized by the ability to communicate religion through science and to relate with available models of origin. This work expounds on the concept of created co-creator’s ability to explain human technological trajectory in theology. There is also an effort to establish a relationship between Hefner’s concept and Haraway’s cyborg with an emphasis on the concept’s ability to communicate the Christian doctrine of creation through scientific knowledge and why such an enterprise is useful.","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"14 1","pages":"285-305"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80535541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Extending the approach to a ‘theology of science’ developed in Faith and Wisdom in Science (McLeish 2014), I expand its theme of the tension between chaos and emergent order, within the arc of the Biblical story of creation, towards a theology of evolutionary science. In addition to the material in Job , the book of Wisdom provides a remarkable account of transmutation of species, within a recapitulation of the Exodus theme, that I juxtapose with a modern genotype-phenotype theory of evolutionary dynamics, exploiting analogies with statistical mechanics. The dual and connected structures of microscopic and macroscopic provide a locus for the Joban tensions of chaos and emergent order, and provide an interpretative narrative for the emergent directionality of evolution, and a theology that situates within a creation of freedom to explore the potential of the created order.
{"title":"Evolution as an Unwrapping of the Gift of Freedom","authors":"T. McLeish","doi":"10.12775/setf.2020.014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/setf.2020.014","url":null,"abstract":"Extending the approach to a ‘theology of science’ developed in Faith and Wisdom in Science (McLeish 2014), I expand its theme of the tension between chaos and emergent order, within the arc of the Biblical story of creation, towards a theology of evolutionary science. In addition to the material in Job , the book of Wisdom provides a remarkable account of transmutation of species, within a recapitulation of the Exodus theme, that I juxtapose with a modern genotype-phenotype theory of evolutionary dynamics, exploiting analogies with statistical mechanics. The dual and connected structures of microscopic and macroscopic provide a locus for the Joban tensions of chaos and emergent order, and provide an interpretative narrative for the emergent directionality of evolution, and a theology that situates within a creation of freedom to explore the potential of the created order.","PeriodicalId":41706,"journal":{"name":"Scientia et Fides","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88761358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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