>
>John-Erik Hansen wrote:
>....
>> While the body of the Universal Christ of St. Paul may well encompass
>> both us and other human, God-knowing species, one is nevertheless left
>> with a rather open ended question: if our species is not the one to
>> experience the end of time, what then is the point Omega like?
>
>
>I have also contemplated these questions. Will our descendents one day be
>so unlike us (through evolution and/or technology) that God will establish
>some sort of new revelation/covenent with them? Does God intend for us to
>take part in the creation of some new sort of intelligence? What
>implications does Christ's redemptive intervention into _our_ history have
>for this potential future? These are very interesting questions.
If we accept that redemption also includes those people that lived before
Christ, e.g. the various nations described in the Old Testament, or people
who have not heard of Christ (stone-age tribes deep in the jungle) or even
your garden-variety high-tech new-age agnostic, then I do not see any
difficulty in accepting that 'Christ's redemptive intervention' includes
previous or future species without new revelation being necessary.
In a sense all of creation may be said to be redeemed, perfected,
made whole by Christ (cf. Theilhard de Chardin). If this is not taken solely
to go for Christ in a mystical sense but also in a factual, material sense
(and his miraculous abilities might indicate this) then Christ would also
show what perfect man is like. Biological existence under the present
conditions and limitations might therefore find no better design than the
perfection attained with Jesus Christ.
>In one sense, it is not our concern, it is God's concern. In another
>sense, though, it could very much be our concern; our actions today affect
>the future course of our descendents, and that just _might_ have
>implications beyond homo sapiens sapiens.
The advent of rational, God-knowing individuals took the matter somewhat out
of God's hands. Natural evolution can no longer be said to run solely
according to principles laid down at the initial moment of creation. The
very first specifically human interference with natural processes - say for
ethical or esthetical reasons, or for any of a million reasons not directly
linked to survival - conferred some degree of responsability for our future
to us. The selection mechanisms ruling human reproductive fitness today are
greatly transformed compared to those governing other species. This
transformation is largely a result of cultural developments and is
implemented through a variety of institutions: schools, trade relations,
industry, health service etc.
So even without considering the presently emerging genetic
technologies we are already - whether knowingly or not - shaping man, and if
the time scale is large enough possibly also his successor. What form this
shape will take is a matter one can influence, and presumably the shape will
be different if a christian understanding of the purpose is applied compared
to an ateistic understanding of the role and purpose of man.
John-Erik Stig Hansen, MD, DMSc
Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, Hvidovre Hospital, Denmark
E-mail: infejesh@inet.uni-c.dk Homepage: http://inet.uni-c.dk/~infejesh