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A Theological Perspective on the Phenomenon of Life: Introduction Into the Bios, Psyche, and Zoe

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A Theological Perspective on the Phenomenon of Life: Introduction Into the Bios, Psyche, and Zoe ROCZNIKI TEOLOGICZNE TOM LXVII, zeszyt 2 – 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rt20672-7 ANNA PĘDRAK KAMIL DUSZEK A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE PHENOMENON OF LIFE: INTRODUCTION INTO THE BIOS, PSYCHE, AND ZOE A b s t r a c t . Life is such a beautiful and unique phenomenon. It cannot be described by a single definition, as it manifests itself in many different ways. Therefore, the phenomenon of life must be cap- tured as a whole and by including its essential planes. The authors of the paper did interdisciplinary research. Their task was an exploration of the issue of life on three planes: bios (life in its core manifes- tations), psyche (intelligent and conscious life), and zoe (life that transcends itself). The collected data gives an appropriate perspective for theological insight. This approach determines a methodology that is interdisciplinary and very theological in character. This in-depth perspective enables the whole phe- nomenon to be understood in its transcendental function. Life from its very inception emerges toward “something more.” The final goal of this transcendental dynamism is ever-living God. Key words: bios; psyche; zoe; religion and science; transcendentality; contemporary theology. 1. INTRODUCTION Is it possible to capture the essence of life? At present, many different branches of science dealing with the issue of life provide very interesting data. However, each of them captures this phenomenon in a narrow and precise field, so although their conclusions are pertinent, they are also limited. Despite the tremendous intel- Anna Pędrak, MA (can. licentiate) – doctoral student of dogmatic theology at the Faculty of Theology of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin; e-mail: [email protected]; ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9813-5277. Rev. Dr. Kamil E. Duszek, priest of the Siedlce diocese, teacher of dogmatic theology at the Higher Theological Seminary of the Siedlce diocese; e-mail: [email protected]; ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4176-5945. 110 ANNA PĘDRAK, KAMIL DUSZEK lectual effort put in by scientists, life seems to elude all attempts at encapsulation in words, terms, or systems. The voice of theology can be helpful in this situation. Jesus Christ said of Himself, “I am life.” This light of Christian belief could pro- vide useful insight into the results of scientific research. This article attempts to capture the phenomenon of life theologically. After all, a holistic outlook on life requires the inclusion of the research findings of other disciplines. This approach determines both the method and the structure of the work. Here, the phenomenon of life will be addressed on its three essential planes: bios – life in its core manifestations; psyche – intelligent and conscious life; zoe – life that transcends itself. Analysis of these three layers purposes to emphasize the transcendentality aspect of the whole phenomenon. The paper is by nature introductory. It does not attempt the construction of a sys- tematic model of life. The task is not a model of life, but rather a preliminary insight into the phenomenon. In some cases, initiated concepts will not be fully accom- plished due to the limited parameters of the article. The authors recognized this in advance because of a broader vision for further publications. Moreover, some issues have already been presented in other recent works, especially a theological interpretation of the bios as a vestigium Dei, and the psyche as an umbra Dei. 2. THE PHENOMENON OF LIFE: THE BIOS The Greek term βίος is probably understandable to everyone and could hard- ly be translated any other way than simply life. Since the 19th century, bios has universally been associated with life in the context of its evident and basic signs. Thanks to the paradigms of modern life science, one can now describe biolog- ical life in a far more precise way than was possible in the past. It can be said the bios is composed of five main aspects: separation and unity (e.g. thanks to cell membrane), metabolism and growth, reproduction, struggle (e.g. against entropy), evolution. This understanding of biological life is the object of study of many fields of science. It is not possible to analyze all of their achievements in detail. Further theological analysis will be limited to three planes selected to show the complex- ity of the problem in a cross-sectional way. Life and entropy In accordance with the second law of thermodynamics, every closed-loop sys- tem has a state function known as entropy. In brief, entropy can be described A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE PHENOMENON OF LIFE 111 as a measure of energy dissipation. When a cup of hot tea cools down, its energy dissipates, which means the entropy of the system is positive. A similar exam- ple is the cosmos — it too is subject to a process of entropy. The energy of the universe dissipates; the cosmos “cools off.” Confirmation of this is found in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which is the trace of times past when the universe was a much hotter place. According to physicists, were the universe immune to entropy, life could not exist. The so-called “arrow of time” would be non-existent, the future would be no different from the past, and evolutionary processes could not occur. Entropy, therefore, is a prerequisite for life. When analysing the bios, it is necessary to conclude that life is opposed to the global law of entropy. Living organisms are the least entropic entities we know of — locally, until death, their entropy is negative.1 We could even venture so far as to refer to the bios as an anti-entropic process. When a biolog- ical organism is insulated from the environment, it will quickly give way to the law of entropy — its energy will dissipate, and death will follow. The bios, however, interacts with the environment, thanks to which it draws external en- ergy to reduce its own entropy. Thus, a living organism struggles to concentrate energy and matter in itself. It fights to not “cool off” and to not “decay.” This struggle can rightly be associated with natural selection. Recently, even a voice has been heard that instead of natural selection we should speak of entropic selection.2 Natural selection can be regarded as a special case of a more general law of selection arising from entropy increase. Biological life and the entropy process itself appear to be tightly interlinked. Life exists thanks to entropy, and at the same time, life suffers due to entropy. Nonetheless, it reveals that certain struggle is included in the very essence of life. Abiotic origins of life Underlying abiogenesis is the idea of the evolutionary shaping of life from non-living matter. The term itself imports autogeny — spontaneous generation. The original concept of autogeny took a very primitive shape, but years later re- turned in a far more sophisticated form — abiogenesis theory. Alexander Oparin, the Russian scholar who in 1924 published the work Происхождение жизни — The Origin of Life, is recognized as the forerunner of the modern concept of abio- genesis. There he laid out the theory for the origin of life from carbon-based mol- 1 Michael E. Price, “Entropy and Selection: Life as an Adaptation for Universe Replication,” Hindawi Complexity (2017): 2. 2 Irun R. Cohen, “Updating Darwin: Information and entropy drive the evolution of life,” F1000Research (2016): 8. 112 ANNA PĘDRAK, KAMIL DUSZEK ecules, arguing for the superfluity of religious concepts of the world and creation of life by God. John Scott Haldane proffered a similar hypothesis in England. Both scientists asserted that life on Earth originated out of a long process of chemical evolution. In their subsequently published works, they introduced to protobiology the concept of the первичного бульона — primordial soup, a primitive ocean of organic compounds formed in an oxygen-free atmosphere, providing the space and the nourishment for the first living organisms.3 Here H. Urey and S. Miller’s experiment proved to be ground-breaking in establishing that amino-acids could synthesize out of simple carbon-based molecules in an oxygen-free atmosphere through the application of lightning. At present, hypotheses describing the process of abiogenesis abound in number. The most recent include Sedlak and Cairns- Smith’s hypothesis that proposes a mineral origin of life.4 The most important thing in all modern narratives describing the origins of bios is that the first living forms originate from inanimate matter. In oth- er words, the animate is initiated from the inanimate. Most importantly, from a theological point of view, is the following conclusion: that the cosmos from the very beginning possessed latent potency to achieve bios, and abiogenesis is the “awakening” of life. Life as an evolving gene The word gene is one of the most frequently used terms in science for life understood as bios. Originally, it was only a theoretical designation of a unit of heredity, allowing Darwin’s theory to be married to the discoveries of Mendel. Thanks to the analysis of DNA structure, a more lucid understanding came of where and in what way that genetic information is stored. The gene is the essence of life in the opinion of many recent thinkers. R. Dawkins, in his cele- brated The Selfish Gene, refers to the living organism as the gene machine and colony of genes.5 The phenomenon of bios exists, according to Dawkins, only so that genes can propagate themselves. They are akin to master programmers, controlling life through protein synthesis. They behave similarly to a coder, who by use of a special language creates software that enables the comput- er to perform independently the tasks set forth. According to that idea, the 3 Иванович Александр Опарин, Жизнь, её природа, происхождение и развитие (Москвa: Наука, 1968), 44–54.
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