Civilisation

In his art man seeks forms of perfection
Through order imposed by selection.
This creative expression
Leaves a telling impression
In man's civilisation's complexion.

The British art historian Kenneth Clark (1903–1973), was the author and presenter of the BBC landmark television series Civilisation. In the episode, The skin of our teeth he reflects, "It means that at certain epochs man has felt conscious of something about himself — body and spirit — which was outside the day-to-day struggle for existence and the night-to-night struggle with fear; and he has felt the need to develop these qualities of thought and feeling so that they might approach as nearly as possible to an ideal of perfection — reason, justice, physical beauty, all of them in equilibrium. He has managed to satisfy this need in various ways — through myths, through dance and song, through systems of philosophy and through the order that he has imposed on the visible world. The children of his imagination are also the expressions of an ideal."

Though Clark's series was focused on the the role of art in man's civilisation, this expression "children of imagination" may apply equally to how science has supported the ascent of man.

The Ascent of Man

Through the ages of man has grown thought,
The ascent has been hard and close fought.
First we fell then arose,
Climbing paths that we chose.
At this peak, this "New-Age" appears fraught.

The Ascent of Man (1973) was a landmark BBC documentary series, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski. The book and the series explored the cultural evolution of mankind, centered on science. It was depicted as an ascent through man's ages of understanding and thought.

In a sense it was Bronowski's challenge to the emerging "New-Age" thinking; Bronowski's view was that man be understood to have his proper place in the natural world. However threatened the individual may feel, he must "accept the subtle but closely woven evidence that man is not different in kind from other forms of life; that living matter is not different in kind from dead matter; and therefore that a man is an assembly of atoms that obeys natural laws of the same kind that a star does." Bronowski realized the profound impact of this statement, "the crisis of confidence that springs from each man's wish to be a mind and a person, in the face of the nagging fear that he is a mechanism . . . can man be both a machine and a self?"

Perhaps "New-Age" thought is a reaction from extreme skpetical claims that seek to deny mankind has any spiritual identity. For many this is a bleak outlook that conflicts with their experience and results in a retreat into pre-Christian (in some cases pre-Abrahamic traditions). What is needed is a reconciliation between science and religion, a Post New-Age Age.

Abiogenesis

Can you calculate odds, for a start,
DNA would by chance life impart?
It's a big leap to say,
That it's just nature's way —
Is this abiogenesis smart?

It's too much, it just beggars belief,
Such farfetched ideas cause grief.
To have faith is perverse
When there's evidence scarce.
There's not been time enough, to be brief.

Abiogenesis (A-bi-o-GEN-e-sis) is the supposed development of living organisms from nonliving matter (also called autogenesis or spontaneous generation). It is the consensus opinion amongst mainstream science that life first developed between 4.4 billion years (since isotopes of molecules required by biochemistry became stable) and 4 billion years ago (with the likely first microbial algaes).

What is being said is that within some 400 million years, the essential components necessary for evolution of species by DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) replication developed from scratch — the subsequent 4 billion years of evolution being footnotes in the "playing-out" of this mechanism (autopoiesis).

However, the hypothetical random-process based models, put forward to explain how the DNA's mechanisms might originate within this time frame, are based on assumptions that have limited credible supporting evidence at this time (April 2008). This does not mean that these hypotheses are thus proven untrue, just that significant further study is required to support their viability.

But to accept that they are likely to be true is merely an article of faith. That said it's important not to "leap from the frying pan into the fire", i.e., not all faith-based hypotheses are equally valid — rather we need to be humble as to what we do and do not know and continue searching for truth.

Autopoiesis

With God's infinite scope and potential,
Intervention is just nonessential.
Evolution's His law
That will form in us awe:
Autopoiesis — means providential.

Autopoiesis (au-to-POY-es-sis) means: auto-creation (from the Greek: auto - αυτό and poiesis - ποίησις for creation or production).For some theologians posing a God who would intervene in evolution creates more problems than it solves.

Two examples:

1. Why would God choose to design a world that requires his occasional maintenance actions to achieve his purpose when a more efficient design might be opted for?
2. If God chooses to give us free will to love and believe in Him, would he not ensure circumstances to be such that faith in His existence is not compelled by scientific evidence?

With this said, it still may be true that God has created the universe with autopoietic potentiality for all that's within it. He utilizes the evolutionary process as an efficient cause. This has an effect that inexorably leads to sentience; giving rise to quests for meaning. Thus, we arrive at a pre-destined free choice to have faith in a God of Love, or not.