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Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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=== Wolfgang Smith === [[Wolfgang Smith]], an American scientist versed in Catholic theology, devotes an entire book to the critique of Teilhard's doctrine, which he considers neither scientific (assertions without proofs), nor Catholic (personal innovations), nor metaphysical (the "Absolute Being" is not yet absolute),<ref>Wolfgang Smith, ''Teilhardism and the New Religion: A Thorough Analysis of the Teachings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin'', Tan Books & Pub, Gastonia/NC, USA, 1988 (republished as ''Theistic Evolution'', Angelico Press, New York, 2012, 270 pages).</ref> and of which the following elements can be noted (all the words in quotation marks are Teilhard's, quoted by Smith): ==== Evolution ==== Smith claims that for Teilhard, evolution is not only a scientific theory but an irrefutable truth "immune from any subsequent contradiction by experience";<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Phenomenon of Man'', Harper & Row, New York, 1965, p. 140 β quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 2.</ref> it constitutes the foundation of his doctrine.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 2.</ref> Matter becomes spirit and humanity moves towards a super-humanity thanks to complexification (physico-chemical, then biological, then human), socialization, scientific research and technological and cerebral development;<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 177, 201.</ref> the explosion of the first atomic bomb is one of its milestones,<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Phenomenon of Man'', ''Op. cit'', p. 149 β quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 243-244.</ref> while waiting for "the vitalization of matter by the creation of super-molecules, the remodeling of the human organism by means of hormones, control of heredity and sex by manipulation of [[genes]] and [[chromosomes]] [...]".<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Future of Mankind'', Harper & Row, New York, 1964, p. 149 β quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 243.</ref> ==== Matter and spirit ==== Teilhard maintains that the human spirit (which he identifies with the ''anima'' and not with the ''spiritus'') originates in a matter which becomes more and more complex until it produces life, then consciousness, then the consciousness of being conscious, holding that the immaterial can emerge from the material.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 42-43.</ref> At the same time, he supports the idea of the presence of embryos of consciousness from the very genesis of the universe: "We are logically forced to assume the existence [...] of some sort of psyche" infinitely diffuse in the smallest particle.<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Phenomenon of Man'', ''Op. cit'', pp. 301-302 β quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 49-50.</ref> ==== Theology ==== Smith believes that since Teilhard affirms that "God creates evolutively", he denies the [[Book of Genesis]],<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 13, 19.</ref> not only because it attests that God created man, but that he created him in his own image, thus perfect and complete, then that man fell, that is to say the opposite of an ascending evolution.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 137.</ref> That which is metaphysically and theologically "above" - symbolically speaking - becomes for Teilhard "ahead", yet to come;<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 69.</ref> even God, who is neither perfect nor timeless, evolves in symbiosis with the World,{{refn|group=note|"I see in the World a mysterious product of completion and fulfillment for the absolute Being himself." ''The Heart of Matter'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1979, p. 54 - quoted in Wolfgang Smith, ''Teilhardism and the New Religion'', Tan Books & Pub, Gastonia/NC, USA, 1988, p. 104.}} which Teilhard, a resolute [[pantheism|pantheist]],<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 110.</ref> venerates as the equal of the Divine.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 127.</ref> As for Christ, not only is he there to activate the wheels of progress and complete the evolutionary ascent, but he himself evolves.{{refn|group=note|"It is Christ, in all truth, who saves, but should we not immediately add that at the same time it is Christ who is saved by evolution?" ''The Heart of Matter'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1979, p. 92 - quoted in Wolfgang Smith, ''Teilhardism and the New Religion'', Tan Books & Pub, Gastonia/NC, USA, 1988, p. 117.}}.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 117, 127.</ref> ==== New religion ==== As he wrote to a cousin: "What dominates my interests increasingly is the effort to establish in me and define around me a new religion (call it a better Christianity, if you will)...",<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''Letters to LΓ©ontine Zanta'', Harper & Row, New York, 1965, p. 114 (letter of 26 January 1936) β quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 210.</ref> and elsewhere: "a Christianity re-incarnated for a second time in the spiritual energies of Matter".<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Heart of Matter'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1979, p. 96 β quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 22.</ref> The more Teilhard refines his theories, the more he emancipates himself from established Christian doctrine:<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 102.</ref> a "religion of the earth" must replace a "religion of heaven".<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''Science and Christ'', Collins, London, 1968, p. 120 β quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 208.</ref> By their common faith in Man, he writes, Christians, [[Marxism|Marxists]], [[Darwinism|Darwinists]], materialists of all kinds will ultimately join around the same summit: the Christic [[Omega Point]].<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 22, 188.</ref>
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