What is life?
After reading many definitions from various authors, biologists, astro-biologists and philosophers, I come to the conclusion that life is a set of processes that occur in the interior of a cell. Until proven otherwise, the cell is the simplest unit of life. In itself, it is not simple since it is made up of complex parts, but each part of the cell is not life; life is all the processes that result from the interaction of the various components or parts of the cell.
If we consider the cell in context of its environment, life is the set of processes that develop inside an autonomous, self-contained and self-sustaining entity, separated from its environment by a membrane or wall. This barrier allows it, at the same time, to be free and independent, and to interact with this environment, with the ability to adapt to it and proliferate in it, from a bacterium, which is a single-celled organism, to the human body made up of trillions of cells.
The cell is life in its most microscopic presentation, since all living beings are made up of cells and those that reproduce sexually begin by being a single germ cell with the power to self-replicate. As it replicates, it diversifies to form the different organs and body parts of the animal. This entire process obeys a genetic code that is found in the interior of the cell which was formed when the half of a male cell – the spermatozoon - combined with the half of a female cell - the egg.
What are the processes that take place inside of the cell? Growth, metabolism, and reproduction – they are fundamentally the same that occur in a body made up of trillions of cells.
Growth – cell multiplication, starting from a fertilized egg or zygote, which immediately divides, self-replicating and at the same time, differentiating to form the different organs of an organism.
Metabolism – is a series of chemical reactions that occur inside of the cells, important for the production of specific substances, such as proteins.
Reproduction - is the process by which a cell originates a descendant. This reproduction can be sexual, with the fusion of gametes as it happens in most animals, or asexual, by fission as it happens in bacteria.
This being a general rule, not all life forms obey these processes. The mule, for example, is a living being that does not reproduce; also, the virus is a semi-living being because it cannot replicate on its own, it needs the reproductive machine of a cell to multiply.
Macro cosmic conditions of life
The Milky Way, the galaxy to which we belong, was formed about 13.6 billion years ago. Within it, our solar system formed about 4 billion years ago from a whirlwind of gas and dust, similar to the whirlwind of hurricanes. The center of this whirlwind became increasingly dense, until the sun formed. The remaining gas and dust formed the planets that make up our solar system.
Earth – Coinciding with our theme of tridimensionality of reality, our planet Earth is, in fact, the third planet in the solar system, that is, it is in the best position for the appearance and support of life forms - not too close to the sun like Venus, nor too far away like Mars, even though these planets have almost the same dimensions as Earth.
The Milky Way may well contain 100 billion solar systems like ours. According to observations made by the Hubble telescope which is in space, there could be between 100 billion to 200 billion galaxies in the universe.
It is providential that Earth is a telluric planet in the context of the solar system in which most planets are gaseous; it is providential the position of Earth in the set of the 4 telluric planets, the third spot between Venus and Mars, not too far from the sun like Mars, a planet that is too cold, and not too close to the sun like Venus, the hottest planet in the solar system.
It is also providential the size of our planet. Earth (6,371 km in diameter) is only slightly larger than Venus (6,052 km). Venus has an atmosphere of gaseous composition similar to that of Earth before the appearance of life; however, as it is too close to the sun, it does not have the conditions for life to develop.
If Earth was smaller, like Mercury (2,440 km) or like our moon, it would not have sufficient gravity to develop an atmosphere. If it was 4 times larger, like Neptune (24,622 km), it would be what this planet is like - a gaseous planet. On the other hand, even if it were only twice as big, life as we know it would still not be possible: the bodies of animals or plants with the same structure and mass would weigh twice as much and collapse.
Lastly, it is also providential the position of the entire solar system in relation to the center of our galaxy. The solar system is 27,000 light-years from the center of our galaxy. The Milky Way has more than 200 billion stars and a diameter of 100,000 light-years (or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 km). In our galaxy, there are habitable zone and uninhabitable zone. The habitable zone forms a ring around the center of the galaxy, with the inner circle being 13,000 light-years from the center and the outer circle being 32,600 light-years from the same center.
This is the zone where systems may appear that can contain planets favorable to harboring some form of life. Beyond 32,600 light-years from the center of the galaxy, the metallicity of stars is too low to allow the formation of telluric planets like Earth. On the other hand, less than 13,000 light-years from the center, exposure to highly energetic winds such as supernovas would be very hostile to life. Within our galaxy, we are therefore in a privileged position.
Information - Energy – Space/Time
All life forms consist of these three elements: information and energy that occupy a space for a time. All living systems process information. Without this information process, the living being is no longer alive. This information is contained in a molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid, or "DNA", which is the genetic code of life, that is, the essential information or database of a specific life form.
The DNA molecule is composed of two strands of polynucleotides that wind around each other. This spiral forms a double helix, like a twisted ladder with the pairs of bases forming the steps, and the sugar and phosphate molecules the two vertical sides of the ladder. The information for the construction of all the proteins that form our body is encoded in the DNA molecule. In other words, it is the DNA molecule that tells cells what proteins to make.
All the information about our bodily life form, from the color of our skin to the color of our eyes and hair, our stature and even the diseases that we may develop in time, is contained in the DNA; precisely because it contains such precious information, the DNA molecule "is locked up by seven keys", inside the nucleus of each cell of our body.
The formation of proteins is a very complex process. When a particular protein is required, in order to keep the DNA safe and secured, the instruction on the DNA molecule to make this protein is copied inside the nucleus onto another molecule called ribonucleic acid, or RNA. Unlike DNA which is composed of a double helix strand, the RNA is composed of a single strand that also spirals to form a helix and it can be found both inside the nucleus and in the cytoplasm of the cell.
For all this to work, an energy source is needed; in this case, this source of energy is the sun, because all forms of energy come ultimately from it. By the phenomenon of photosynthesis, cells transform solar energy into the chemical energy that will feed or cause all vital processes to take place.
We can now biologically define life as what distinguishes the plant or animal kingdoms from minerals and metals, what distinguishes the organic world from the inorganic world, the inert world from the animated world. A living being is an organism that self-contains and maintains some independence from the environment in which it lives. It maintains an internal equilibrium or homeostasis and is composed of one or more cells that have a metabolism consisted of life-maintaining chemical reactions; it has the ability to grow, adapt to its environment, respond to stimuli, reproduce and die.
I believe that life emerged spontaneously on Earth when the conditions were created to allow this to happen. God gave the kick off with the Big Bang and the rest appeared spontaneously, in a continuous succession of cause – effect – cause... and so on until human life came about.
However, everything took place according to God’s design, God knew beforehand the final result of the cause and effect sequence; that is, he knew it would lead to the emergence of a being, the human being, in his image and likeness. In fact, just like God, human beings also have the ability to create; the only difference is that God creates out of nothing, while humans mix elements already created to transform them into new substances.
We all know that living or organic matter is composed of inorganic elements, but the passage from inorganic to organic is still today the great mystery of biology. Many scientists have managed to recreate in laboratories the conditions of primitive Earth when life first began, placing in this environment the fundamental elements of life, but without any success in creating life. Life is God's creation, He is the sole proprietorship of this creation, and like the secret of Coca-Cola it is not revealed. Living beings, and we are living beings created by God, do not create life, we only transmit it.
Atom - Organic Molecule - Cell
At the subatomic and atomic level, matter is always inorganic; at the molecular level, on the other hand, it can be organic or inorganic; life begins when a set of organic materials act with each other and with the help of inorganic matter such as water and oxygen. As the atom is the brick of matter, so the cell is the brick of life. As there is plant life and animal life, cells are divided into plant cells and animal cells.
The combination of two or more atoms of different chemical elements forms a compound. The smallest unit that conserves the properties of a compound is a molecule, which can be simple, such as the water molecule (H20) and carbon dioxide (CO2), or large and complex (macromolecule), like a protein or nucleic acid molecule.
Chains of carbon atoms associated with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and small amounts of sulfur (S) and phosphorus (P) form most of the organic compounds found in living matter. Most of these compounds are classified under four groups: proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids, which constitute the raw material for the formation of the supramolecular structures found in cells, such as membranes and organelles.
Regardless, this organic matter still needs inorganic matter to add up to life. Therefore, in addition to organic substances, we find in the human body inorganic substances such as water (H20) and mineral salts. Animal cells are formed chemically of organic compounds and inorganic substances, in different proportions:
17.8% protein
6.2% carbohydrates
11.7% lipids
60.0% water
4.3% mineral salts
Proteins
Proteins are macromolecules, consisting of many smaller molecules called amino acids, which in turn are assembled from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms; still some also have small amounts of sulphur. Twenty different amino acids participate in the structure of proteins, twelve are synthesized by human cells and the remaining nine are obtained from protein-rich foods such as eggs, beans and meat.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are substances consisting of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. The main characteristic of carbohydrates is its energy action, that is, if the body needs energy then just make use of a diet rich in this compound. These foods are mostly of plant origin, such as cereals, roots, tubers, legumes and fruits.
Lipids
Lipids, also known as fats, are organic biomolecules composed mainly of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. Still other elements, such as phosphorus, are also part of the composition of lipids. Like carbohydrates, they provide energy to the cells, are an important part of the cell membranes and act as thermal insulators in some animals. There are two types of lipids: saturated, typically of animal origin, and unsaturated, predominantly of plant origin.
Nucleic acids
There are two types of nucleic acids: RNA (ribonucleic acid) and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), both formed by smaller base units called nucleotides. Chemically, these are composed of phosphoric acid, which imparts acidity to this element, sugars and nitrogenous bases. The storage and transmission of genetic information is the responsibility of nucleic acids, which are therefore the most important biomolecules, precisely because they contain the necessary information for cellular replication.
Recapping the path followed by life from the atom, the tiniest form of matter: subatomic particle – atom – molecule – macromolecule – organelle – cell – tissue –organ – organ system – organism or body.
The five kingdoms of life
It is universally accepted by all biologists that there are 5 types of living organisms on our planet. This number has to do with the history of Earth and the evolution of the ecosystems. It is not possible to think about life without making reference to the ecosystem that produces and sustains it. Life always thrives inside a symbiotic adaptation to the environment where it arises and proliferates. The five kingdoms of life exist independently of each other, but they are also phylogenetically linked. It would not be logical if they were not.
Plant life differs from animal life and the latter from human life, but the three life forms have common ancestors and a common history, which begins with the creation of organic matter from inorganic matter, from the union of organic molecules to form a cell, the smallest unit without which there is no life. All the components of a cell are organic matter, but are not life in themselves. Having reached at the cellular level, the types of life diverge because plant cells differ from animal cells.
Concerning their nature – Cells are either prokaryotes, simple primitive cells without membrane-bound nucleus or organelles, or eukaryotes, more complex cells with nucleus where the DNA or genetic code is found, and with organelles or miniature organs, since inside the cell they perform similar functions as the organs found in the body of an animal.
Concerning their food – Autotrophic cells are self-sufficient and autonomous since they produce their own food through chemosynthesis, fermentation or photosynthesis. Heterotrophic cells are dependent, they do not by themselves make the food needed to survive nor manufacture the energy that gives them life, and so they depend on other living organisms in the context of a food chain.
In general, plant cells are autotrophic because they contain an organelle called chloroplast that, by the chemical process called photosynthesis, manufactures food and oxygen by using water, carbon dioxide and solar energy. Animal cells, on the other hand, are heterotrophic because instead of chloroplasts, they have an organelle called mitochondrion that uses the food produced by plant cells, along with their oxygen, to produce the energy that keeps them alive.
Monera – Examples of the Monera kingdom are bacteria and cyanobacteria, prokaryotes, with cell membrane; they are unicellular, autotrophic or heterotrophic beings, living alone or in colonies.
Protista – Examples of this kingdom are protozoa and algae; they are the eukaryotes, single-celled or multicellular; they can be autotrophic or heterotrophic, so they can be producers of energy and food, as well as consumers and decomposers of matter.
Fungi – Examples of this kingdom are fungi, yeast, mushrooms, molds; they are eukaryotic cells, multicellular, mostly heterotrophic, so they are consumers or decomposers.
Plantae – All types of plants, are formed by more than one eukaryotic cell, and they carry out photosynthesis, that is, they are autotrophic, and therefore producers of their own food and respiration, as well as the food and respiration of animals. Without plants there would be no animals on this planet.
Animalia – Examples of this kingdom are all the animals; they are multicellular organisms; these cells are eukaryotes because they have nucleus and organelles, are very complex and are heterotrophic because they do not manufacture the food they eat nor the air they breathe. Animals live dependent on each other within a food chain based on plant life.
The three domains of life
In 1977, microbiologist Carl Woese discovered that within the Monera kingdom there were two completely different living beings, so he understood that living organisms should be divided not into five kingdoms, but into three domains: Archea – Bacteria – Eukaryota.
Archaea – They are autotrophic living organisms, single-celled and prokaryotes, live in extreme conditions in waters 7 to 10 times more salty than oceans, or in elevated temperature.
Bacteria – Bacteria and cyanobacteria are autotrophic organisms, single-celled prokaryotes, cyanobacteria carry out photosynthesis.
Eukaryota – Examples: protozoa - fungi - plants - animals. They are eukaryotes that can be unicellular or multicellular, autotrophic or heterotrophic, producers, consumers and decomposers.
Chemical origin of life
We know that the force of gravity was responsible for the adhesion of matter and space dust, and for the formation of planets and stars. There may have been an analogous force in biology that led different inorganic molecules to agglomerate to form organic molecules which in turn came together to form even more complex organic molecules, until they formed the very first coacervate and then the first Archaeon, the prokaryotic cell.
The current conditions of our planet are favorable for the proliferation of life in all its forms, but this was not so in the beginning. One of the reasons is the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere, at an approximate percentage of 21%, and of its derivative in the top layers of the atmosphere, the ozone, which does not allow the entry of ultraviolet rays. The presence of oxygen in the atmosphere would have oxidized simple organic compounds and prevented them from combining to form more complex molecules.
Three billion years ago, Earth was rich in CO2, methane, ammonia, but without oxygen. There was no ozone either, so Earth was continually bombarded with ultraviolet rays. This favored the formation of more complex molecules from simple organic compounds.
Stanley Miller, from the University of Chicago, carried out an experiment in the laboratory whereby he put in a glass balloon: methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapor. He then subjected the balloon to prolonged heating. A high-voltage electric spark to simulate lightning continuously cut through the environment where the gases were contained.
After some time, Miller proved the appearance of amino acid molecules inside the balloon. Shortly thereafter, in 1957, Sidney Fox submitted a mixture of dry amino acids to prolonged heating and demonstrated that they reacted with each other, forming peptide chains, with the appearance of small protein molecules.
From these molecules to a current plant cell is still a very long evolutional pathway; it cannot be said that what the scientists achieved in the laboratory is life. Scientists have gotten to as far as it is possible to get, since there are very important factors that explain the appearance of life that cannot be reproduced in laboratories nor could they ever be. One of them is the casualty and the various historical circumstances of ecosystems over the thousands and millions of years of our planet's history; and another is the time factor.
The steps from inorganic matter to organic matter, the association of different organic elements until they form more complex molecules and finally, the association of these until they form coacervates and archaea, is a process that took billions of years. This cannot be done nor ever will be done in a laboratory to obtain a strong proof of the chemical origin of life. However, everything indicates that this has happened.
Sequence of life
The most primitive living beings emerged in the depths of the ocean near hydrothermal vents and hot springs, and they were the autotrophic chemo synthesizer archaea that produced their vital energy using ferrous sulfide and hydrogen sulfide gas. Ferrous sulfide + hydrogen sulfide = ferric sulfide, hydrogen and energy.
Then appeared the heterotrophic living beings that lived in lakes and seas, still without oxygen for cellular respiration. They obtained their food and energy by fermentation, the best known of which is alcohol: sugar turned into ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing energy that fueled the growth of the first living beings.
Many microorganisms began to carry out fermentation, resulting in a considerable increase of carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere. When the primordial soup which carried out this fermentation process began to become scarce, life had to adapt to new circumstances.
And so the cyanobacteria emerged that took advantage of the abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere and began to carry out photosynthesis using this gas. As the result, oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere. When there was a considerable increase of oxygen in the atmosphere, life adapted again to take advantage of this oxygen and so cells with metabolism were born, that is, heterotrophic cells and animal life. Recapping the sequence of chemical processes that are at the origin of life: chemosynthesis – fermentation – photosynthesis – respiration or metabolism.
Evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes
The first living beings were very simple, consisting of a single cell with prokaryotic organization, that is, devoid of a nucleus envelope and membrane bound organelles in the cytoplasm. Scientists believe that today's beings most alike to the first living beings that inhabited our planet are the archaea, capable of surviving in extreme environments such as hot springs, highly salty lakes and swamps. These environments are believed to have certain similarities to those that existed on primitive Earth, where the first life forms developed.
The more complex cells (the eukaryotes) evolved about 2 billion years ago, probably as a result of the symbiotic association between prokaryotic cells. The presence in virtually all eukaryotic cells, including plants and animals, of mitochondria with their own DNA, different from the genetic code stored in the cell nucleus, gives strong support to the hypothesis of endosymbiosis where mitochondria are thought to have evolved from prokaryotes that got engulfed by other prokaryotes. Same thing applies to eukaryotic cells containing chloroplasts which also contain their own DNA different from the cellular nucleus DNA.
How did it happen? An archaeon encircled a bacterium with its tentacles and swallowed it. The swallowed bacteria did not die and started to work for the host archaeon, through evolution these ingested symbiotic prokaryotes became organelles. Thus, was born a eukaryotic cell from a prokaryote that ingested another prokaryote.
If an autotrophic archaeon ingests another autotroph, and the ingested one becomes a chloroplast inside the first, we have a plant cell by action of the organelle that performs photosynthesis.
If, on the other hand, a heterotrophic archaeon ingests another heterotroph, and the ingested one evolves into a mitochondrion inside the host archaeon, then we have an organelle that perform cellular respiration, that is, metabolism and so we have an animal cell.
Under this strategy, the cells resulting from the replication of a parent cell began to live together and divide the tasks of survival. Over time, organisms with cells increasingly specialized in the performance of specific functions emerged, which allowed the appearance of tissues and organs.
Plant life based on photosynthesis
Cyanobacteria are the first form of plant life that arose on our planet. Their life consists of a single chemical process: photosynthesis. Although cyanobacteria are prokaryotic cells, that is, without membrane bound organelles like chloroplasts, they do contain in their cytoplasm all the necessary components to carry out photosynthesis. By this process, therefore, cyanobacteria use sunlight to divide water into its two gaseous components, thus using hydrogen to produce food and releasing oxygen as a byproduct. In so doing, they began to prepare the planet for animal life. Plant life is for animal life as John the Baptist is for the Messiah: John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord, plant life prepared the path for animal life.
The archaea were the first life form on Earth, followed by cyanobacteria. The former are still found today in environments similar to that of Earth billions of years ago, like in the hydrothermal depths of the ocean. The current algae are eukaryotic cells, that is, with nucleus. These were formed 1.8 billion years ago, when the oxygen in the atmosphere already amounted to 1%. Life continued quite simply until 600 or 700 million years ago.
It is not known how the first terrestrial plants emerged, but it is believed that they were the work of a group of green algae called Chlorophyta, with a well diverse genotype and phenotype that allowed their survival in swampy areas subject to alternating periods of flooding and drought.
From the simplest form of plant, cyanobacteria, to the most complex form of aquatic or terrestrial plant, everything is a matter of time, evolution and adaptation to the environment. Plant life was born in the sea and invaded the land, animal life, as we shall see below, was also born in the sea and then invaded the Earth.
Animal life based on metabolism
Plants are autonomous and do not eat each other, because they make their own food and still are able to supply us with food and the oxygen we breathe. Plants are peaceful, they do not have a food chain, do not need to move to get to their food source, but they have some movement: just like the modern solar panels that accompany the sun by always placing themselves perpendicular to it, so all plants are like sunflowers, orienting their leaves towards the sun in order to best catch its rays.
Animals are violent, they survive first by eating plants and then by eating each other in a food chain that ends where it begins: the grass that is eaten by the gazelle that is eaten by the lion, the lion dies and is eaten by the hyena and vultures, these die and their bodies are eaten by countless worms that, on dying, fertilize the land where the grass grows again.
That is, with their death, animals fertilize the land where plants grow, giving back to them what they had received and thus resuming the cycle. They follow Lavoisier's Law that says that in nature, nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed.
The same happens at the cellular level: plant cells are free, independent, autonomous, depend only on themselves and nature to live, because they are a food and oxygen factory. On the other hand, animal cells are dependent, not autonomous, and consume food from plant cells and also their oxygen.
Human life based on metabolism and sublimation
Although with common ancestors, there are qualitative leaps between these three life forms. Plant life is based on photosynthesis and animal life on metabolism. What is human life based on? Physically, we hardly differ from animals closest to us in the evolution scale. Studies show that we share almost the same DNA as the chimpanzees (between 96% or 98%).
It is not possible to establish the difference between human life and animal life at the physical level, as it would be a quantitative and reduced difference. It is at a qualitative level that we have to establish the difference.
There is, in fact, a qualitative leap between animals and humans, as there is between plants and animals. This qualitative leap is a triple jump, formed by three characteristics that the human beings have that animals do not: self-awareness – independence of the environment – freedom of choice.
We will use the parable of the Prodigal Son which is probably the jewel of the world literature, being the smallest story in words and the greatest in content. This parable speaks of the dignity and identity of Man in confronting the identity and mercy of God.
The parable shows that self-awareness, independence in relation to nature and freedom of choice are not acquired data that cannot be lost. The myth of Tarzan proves that a human cub educated by animals may have a human appearance, but will basically be an animal.
Self-awareness
But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’” Do he set off and went to his father... Luke 15:17-20
Under the dominion of passions, the human being loses the notion of himself, as if he were intoxicated, he does not know what he is doing or what he is saying. The prodigal son was in fact under the dominion of wealth and pleasure that these provided him. It was only when he came to his senses that he realized the mistake he had made.
Deus interior intimo meo - God is closer to me than I am to myself. Therefore, when I am divorced from God, I am also divorced from myself, since God is closer to me than I am to myself. A divorce from God is a divorce from myself. Karl Marx said that Man is the moment when Nature gains awareness of itself. It is true that he said this in the context of his dialectical and historical materialism, to reduce everything to matter.
But after Einstein proved that energy is a form of matter and matter is a form of energy, we could say the same between the physical and the spiritual. The spirit has manifestations of matter just as matter has spiritual manifestations. One of the physical characteristics between Man and animal is the movement of the opposable thumb in relation to the other fingers. Self-awareness is the opposition or confrontation that Man makes against himself.
Independence from Nature
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. Luke 15:15-16
Animals have no power over themselves, they follow the dictates of nature and obey them uncritically. They have no freedom of choice because they are not free from nature, but live in symbiosis with it. At the time when human beings were animists, they understood that nature was as personal as themselves, that things had their own souls. This stage of human development has a parallel in the development of a child. Children talk to things and when they get hurt by one of them they call it bad.
To know means to dominate; as the human being got to know Nature and its laws, he began freeing himself from it and also stealing the souls of the things he could know and master. He ended up with a handful of realities that he could not master at all, so he called them gods. So there was a god for each unknowable reality, the tutor of these same realities. Venus, the goddess of love, Mars, the god of war, Cronos, the god of time, and so on....
The complete dominion of Nature occurred when the human being understood that there was only one God, the creator of Heaven and Earth, who ceded the administration of Nature to Man, who is also one of His creatures, but created in His own image and likeness. Just as God the Creator keeps a distance from creatures, so Man distances himself from them as well, as their tutor and administrator.
The prodigal son lost his independence from Nature with his sin, because he began to enter the service of one of the inhabitants of that land. For a Jew, the service in question could not have been more humiliating: a pig keeper, an unclean animal to a Jew.
Instead of loving God above all things and thus emancipating himself from them, staying free and independent of them, the human being often loves the creatures more than the Creator, and becomes dependent on substances and realities such as power, fame, riches. In this way, he loses his independence and freedom, like the prodigal son and the rich young man who was not free to follow the master who called him because wealth had already shackled him.
Freedom of choice
There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. Luke 15:11-12
From the physical point of view, we have everything in common with the animals that are closer to us in the evolution of species. What we have that they do not is the capacity to make sense of our lives, to have our lives in our hands and being able to do whatever we please with it... So, if physically we are subject to metabolism, spiritually we have the power to direct the energy we get from it towards a goal, that might not be a natural one, so sublimation is needed. For example, we can turn Eros energy into universal love, whereas animals can only live it instinctively in a sexual and reproductive way.
Man's freedom is the impotence of the divine omnipotence. It is perhaps the only thing God cannot do. Theoretically, God can disrespect Man's freedom, but he does not and never will. Somehow or in practice he cannot do it. The father of the prodigal son knew very well that his son was going to make mistakes and suffer the consequences, but he let him have the freedom of choice. The son would have to learn from his own mistakes, that is how human beings learn.
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. Deuteronomy 30:15-18
Are we truly free? Perhaps not, because there is no equally valid alternative; as the reading says, the alternative to life is death. In the same tone, Jesus did not say that he was one of the ways, truths and lives, but that he is the only way, truth, and life (John 14:6). Furthermore, he added: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Matthew 12:30)
Angels - Animals - Man – According to Jewish rabbinic theology, God created three types of creatures: angels, animals and humans. Angels, which he made from his pure word, have no will to do evil, they cannot deviate even for one moment from his purpose. Animals only have their instincts to guide them. So in this way, they also follow the order of their creator.
Then God took a small amount of earth and made a man and a woman. These are beings with the power to disobey, only they among all the creatures have the freedom of choice. We are suspended between the clarity of the angels and the desires of the beasts. God has given us a choice that is simultaneously a great privilege and a heavy burden.
Some say that angels had a period of trial; those who did not overcome it are the demons, the ones who have are the present angels. They say angels have freedom of choice, but they do not sin because they live in Heaven; if they lived on earth they could sin, others say. None of this makes sense: if they have freedom of choice, in theory they can sin, and if they can sin, there is no guarantee that they will not do so even in Heaven, since in Heaven were those who sinned and who are now demons.
According to Murphy's Law, if something can be done, then there will be someone in the course of history who will do it. If they cannot sin, then they have no freedom of choice, and if they do not have it, then they never had it. In this way it is concluded that the demon, or devil or Satan or whatever it is, does not exist, it is a myth to which biblical authors allude. Furthermore, the description or account of the fall or disobedience of angels is not found in the Bible.
Conclusion – The photosynthesis of plants transforms the sun's energy into food; the metabolism of animals transforms this food into vital energy; the sublimation of Man channels this energy for spiritual purposes.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
