Human Dignity and Bioethics

The Mystery of the Human Soul | 73
openness—implying that “re-running the cosmic movie” would produce
intelligent, rational beings in an intelligible universe but not
necessarily the human species as we know it. Nevertheless, a universe
evolving toward a hierarchy of being with rational beings at the top
is a necessary and inevitable development of nature’s self-organizing
complexity. It even leads to the prediction “that life and consciousness
should be widespread in the universe, and not restricted to Earth.”
Indeed, Davies argues in Are We Alone? that intelligent life should exist
in other realms of the universe and its discovery would vindicate
“the dignity of man” as a rational creature. 19 It would refute the false
model of an indifferent universe driven by blind mechanical causes
by showing how favorable the universe really is to intelligent beings.
The Bible and Christian Faith: Man as a Rational
Creature Made in the Image of God
While the classical theory of human dignity is more plausible than materialism
or dualism, it is not entirely satisfying either. It accords with
common sense in viewing humans as rational animals that are higher
than plants and other animals, but it rests on theoretical premises that
are speculative (such as the causal relation of the mind to the brain
and self-organizing complexity). One could reply that reason cannot
do any better than use elements of classical philosophy and modern
science to give a plausible account of man’s dignity as an embodied rational
soul at the top of a natural hierarchy. Yet reason could do better
if it acknowledged that most of these things are genuine mysteries—
questions that will never be fully answered by reason or science, such
as how and why the universe began (creation), why reason is such an
integral feature of the universe (rational order), how the mind or rational
soul can be united to a physical body (the unity of soul and body),
whether the soul can be separated from the body after death (the immortality
of the soul), and what ultimate purpose reason is meant to
serve (the final end). When such mysteries are acknowledged, reason’s
limits are exposed; and the mind may be opened to faith in revealed
truths, such as those of the Bible and Christian faith.
The principal claim of the Bible and Christian faith is that the
universe was created by a miracle of an all-powerful God whose will