Can Imago Dei be Present in Transhumans or a Future Species that Humans Evolve Into?

Yes, provided that the corresponding evolutionary enhancements do not remove our freedom nor our opportunities for relationship, the two components to the choice to partake in relationship with God (i.e., the collective universe) and His Creation (i.e., the constituents of the collective universe).

(Written for a theology class assignment. While I am not religious, the concept of imago Dei resonated with me as a concept that could be sensibly maintained and justified in both religious and non-religious belief frameworks, replacing the word "God" with "Universe" for the non-religious.)

To say that human persons are created imago Dei, in the image and likeness of God, is to say that we can choose to partake in a relationship with God and His Creation. The opportunity for relationship between us and God is seen in light of evolution and the actions of God Himself, and the opportunity for relationship between us, the rest of Creation, and ourselves is seen in light of the mysterious and loving nature of the human person. Sin contrasts with imago Dei in that it is the act of turning down the opportunity for relationship. Consequently, imago Dei can be present in transhumans, or some future species that Homo Sapiens Sapiens evolves into, only if the corresponding evolutionary enhancements do not remove our freedom nor our opportunities for relationship, the two components to the choice to partake in relationship with God and His Creation.

For God’s creatures to have the opportunity to choose to take part in a relationship with God, God must first create such self-conscious free spirits - that is, creatures which have their own “otherness, integrity, and proper autonomy” (Edwards 47). To do this, God uses evolution. By enabling the emergence of complex human cognitive structures in a logically consistent environment, evolution gifts humans with 1) the capacity to gain the knowledge required to understand the concept of choosing God, and 2) the ability to make that choice by their own volition (Krieg 6-7). Thus, evolution can be understood as a method to set up the opportunity for us to self-transcend and accept the relationship which God offers. Free spirits can emerge from life, just as life can emerge from matter - and these spirits can transcend from the created universe into God, as evidenced by the Christ-event (Edwards 43-44).

The actions of God Himself can be seen as self-bestowal, the fulfillment of God’s own relationship to us. God does not wait for humans to make their choice before He makes His own - rather, God shares Himself with humans in every aspect of the material world. By making the first move in a relationship with self-conscious creatures who may freely choose Him or not, God plays His hand and puts His own self at risk. And though God crafted his creatures’ home, he stands at the doorstep, remains there through rain and shine, and gently knocks and waits for His creatures to greet Him.

Endless opportunities for relationship between us, the rest of Creation, and ourselves are made possible through the mystery and love which reside within everything and everyone (Edwards 67). Mystery creates opportunities for relationships on the grounds of knowledge, love creates opportunities for relationships on the grounds of caring action, and both mystery and love reinforce each other: the more we know about someone, the better we can care for them; and the more we care for someone, the more we learn about them. We can never run out of opportunities to partake in relationships with the rest of Creation because there are always more things that we can learn about someone or do to care for someone. There are even countless opportunities for relationships with ourselves, which we can partake in by tapping into our own mystery and love within us. This is precisely what God intends us to do by searching, discovering, and accepting ourselves (Krieg 1).

Sin contrasts with imago Dei in that it is the act of turning down the opportunity for relationship. Since love must allow the possibility of one party or the other walking away from a relationship (Krieg 30-31), God’s gift to us of the capacity to freely choose Him is accompanied by a capacity to turn away from Him. Love, the choice to devote ourselves to God, depends upon freedom and thus cannot exist without sin, the choice to devote ourselves to not to God but to other things in this finite reality (Krieg 22). At one extreme, radical heteronomy allows other people to determine our personal identity, which God alone should determine. At the other extreme, complete autonomy leads us to try to invent our personal identity without considering God’s intention. Only the middle path, theonomy, allows us to bring the numerous forces in our lives into harmony by acknowledging and collaborating with God’s Will (Krieg 24-25). The reason that neither radical heteronomy nor complete autonomy nor any other form of sin can bring our life forces into sync is that they assign to people or other finite things, rather than to God, the divine power to determine what is good and evil (Krieg 27).

Because imago Dei is grounded in the opportunity for relationship with God and His Creation, the degree to which imago Dei is present in transhumans, or some future species that Homo Sapiens Sapiens evolves into, depends on whether the corresponding evolutionary enhancements create opportunities for relationships by making us more interconnected and free, or remove opportunities for relationships by making us more isolated and forced. For example, if transhumans live in interconnected virtual reality worlds where the capacity of virtual reality software characters’ ability to love and engage in relationships is at least on par with that of biological humans, then imago Dei would be extended - but if they live in isolated virtual reality worlds where the capacity of virtual reality software characters’ ability to love and engage in relationships is more limited than that of biological humans, imago Dei would be lessened. Ultimately, though, even if our degree of imago Dei is lessened by unfortunate evolutionary enhancements, it will still be present until it is completely gone. For imago Dei to disappear completely, the choice to partake in relationship with God and His Creation would need to cease to exist. As long as we still have some degree of freedom and opportunity for relationship, imago Dei is still present.

When we say that we are created in the image and likeness of God, imago Dei, we mean that we have a choice to take part in a relationship with God and His Creation. By gifting us with the capacity to understand the concept of choosing God and the ability to make that choice by our own volition, evolution sets up the opportunity for us to accept the relationship which God offers and transcend into Him. But God Himself, through His actions of self-bestowal, fulfills His own relationship to us without waiting to know whether we choose Him or not. The mystery and love which reside within everything and everyone provide endless opportunities for relationship between us, the rest of Creation, and ourselves. Since imago Dei is grounded in the opportunity for relationship with God and His Creation, imago Dei can be present in transhumans, or some future species that Homo Sapiens Sapiens evolves into, only if the corresponding evolutionary enhancements do not remove our freedom nor our opportunities for relationship, the two components of love.