This contribution takes up a fundamental text on a “Theological Ethics of Life” published by the “Pontifical Academy for Life” in 2022. The inter- and transdisciplinarity called for in this text is taken up from a methodological perspective and further developed with reference to the phenomenon of chirality. This phenomenon of chirality has been increasingly researched in chemistry, physics, and biology for some time, both in terms of its fundamentals and its application. This opens up new perspectives for understanding not only the beginning of life, but also creation theology, or “creatio continua”.
"Theological Ethics of Life" and the Phenomenon of Chirality
1. Introduction
"It is with great pleasure and joy that I introduce this volume presenting the Proceedings of the Workshop promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), to which an international group of theologians and experts from other humanities was invited. The intent behind it is to render a service to the PAV and to the Church by discussing topics that are very much felt in the ecclesial community, concerning even controversial aspects of the theological ethics of life ..."[1] - With these words, the former president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, begins the presentation of a conference proceedings published in June 2022 entitled "Etica Teologica della Vita. Scrittura, tradizione, sfide pratiche".[2] It documents the dialogues on central themes of a theological ethics of life, as presented in a "basic text" ("Testo Base") by a working group of the academy. This "Testo Base" was also published as a separate document in 2024.[3]
The first presentation in the form of a study seminar certainly reflects the desire for a paradigm shift. Archbishop Paglia characterizes this as follows:
"Theologically, in fact, the BT ["basic text"] introduces a paradigm shift that is both descriptive and conceptual, as it follows a pattern that is both argumentative and narrative, theoretical and sapiential, phenomenological and interpretative. This allows it to be both receptive and critical of the different fields of human knowledge, offering a welcoming register not only for philosophy and its methods, but also for the humanities and the natural sciences. By opting for a specific methodological choice, we do not pretend to canonize one system or theoretical model, as if it were the only one and the ultimate one (cf. VS [Veritatis Splendor] 29), but rather we commit ourselves to honor the task arising from the event of God's Revelation in human history. Therefore, while being aware of the 'relativity' of any theoretical model before the truth of God's Revelation in the individual story of Jesus, the text carries out a radical change, moving, as it were, from the sphere to the polyhedron. Accepting Pope Francis' invitation contained in Veritatis Gaudium, we have attempted to make 'a radical paradigm shift' (VG 3)."[4]
This is an expression of the fact that a theological ethic of life must always be linked to the experience of living reality in all its dimensionality. Only such an experience-based methodology can correspond to what "life" represents in its ever greater diversity and concreteness.
This becomes clear when we start not from "life" as a general concept, but from the verbal form "to live." When we speak of "living" in the sense of "I live," "we live," we associate it with phenomena such as breathing, having strength, laughing, loving, being there for others, creative abundance, but also neediness, crying, suffering (from oneself, with others, for others), being vulnerable, having to assert oneself, and much more. Those who say "I live" embrace all the differences and divisions created by humans, however unavoidable they may be. They object to the progressive division into increasingly one-sided forms of life and think of everything that constitutes "life" in its entirety and dynamism. At the same time, they are thinking of the fundamental fact that life in its original form can only exist as a "given" and can never exist absolutely and independently of everything else. Its mystery lies essentially in being "from something," being "in exchange with something else," being "towards something," and only being able to preserve its specific form in space and time in the unity of these elements. In this outline approach, this already applies to plant and animal life, but it applies of a different kind even more and in a much greater way to human life. In the writings of the Bible, this mystery of life is fundamentally reinterpreted in terms of the mystery of the Creator God and his free, gracious self-communication in Jesus Christ. "To be from something" then means anthropologically: to be created by God (cf. Gen 2:7). "To have life," "to be alive" is, biblically speaking, the most fundamental appreciation in which human beings participate through God.
Therefore, the "Testo Base" also begins with a biblical-theological phenomenology of what "life" means in concrete terms in the history of salvation. Life is a gift from God; all life begins with the creative word of God, through which he calls all encountering reality into being. As realistic as the Bible's view of the polarities that determine earthly existence on this earth may be, life is nevertheless never considered a purely profane quantity. It comes from God, who is the source of life (cf. Ps 36:10) and who develops and sustains life in the continuity of his creative action. Viewed in this way, human beings are and remain creatures in their calling, i.e., in their responsibility as the image of God (cf. Gen 1:27) – part of a reality of which it is said: "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31). This sentence forms the origin of the theological discourse on the "goodness of creation" or, as we say today, on "creaturely dignity." With its biblical-theological phenomenology, the "Testo Base" expresses that the true responsibility of human beings can only be properly perceived and exercised if it is understood from the basis of all life, from God.[5] Only this makes it possible to extend the ethics of life to the perspective of globality in the "common home"[6] and the pressing issues of the present era. The structure and organization of the "Testo Base" reflect this unambiguously:
Cap. 1: La gioia della vita. Eredità e progetto
Cap. 2: La Sacra Scrittura e la vita
Cap. 3: Interpretare il tempo presente
Cap. 4: „Non uccidere“: Ermeneutica storico-teologica e magisteriale
Cap. 5: Etica teologica: Coscienza, norma e discernimento
Cap. 6: Le grandi domande antropologiche, etiche e teologiche: Casa comune e prospettiva globale
Cap. 7: Le grandi domande antropologiche, etiche e teologiche: Nascere, amare e generare
Cap. 8: Le grandi domande antropologiche, etiche e teologiche: Il soffrire e la vita „Messa alla prova“
Cap. 9: Le grandi domande antropologiche, etiche e teologiche: Età della vita e gioia della vita offerta
Cap. 10: Le grandi domande antropologiche, etiche e teologiche: La morte, il compimento dell‘esistenza e la cura del morente
Cap. 11: Sfide etiche e temi emergenti nell‘epoca contemporanea
Cap. 12: Escatologia e drammatica della vita
If one attempts to characterize the present project of a theological ethics of life from a systematic point of view, one could say that the "relationality" of created reality has a special status in the sense that "relation" here is not merely one category among others, but rather a "transcendental" relationality that encompasses the fundamental determinations of being of the unum, verum, bonum et pulchrum in horizontal and vertical dimensionality. In doing so, the "Testo Base" does not make the mistake of playing this transcendental relationality off against "substance" and "nature," i.e., against the "fact" of the createdness of reality. Rather, it attempts to tap into the richer content of living reality by consistently referring to the experience of human beings and their world. From an epistemological point of view, the basic text does not follow the scholastic path of cognition by abstraction leading to metaphysical "separatio," but remains "experience-based" at every point. It would be a mistake to conclude from this that the text is "anti-metaphysical." For the authors of the text, there is no question that reality, as it is encountered in concrete terms, represents more than a purely "physical" entity; rather, it carries within itself a "metaphysical" content of reality. In this respect, it is by no means in contradiction with the more recent conceptions of an "existential" Thomism, i.e., Thomism related to "intensive esse," as impressively developed by Cornelio Fabro, for example.[7] The "Testo Base," on the other hand, would rather argue that the true – metaphysical – content of the reality we encounter must first be approached "from within," so to speak, that is, from a comprehensive experience of human beings and their world, in order to continue on the path of metaphysics as defined by Thomas Aquinas – based on experience, but not separately from it. This would ultimately amount to a redefinition of the relationship between ethics and metaphysics, but that is not the focus of these considerations. As the title of the "Testo Base" suggests, the focus is on theological ethics, but on an ethics that understands itself as Christian-theological ethics, whose gaze is directed toward the concrete in its universality, whose foundation is none other than Jesus Christ himself, the incarnate "WORD" of God, the concretissimum universale in the sense of Hans Urs von Balthasar.
The talk of a "paradigm shift" that seeks to overcome the diastasis between faith and life suggests that one is well aware of the novelty and, at the same time, the risk of this theological undertaking. Nevertheless, it is by no means an arbitrary undertaking; rather, it is understood as a mission that clearly emerges from the teaching of Pope Francis. The first chapter on "Eredità e progetto" deals with the methodology of a theological ethics of life, whose starting point is the "primacy of life experience and the life of faith" (Testo Base 5, ital: "il primato dell'esperienza della vita e della vita credente"). Following Pope Francis' Apostolic Constitution "Veritatis Gaudium," which is about the renewal of theological studies, four basic criteria are presented:
“II primo criterio, che assumiamo consapevolmente, è che gli studi ecclesiastici e dunque tutta la teologia divengano un'introduzione e perfino una contemplazione che, in modo spirituale, intellettuale ed esistenziale, sappia andare al «cuore del kerigma, e cioè della sempre nuova e affascinante lieta notizia del Vangelo di Gesù» (VG 4a). Tale annuncio, che «affonda le sue radici nella Trinità» (EG [Evangelii Gaudium[8] ] 111), «sempre più e sempre meglio» (EG 165) si fa carne nella storia della Chiesa e dell'umanità, divenendo lievito di fraternità universale. Ritorna qui l'idea del nesso indissociabile tra fede e morale, teologia e pastorale, evangelo e storia.” (Testo Base 7)
“Il secondo criterio, secondo Francesco, è il dialogo, con l'incontro che sta alla sua origine. Non si tratta di un «mero atteggiamento tattico» e nemmeno di un'astuzia strumentale, ma di una «esigenza intrinseca per fare esperienza comunitaria della gioia della Verità e per approfondirne il significato e le implicazioni pratiche» (VG 4b).” (Testo Base 8)
“Il terzo criterio, decisivo sotto il profilo teorico, consiste nell inter- e trans-disciplinarità, che devono essere «esercitate con sapienza e creatività nella luce della Rivelazione» (VG 4c). La relazione tra i saperi ci sembra un'attenzione particolarmente opportuna nelle questioni che riguardano la cura della vita, della salute e dell'ambiente. …
Questa inter- e trans-disciplinarità è cosa ben diversa non solo dalla frammentazione o dal «pluralismo incerto, conflittuale o relativistico, delle convinzioni e delle opinioni culturali», ma anche da una «forma "debole" di semplice multidisciplinarità» (VG 4c), nella quale i punti di vista vengano solo giustapposti. ln senso forte, la inter- e trans-disciplinarità permette di «collocare» e «fermentare» «tutti i saperi entro lo spazio di Luce e di Vita offerto dalla Sapienza che promana dalla Rivelazione di Dio» (ibidem).” (Testo Base 9)
“Collegato al precedente, il quarto criterio ha un grande rilievo per le istituzioni accademiche ecclesiastiche e anche per la morale della vita. Esso consiste nella «necessità urgente di «fare rete» (VG 4d), anzitutto tra diverse istituzioni ed elaborazioni teologiche, ma anche tra «diverse tradizioni culturali e religiose» (ibidem) e «differenti competenze scientifiche» (VG 5), con specifico riguardo al «campo delle scienze e delle tecnologie» (ibidem), e alla fine coinvolge tutta l'umanità. La cattolicità esige che la Chiesa intera viva e incrementi «la polarità tensionale tra il particolare e l'universale, tra l'uno e il multiplo, tra il semplice e il complesso. Annichilire queste tensioni va contro la vita dello Spirito» (VG 4d). (Testo Base 10)
Spirituality, dialogue, inter- and transdisciplinarity as well as networking are therefore the regulative guiding principles of a theological ethics of life. It is clear that this places high demands on an adequate hermeneutics that proceeds from the inseparable unity of truth and self-reference, which is at the core of the experience of conscience and which understands how to convey the objective principles of morality in today's living environments and situations with the help of the necessary discernment (cf. Testo Base Cap 4 and 5). From a methodological point of view, the text focuses on efforts to develop a hermeneutics that is adequate for the theological ethics of life.
However, the horizon is even broader, because a theological ethics of life would be incomplete if it did not attempt to take into account the entirety of creation, i.e., everything that is referred to as the "universe" or "cosmos." This is also addressed directly in some passages. For example, the introduction states:
“La gioia della vita si manifesta nella storia umana in molti modi e scaturisce dal dono della vita stessa. Essa è un sentimento che nasce dalla gratuità delle relazioni personali, ma anche da una «distanza contemplativa» e da un'attenzione profonda nei confronti delle cose e dell'universo. …
Nella sua storia concreta l'umanità riconosce con sorpresa che la gioia di vivere è un fremito diffuso in tutto l'universo.” (Testo Base 1 und 2)
Such a cosmic perspective naturally requires not only a sophisticated hermeneutics, but also a no less sophisticated ontology. In the context of today's scientific culture, such an ontology can be achieved through a "strong" form of inter- and transdisciplinarity; a "weak" form of simple multidisciplinarity is no longer sufficient (cf. Base Text 9 with reference to Veritatis Gaudium 4c). There still seems to be a clear need for research in this area, because given the diversity and differences between the individual scientific languages alone, a quick solution is not to be expected, so that the basic text sometimes leaves it at a reference to working together inter- and transdisciplinarily in close cooperation between scientific competencies and institutions, as has long been practiced in cooperation with the medical sciences.
Therefore, the following remarks are merely intended as a contribution to examining the universal or cosmic perspective of an ethics of life from a methodological point of view, i.e., in the sense of the third criterion of "inter- and transdisciplinarity." If the phenomenon of "chirality" is chosen as a guide for discovery, this initially means a strong restriction to one aspect among many other possible perspectives. On the other hand, it is not a random or even arbitrary perspective, but one that has increasingly emerged as a fundamental question in the natural sciences in recent years. As a distinctly cross-cutting topic, it has become an inspiring source of new questions and research approaches. This also opens up new perspectives for a theological ethics of life. For, as the Spanish chemist and chirality researcher Pedro Cintas once put it: "Life and chirality have become invariably interlocked."[9]
2. Chirality – the hidden dimension of the universe
Chirality is one of those phenomena that, on the one hand, is immediately apparent to everyone in simple observation, but on the other hand appears to be nothing short of a mystery due to the universal nature of chirality, which permeates all areas of reality from the subatomic level to the galactic spheres of the cosmos and without which life could not exist. Derived from the ancient Greek word "cheir," meaning “hand”, the term refers to a specific relationship, namely the relationship between objects that behave like an image and its mirror image, but cannot be superimposed on each other. The basic paradigm for this special relationality is the hands. It is perhaps easier to imagine this with a pair of gloves. In principle, what applies to gloves also applies to chiral objects: the left glove does not fit on the right hand and vice versa. As much as the pair of gloves is naturally aligned with each other, it consists of two counterparts: ideally, these have the same dimensions and correspond in detail, e.g., with regard to the five fingers or the anatomical structure of the human hand, but they cannot be aligned with each other. When superimposed, it becomes apparent that they are aligned to the left and right, respectively. When viewed in a mirror image, the right and left hands appear to be reversed, and the paradox is that in the dimensionality of the natural world, they cannot be made to coincide by any geometric operation of translation and rotation. With gloves, it is entirely possible to turn them inside out and thus make them coincide, but with hands, this is obviously impossible.
Despite these obvious facts, it took a relatively long time to recognize the universal significance of this phenomenon of chirality. The first person to grasp and reflect on these connections was none other than the philosopher Immanuel Kant. He first elaborated on this in his 1768 essay "On the First Ground of the Distinction of Regions in Space," which is still widely discussed today. His reflections are the starting point for a new aesthetic, i.e., a new theory of space and time as original forms of perception, and a new theory of judgment that gives the moment of the "synthetic" a different systematic significance than is the case, for example, in Leibniz's philosophy. Kant discovers that many natural and artistic objects also bear the characteristic of chirality; he writes:
"It is even the case that a very notable characteristic of natural organisms, which at times may even give occasion for the distinction of species, consists in the definite direction in which the arrangement of their parts is turned, a feature through which two creatures can be distinguished although they entirely agree both in size and proportion, and even in the position of their parts relative to one another. The hairs on the crown of every man's head are turned from left to right. The hop plant always twines round its pole from left to right; beans, however, take the opposite course. Almost all snails, with the exception of only three species, have their spiral turning from left to right, that is, if we proceed from above downwards, from the apex to the mouth. ...
What, therefore, we desire to show is that the complete ground of determination of the shape of a body rests not merely upon the position of its parts relative to one another, but further on a relation to the universal space which geometers postulate—a relation, however, which is such that it cannot itself be immediately perceived. What we do perceive are those differences between bodies which depend exclusively upon the ground which this relation affords. If two figures drawn upon a plane are equal and similar, they can be superimposed. But with physical extension and also with lines and surfaces that do not lie in one plane, the case is often quite different. They can be perfectly equal and similar, yet so different in themselves that the boundaries of the one cannot be at the same time the boundaries of the other. A screw that winds around its axis from left to right will not go into a threaded cylinder whose worm goes from right to left, although the thickness of the stem and the number of turns in an equal length correspond. Two spherical triangles can be perfectly equal and similar, and yet not allow superposition. But the most common and clearest example is to be found in the limbs of the human body, which are symmetrically disposed about its vertical plane. The right hand is similar and equal to the left, and if we look at one of them alone by itself, at the proportions and positions of its parts relative to one another and at the magnitude of the whole, a complete description of it must also hold for the other in every respect.[10]
All of these things are so-called "incongruent counterparts," which means they are not congruent; today, we also refer to them as "enantiomers." This characteristic of lacking congruence in the sense of congruence also underlies the standard definition of chirality, as presented in 1893 by none other than the well-known natural scientist Lord Kelvin:
"I call any geometrical figure, or group of points, chiral, and say that it has chirality, if its image in a plane mirror, ideally realized, cannot be brought to coincide with itself. Two equal and similar right hands are homochirally similar. Equal and similar right and left hands are heterochirally similar or 'allochirally' similar (but heterochirally is better). These are also called 'enantiomorphs,' after a usage introduced, I believe, by German writers. Any chiral object and its image in a plane mirror are heterochirally similar."[11]
The difference in symmetry referred to here can also be illustrated by the comparison between a sphere and a polyhedron, which Pope Francis likes to use—an image that symbolizes the tension between the individual and the whole that must be overcome anew each time, and which is also taken up in the "Testo Base" (cf. Testo Base 10). "Evangelii Gaudium" states the following on this subject:
"The whole is greater than the part, but it is also greater than the sum of its parts. There is no need, then, to be overly obsessed with limited and particular- -questions. We constantly have to broaden our horizons and see the greater good which will benefit us all. But this has to be done without evasion or uprooting. We need to sink our roots deeper into the fertile soil and history of our native place, which is a gift of God. We can work on a small scale, in our own neighborhood, but with a larger perspective. Nor do people who wholeheartedly enter into the life of a community need to lose their individualism or hide their identity; instead, they receive new impulses for personal growth. The global need not stifle, nor the particular prove barren." (EG 235)
“Here our model is not the sphere, which is no greater than its parts, where every point is equidistant from the center, and there are no differences between them. Instead, it is the polyhedron, which reflects the convergence of all its parts, each of which preserves its distinctiveness. Pastoral and political activity alike seek to gather in this polyhedron the best of each. There is a place for the poor and their culture, their aspirations and their potential. Even people who can be considered dubious on account of their errors have something to offer which must not be overlooked. It is the convergence of peoples who, within the universal order, maintain their own individuality; it is the sum total of persons within a society which pursues the common good, which truly has a place for everyone.” (EG 236)
Mathematically speaking, the sphere is completely mirror-symmetrical; it cannot contain any "incongruent counterparts." In a chiral polyhedron, which is therefore not a Platonic solid, the incongruence stands for the "distinctiveness" of the parts, which cannot be superimposed "re-flexively" by congruence. Seen in this light, the image of the polyhedron – viewed from the perspective of chirality – could provide important impetus for the desired further development of theology and ethics.
This is all the more true when it becomes apparent that the "relationality" addressed by the phenomenon of chirality is not simply based on the mere relationship between objects, but that the reason for this is of a genuine, i.e., "inner" or "intrinsic" nature. This is precisely what has been demonstrated first by discoveries in the field of organic chemistry, which have gradually opened our eyes to the cosmic or universal dimensionality of the phenomenon of chirality.
In terms of molecular chirality, the beginnings of this path of discovery can be traced back to the first half of the 19th century; the discovery and development of the concept of chirality have been described and documented extensively in recent years, to which we can only refer here.[12] The development of modern crystallography provided decisive impetus for the discovery of chiral structures, in particular through research into the effect of light refraction in chiral quartz crystals.[13] In these early days, the term "dissymmetry" was coined by to describe the peculiarity of bodies that occur as so-called enantiomers, i.e., incongruent counterparts; since Lord Kelvin's definition, the term dissymmetry has been replaced by that of chirality.
However, the decisive experiment, which has become symbolic of the emergence of molecular chemistry, in particular stereochemistry, which deals with molecular spatial structures and their dynamics, was carried out by the French scientist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895). At the suggestion of his teacher J. B. Biot, he began studying tartaric acid crystals at an early age. These are salts that are collected during wine fermentation. Under the microscope, he discovered that these salts occur in two crystal forms, one pointing to the left and one pointing to the right. He succeeded in separating these two forms from each other with tweezers. He then liquefied both forms separately and tested these liquids with polarized light. In doing so, he found that one liquid deflected the light to the left, while the other deflected it to the right at the same angle. The two substances are therefore optically active in opposite forms; the mixture of the two, on the other hand, is optically inactive. From this experiment, Pasteur concluded that the different light rotation must be due to the spatial arrangement of the tartaric acid molecule, which therefore exists in two forms, a left-turning and a right-turning form. This experiment from 1848, which demonstrates chirality as a fundamental natural property at the molecular level, is considered one of the great moments in the history of chemistry. Pasteur deepened these findings by determining dissymmetric molecular models, which, for example, have the shape of an irregular tetrahedron or a helical structure. Further experiments, for example on fermentation processes, led him to make a strict distinction between inorganic and organic chemistry. In a lecture to the Paris Chemical Society in 1883, he summarized the results of his research on molecular dissymmetry and clarified the conclusions regarding the nature of the forces at work here. The decisive factor for him was the insight that molecular dissymmetries, which are constitutive for the entire organic realm, cannot be produced by purely synthetic means. He wrote:
„Messieurs, une particularité singulière concerne la dissymétrie moléculaire. On trouve la dissymétrie établie dans un très grand nombre de principes immédiats des animaux et des végétaux, notamment dans les principes immédiats essentiels à la vie. Tous les produits, pour ainsi dire, de l'œuf et de la graine sont dissymétriques.
Il existe, sans doute, chez les animaux et les végétaux des principes immédiats, tels que l’urée et l'acide oxalique, qui ne sont pas dissymétriques ; mais ce sont des produits de seconde main, en quelque sorte, comparables à nos produits des laboratoires chez lesquels la dissymétrie est absente.
En d’autres termes, lorsque le rayon de lumière solaire vient à frapper une feuille verte et que le carbone de l'acide carbonique, l’hydrogène de l’eau, l'azote de l’'ammoniaque et l'oxygène de cet acide carbonique et de cette eau forment des composés chimiques et que la plante grandit, ce sont des corps dissymétriques qui prennent naissance. Vous, au contraire, tout habiles chimistes que vous êtes, quand vous unissez par mille manières diverses ces mêmes éléments, vous faites toujours des produits dépourvus de dissymétrie moléculaire. Il n’existe pas, à ma connaissance, un seul produit de synthèse chimique, né sous l'influence des causes qu’on peut considérer comme propres à la vie végétale, qui ne soit dissymétrique, qui n’ait, en d’autres termes, la forme générale d’une hélice, d’un escalier tournant, d’un tétraèdre irrégulier, d’une main, d’un œil...“[14]
In short, life in all its forms cannot be artificially produced; in the laboratory of inorganic chemistry, only "symmetrical" forces are available: " Vous, dans vos laboratoires, avec vos dissolvants, vos actions de froid et de chaleur, vous n’avez à votre service que des forces symétriques."[15] Of course, this does not preclude the use of "asymmetric forces" in the laboratory to produce new syntheses. Even though he considers his own earlier attempts in this direction to have been "crude," he does not regard them as fruitless; nevertheless, he is careful not to conclude that the boundary between inorganic and organic chemistry has been abolished.[16]
Rather, the conviction that life as such cannot be created in its genetic and evolutionary dynamics is one of the fundamental beliefs he has held from the outset. Already in his "Observations sur les forces dissymétriques" from 1874, he comes to the conclusion that these asymmetric influences must be universal in nature:
"Je pense, quant à moi, qu'elles sont d'ordre cosmique. L'univers est un ensemble dissymétrique, et je suis persuadé que la vie, telle qu'elle se manifeste à nous, est fonction de la dissymétrie de l'univers ou des conséquences qu'elle entraîne."[17]
In his lecture in 1883, he formulated this idea even more clearly:
„On peut exprimer les faits qui concernent la dissymétrie moléculaire de la manière suivante : quand les principes immédiats essentiels à la vie prennent naissance, c'est sous l'influence de forces dissymétriques et c’est pourquoi la vie fait des substances dissymétriques. Quand le chimiste dans son laboratoire combine des éléments ou des produits nés de ces éléments, il ne met en jeu que des forces non dissymétriques. Voila pourquoi toutes les synthèses qu'il détermine n'ont jamais la dissymétrie.
Me demanderez-vous : quelles sont donc les forces dissymétriques qui président à l’élaboration des principes immédiats naturels? Il me serait difficile de répondre avec précision; mais la dissymétrie, je la vois partout dans l’univers. L'univers est dissymétrique. ...
Sans nul doute, je le répète, si les principes immédiats de la vie sont dissymétriques, c’est que, à leur élaboration, président des forces cosmiques dissymétriques; c’est là, suivant moi, un des liens entre la vie à la surface de la terre et le cosmos, c’est-à-dire l’ensemble des forces répandues dans l’univers.“[18]
Further research into the phenomenon of chirality in chemistry, physics, and biology has proven Pasteur right in principle. At a symposium of Nobel laureates in 2021 on the topic of "Chiral Matter," the renowned physicist and Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek spoke of chirality as a "scientific leitmotif." It is not a matter of drawing immediate conclusions or inferences from the universality of chirality as a natural principle, but rather the tension between symmetry and symmetry breaking that has become an inspiring source of discovery:
"Aspiring to symmetry in underlying laws, while ascribing manifest symmetry breaking to hidden structure, has been a rich source of discovery throughout the history of science."[19]
Most of the efforts of chemists working in the field of chirality today are devoted to the enantioselective synthesis of chiral compounds and their industrial applications. Other important questions in chemistry concern the analysis of the structure and composition of complex chiral compounds, e.g., using crystallographic or spectroscopic techniques.[20] However, molecular chirality is not only important for such classic "chemical" questions, but also for the fundamentals of physics, especially for the underlying symmetries of physical laws.
This concerns in particular the invariance of the mechanical laws of molecular motion under the operation of space inversion, which leads from a left-chiral to a right-chiral coordinate system or vice versa.[21] It used to be assumed that the laws of nature were the same at all times, in all places, and in all directions of the universe. Symmetries determine the reality of the physical world. In general, a physical system is symmetrical if the characteristics of the system remain the same under certain transformations, such as rotations or reflections. These symmetries of space and time, as well as the corresponding conservation laws, form the foundation of classical physics. This includes the idea that all interactions are exactly the same in a mirrored situation, i.e., that a mechanical device in a mirror image replica functions exactly like the original. By simply observing a physical process as such, it would therefore be impossible in principle to decide whether to view it directly or in a mirror-image spatial inversion—a congruence mapping in which straight lines, lengths, and angles are preserved. Since the 1950s, however, it has been known that this does not apply to the so-called weak interaction, i.e., the parity given by spatial mirroring conditions does not apply here.
This would be less interesting for the chemistry of compounds with stable nuclei. However, since the late 1960s, electromagnetic interaction has been combined with weak interaction to form what is known as electroweak interaction in today's Standard Model of elementary particles. Based on this Standard Model, it is assumed that the parity violation caused by electroweak interactions also extends to chiral molecules, so that their enantiomers, i.e., counterparts, differ by a very small but real energy difference.
In his book "On Chirality and the Universal Asymmetry. Reflections on Image and Mirror Image," Georges H. Wagnière has described the development of this question in its overall context very clearly. Like Pasteur, he starts from the thesis:
"That the world is asymmetric is a trivial observation. ... This asymmetry being a fundamental property of the universe, there is, however, a basic question which, to this day, has not been satisfactorily answered. According to most laws of physics, any asymmetric object or any asymmetrically moving system could, in principle, exist with equal probability as the corresponding mirror object or mirror system. The laws of gravitation, of electromagnetism, and the strong interactions, governing the structure of atomic nuclei, predict that image and mirror image should have exactly the same energy, and consequently show the same probability of occurring. So then, why would we be living in the world as it is, and not in the mirror world coexist and be both simultaneously perceptible?
Not until the second half of the 20th century was it discovered that the fourth kind of forces observable in the universe, the so-called weak interactions, do indeed distinguish between image and mirror image. But from the point of view of our everyday perception of reality, these weak forces are somewhat esoteric. They govern processes between elementary particles, such as b-decay or the emission of neutrinos, and they act on distances that are almost infinitesimally small. Is the macroscopic asymmetry of the world we live in really the – more or less direct or indirect – consequence of these weak interactions? If yes, how do these interactions, which are operative on such a small scale, then get amplified, so as to shape the whole world we live in, form submicroscopic domains to the dimensions of galaxies?
Man's scientific endeavor aims at a better understanding of his own nature and of the universe he inhabits. One cannot study the one without considering the other. To obtain answers, one must ask questions. Aiming at new answers, one must ask questions deriving from previous answers. We here do not have the ambiti to give any new answers, but merely to ask questions based on recently established scientific knowledge."[22]
According to the current state of research, it is therefore almost more a matter of developing a question that can be used to find and formulate new answers about the nature of man and the universe. The highly complex molecules that make up living organisms, such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and sugars, are all chiral. One of the most remarkable facts in biology is that biomolecular chirality, whether in a virus, a simple bacterium, or a human brain cell, is the same everywhere. In other words, nature not only distinguishes between right and left, but also makes a kind of selection decision as the basis of all life. For example, the sugars produced and consumed by living organisms (such as lactose) are all right-handed (which is why the helical "staircase" of DNA always turns to the right), while the amino acids that make up proteins are left-handed, with one exception.[23]
This remarkable selectivity is referred to as "biological homochirality," and the question arises: Is "biological homochirality" the direct consequence of universal and thus fundamental laws, or is it a coincidence, i.e., dependent on local conditions?[24]
The fact of biological homochirality and its origin is one of the greatest mysteries in chemistry, physics, and biology. There are now a number of explanatory approaches, but—as the latest review articles show[25] —this mystery remains unsolved to this day. The difficulty lies in the fact that an answer to the question of the genesis of biological homochirality is inextricably linked to an answer to the question: What is life?
Like most researchers, Wagnerière focuses on what is known as "prebiotic evolution," i.e., the elementary processes that led to the formation of DNA and RNA.[26] He comes to the following conclusion:
"As we have previously noted ... , the fundamental cause for the inequivalence of image and mirror image in the universe is the violation of parity induced by the weak forces. In molecules, this manifests itself by the weak neutral currents between electrons and nucleons, with the consequence that molecular enantiomers should have slightly different energies. The basic question for us here is to what extent such small energy differences might directly influence the dynamic and chemical properties of chiral molecules. Will the kinetic behavior of one antipode vary measurably in comparison with the other? It is indeed conceivable that this asymmetry may lead to an enantiomeric excess of one antipode with respect to the other. Initially, the excess might be very small, but by autocatalytic kinetic amplification ..., one chiral species could ultimately dominate over the enantiomer. In trying to understand the origin of biological homochirality ..., namely the practically exclusive occurrence of L-amino acids and of D-(deoxy-)ribonucleotides, the direct influence of the weak forces is the primary cause to be considered.”[27]
The "energy difference due to parity violation (PVED)" may thus represent a primary, universal influence, but direct experimental proof is unlikely to be found. This is because the evolutionary influences that led to the enantiomeric excess underlying the formation of biological homochirality span a period of millions of years. Laboratory conditions, however, extend over a period of days, weeks, or at best a few years. Due to this fact, direct evidence of the universal or cosmic influence on the emergence of biological homochirality and thus of life as we know it in terrestrial conditions is not to be expected:
"It is, of course, far from obvious whether experiments that can be performed in the laboratory within a period of days, weeks, months, or even a few years are at all capable of providing conclusive evidence of the long-range direct influence of weak forces. One must bear in mind that, no matter what mechanism of selection between enantiomers ends up by being locally dominant, the weak forces are always operative, and it is indeed difficult to assess unequivocally their cumulative effect over the prebiotic time span of several hundred million years or more, and within complex spatio-temporal networks of billions of reaction steps."[28]
What we do know, however, is that there are numerous different secondary sources for the enantiomeric excess, as opposed to the presumed universal influence:
“We know that the manifestations of chirality in the universe, representing local or universal parity-breaking phenomena, are numerous and varied. They range from the structure and dynamics of galaxies, from the evolution of stars and of planets, down to the microstructure of the celestial bodies of differing sizes and compositions. They extend from cosmic dimensions down to those of subatomic entities. All the manifestations of chirality which originally are derivable from parity-violating forces may, in turn, become secondary sources of chirality, and so on, down a hierarchy that increasingly reflects particular, local conditions ...
Returning to the question of prebiotic evolution and the origin of biochemical homochirality of definite handedness on Earth, we notice that there are several possible secondary sources of chirality. One of these sources may be radioactive decay or other origins of polarized elementary particles.”[29]
Therefore, with regard to research into the phenomenon of chirality, a fixation on the question of biological homochirality and its genesis has proven to be somewhat one-sided, even though it remains a dominant issue. However, the perspective has also broadened significantly in recent years.
One example of this is the development of so-called supramolecular chemistry, which deals with the specific assembly processes of molecules into larger complexes, in which chirality again plays a fundamental role.[30] This is emphasized by chemist Roberto Purello from the University of Catania in a book co-edited with Alessandro d'Urso, "Fundamentals of Supramolecular Chirality," when he states in his introduction:
"Chirality, defined as 'the property of an object of not being superimposable with its mirror image', is widespread in the universe where it is expressed at different levels: from subatomic to galactic. In (bio)chemistry, chirality has two relevant levels: the molecular and the supramolecular ones. Both these levels have specific meanings, and biological systems are naturally organized in such a way that they may recognize and interact differently with molecules that are identical in all physico-chemical properties except those deriving from their (chiral) three-dimensional shape.
Involved on Earth since the origin of life and fully exploited along the path of evolution, chirality has a plethora of roles in biological systems, from discrimination to regulation. The molecular bricks of life — amino acids and nucleotides — are chiral, as are their polymeric forms. However — and very interestingly — the different molecularity of the chiral species means quite different roles in nature. The differences between these two levels are exemplified and actualized in nature, where (bio)chemical chirality finds a very effective representation of its functional and sophisticated relevance.”[31]
Despite all the differentiation that can be observed in today's research on the phenomena of chirality in chemistry, physics, and biology, there remains a lively awareness that chirality is a "hidden dimension" of the universe, i.e., an original spatial structure, as described by Louis Pasteur from a scientific perspective and by Immanuel Kant from a philosophical perspective against the backdrop of the debate between Newton and Leibniz about the "absolute" or "relative" nature of space. It is therefore certainly no coincidence that the Royal Newton International Fellowship published a special issue on the occasion of its 15th anniversary in 2024, which also addresses the topic of chirality in a separate article.[32] The two authors, Aras Kartouzian and Robert P. Cameron, speak of the "power of chirality" in the sense that it represents a key to a better understanding of the world in scientific research. Using several examples from materials research, the animal world, and astrobiology, they aim to encourage readers to tap into the hidden potential of chirality. This may seem like a detour or "extra mile" at first, but the effort is more than offset by the innovative dynamics of chirality research. Therefore, the authors conclude:
“In conclusion, in our opinion, chirality presents a dimension of the scientific world that, although not always exploited, still exerts extraordinary influence across a diverse array of disciplines. The examples presented above merely scratch the surface of its effect. As we continue to unlock the hidden potential of chirality, it is evident that it will assume an increasingly pivotal role in propelling scientific exploration and innovation. Embracing the power of chirality is not solely a scientific imperative but also a testament to our insatiable curiosity and resolve to unravel the mysteries of our universe."[33]
The Royal Society has long been setting a good example in this regard in its Philosophical Transactions. This is demonstrated by a special issue published in 2016 by this renowned British academy of sciences, founded in 1660, which bears the remarkable title "Provocative Questions of Left-Right Asymmetry."[34] Because this special issue deals with questions of developmental biology, the articles published there are also of immediate relevance to a theological ethics of life. The following remarks reflect some central theses and attempt to briefly explain the relevance of this question for the "Testo Base."
3. Provocative questions from developmental biology
In their introduction, the US editorial team from the fields of developmental biology, cell biology, and genetics emphasize that research into chirality and its significance from the earliest stages of life and development is one of the most exciting fields of research in modern biology.[35] The various articles in the special issue reveal a previously unimagined diversity of individual asymmetry factors and mechanisms, including so-called "ancient" chiral elements, i.e., those that evolved early in evolutionary biology, which could represent a far more universal basis for the development of asymmetry than previously assumed. A few examples from the field of embryonic development may suffice here; these are findings that have been gained from animal embryos and their development.
This suggests a fundamental change in theory: the previously widespread view of early embryonic development was that the cells in the embryo were initially undifferentiated and that structure formation after the first cell divisions – triggered by external factors – gradually became active in waves. This model of morphogenesis, developed in 1952 by the renowned mathematician Alan M. Turing,[36] is no longer tenable in light of the fundamental importance of chirality from the single-cell stage onwards:
"A common view of development suggests that cells in the embryo are initially undifferentiated and that a morphogen gradient is generated to specify gene regulatory networks on cells located at different locations in the embryo. This model was adapted by Wolpert to explain general development, including L/R axis determination, and has constituted the major paradigm for guiding developmental biology research conducted for decades. The variety of data described in this issue reveals that asymmetry mechanisms are far broader. In fact, in a 2009 interview, Wolpert discarded the morphogen model by stating: 'diffusible gradients are out'. In our view, the mechanisms of L/R axis remain open, with two emerging (and non-mutually exclusive) alternatives to the morphogen model: both place the element of initial L/R asymmetry inside the cell, as opposed to extracellular fluid flow, and notably at a much earlier time point (early cleavage)."[37]
Apparently, there is a critical balance between "symmetrical" and "chiral" patterns from the outset. If there were only symmetries that were not broken and enlivened by chiral structures, the cell order would sink into "sterility and monotony"; conversely, if chirality were not slowed down by symmetries, uncontrolled and chaotic development would be set in motion.[38] The question is therefore what triggers the so-called symmetry breaking[39] from the first appearance of the living being, so that embryos can reliably and consistently develop the orientation directions of left/right, front/back, top/bottom, and how the connection between the chirality of individual cells gives rise to the body structure that in humans also leads to the formation of the right and left hand.
The special feature of the new paradigm, which is the subject of a research overview in this entire issue, is that the formation of the left/right axis differs from the genesis of the front/back axis and top/bottom axis and exhibits a complexity of its own.[40] In principle, this would reinforce the thesis of the left/right coordinate system of the original space, as proposed by Martin Quack, Georg Seyfang, and Gunther Wichmann.[41] This impression is suggested when Michael Levin, Amar J. S. Klar, and Ann F. Ramsdell state in their summary of the individual research results:
"As the first laterality genes were discovered only about 20 years ago, the field of L/R asymmetry is in a vibrant state of advancement, with emerging insights into deep unresolved questions about the cell biology and evolutionary history of chirality, propelled by identification of a steady stream of molecular-level work performed in a range of model systems. In higher organisms, the establishment of body shape requires precise development and coordination of anterior–posterior (A/P), dorsal–ventral (D/V) and L/R body axes during embryogenesis. D/V and A/P axes are specified by external forces that operate on the oocyte, such as the point of sperm entry, maternal animal–vegetal gradients and the effect of gravity. Of the three body axes, the most open questions concern the mechanisms of specifying and patterning the L/R axis.[42]
The individual mechanisms that lead to the formation of "laterality" are, of course, controversially discussed within developmental biology. The editors of the special issue present two models that are so complex in themselves that it is not possible to describe them in detail, but which are not necessarily mutually exclusive: on the one hand, the model of selective chromatid segregation, which operates at the level of the DNA strand,[43] and, on the other hand, a model of symmetry breaking based on the role of the cytoskeleton.[44]
Overall, this extremely complex interaction process involving symmetrical and asymmetrical factors is naturally exposed to the risk of erroneous developments, meaning that several parallel "repair pathways" are available by nature. The left/right transcription cascade, which is highly "conserved" in evolutionary terms, has the ability to repair itself: "early treatments that efficiently randomize early asymmetric genes such as the left-sided nodal often give rise to a smaller percentage of embryos with abnormal sidedness of downstream genes such as Lefty or Pitx2, and an even smaller percentage of animals with abnormal organ laterality. This reveals that although molecular functional data in specific assays identify genes necessary and sufficient for induction of the downstream genes (e.g., the Nodal- → Lefty- → Pitx2 cascade), the story in vivo is more complex, owing to the presence of parallel repair pathways that can apparently detect and reverse molecular abnormalities, so that subsequent steps have normal laterality."[45] In relation to the human embryo, "in vivo" would be understood as "in the maternal organism." As recent studies show, this means that chirality, which is constitutive for the origin and development of life, is in a sense "vulnerable" at the cellular and multicellular level, and that the high complexity of control and protection of the left/right transcription cascade must be kept in mind.[46]
This insight into the field of "left/right asymmetry," i.e., chirality, in the field of developmental biology already contains, as the editors of the note, "a number of basic puzzles"[47], which can be broken down into a series of fundamental research questions:
" - How do embryos orient the L/R axis reliably with respect to the other two axes and the midplane?
- When does this occur – how early do embryos first tell their L from their R?
- How is this information propagated to cell fields, resulting in regions with L and R identity?
- What is the relationship between chirality (seen in snails, behavior of cells in culture) and directional asymmetry (e.g., vertebrate body plan)?
- How is the lateralization of other aspects of the body – behavioral, immunological, parietal hair whorls' clockwise versus anti-clockwise orientation, etc. – related to pathways that set organ positioning?
- How conserved are the answers to the above questions for organisms across phyla, and what are the evolutionary relationships between the different ways these problems are solved across the tree of life?
- After finding the biological basis of human congenital laterality disorders, how can that knowledge be used for biomedical applications?[48]
It is therefore entirely appropriate to refer to these as "provocative questions in left-right asymmetry." Based on the current state of research, the editors derive at least two general findings.
The first finding concerns the phenomenon of "cell chirality." All of the articles emphasize that "cell chirality," i.e., chirality at the single-cell stage, exists and that chirality must be understood as an "intrinsic," i.e., internal property: "Chirality appears to be an intrinsic property of all cells, and is readily demonstrable with experimental- -micropatterning systems."[49] It is irreducible and cannot be attributed to other factors.
The second finding concerns the fundamental characteristic of biological asymmetry: "the continuous, tight integration of physical and genetic mechanisms"[50]. The editors have already emphasized: "L/R patterning is thus not only an example of multiscale integration, but also of the continuous interplay of physics and genetics, aspects that are ubiquitous in living systems and yet still poorly understood."[51] The connection between physics and genetics would conceptually correspond to that between physics and chemistry. Here, too, "physics" would presuppose precisely that peculiar spatial structure which not only involves "reflection symmetry" but also fundamentally and originally exhibits a chirally structured coordinate system.
It is entirely correct that these "provocative questions of left/right asymmetry" prepare fertile ground for research by future generations of scientists,[52] In this respect, future continuations of a theological ethics of life will also have no choice but to adopt the perspective of biochirality. However, it will not be enough to answer these questions on the basis of individual research in developmental biology or physical chemistry; it will also be necessary to consider and reflect more closely on the meta-scientific basis of everything connected with the phenomenon of chirality. A major problem here will be how to understand and characterize the "continuum" that must necessarily exist for this "interplay" between physics and genetics or between physics and chemistry.
Finally, we will reflect on the consequences that could arise from the "provocative questions in left–right asymmetry" with regard to a possibly expanded or deepened understanding of creation. The starting point remains scientific insights; the anthropological, philosophical, and theological questions that necessarily arise against the background of the phenomenon of chirality must be reserved for a separate treatise.
4. Reflections on the understanding of creation
Throughout the discussion on the significance of chirality in chemistry, physics, and biology, it has become clear since Pasteur's discoveries that chirality is an intrinsic property of the universe. Even the "provocative questions" from developmental biology consistently reflect the conviction that cell chirality is an intrinsic property. Chemist and chirality researcher Laurence D. Barron emphasizes that homochirality is a phenomenon "which is expected to be a key biosignature in astrobiology"[53], and is therefore of cosmic significance. In the context of classical philosophy, the term "biosignature" would mean that "matter" can only exist in reality as "signed matter," as "materia signata"; from this perspective, "chiral matter" would even be the most prominent case of "materia signata." Nevertheless, today's scientific findings on the fundamental facts of symmetry and symmetry breaking pose enormous philosophical challenges with regard to the associated questions of space, time, and continuity.
The comprehensive review article by philosophers Katherine Brading and Elena Castellani and philosopher Nicholas Teh on "Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy quickly makes this clear.[54] For them, too, it is clear: "According to an ontological viewpoint, symmetries are seen as a substantial part of the physical world: the symmetries of theories represent properties existing in nature, or characterize the structure of the physical world." If symmetry and symmetry breaking are viewed as space-time phenomena, an "external" perspective is not sufficient; rather, these phenomena are understood as "internal spaces" if one takes a realistic point of view. Of course, it is not even clear what a realist would commit to in such a view of the intrinsicity of "spaces," including chirally structured "spaces." This is also related to the fact that the phenomenon of chirality—understood primarily as a "biosignature"—cannot easily be classified in the classic controversies about "absolute" vs. "relative" space, or in today's language, "substantivalistic" vs. "relationalistic" concepts of space.[55] It is rather a "transcendental relation" whose intrinsic character could almost better be interpreted in the sense of "living structures" – after all, we are dealing with fundamental questions of evolution in general and the origin of life. However complex today's discussions undoubtedly are, it remains astonishing that the phenomenon of chirality, in its universality and significance as a "key biosignature in astrobiology," has so far received little attention in theology, especially in theological ethics - as far as we know - it has not yet been taken up and considered at all, even though it has enormous bioethical and creation-theological significance in terms of its foundations and application.
From a creation theology perspective in particular, the question arises as to whether, in view of the phenomena of symmetry and symmetry breaking – especially when considered in the interplay highlighted by the "Provocative questions in left–right asymmetry" – the doctrine of "creatio continua" needs to be continued or even reconsidered. After all, Pope Francis made a concrete call for this in 2025. In his message to the "Participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life "The End of the World? Crises, Responsibilities, Hopes" (March 3-5, 2025, Conference Center of the Augustinianum), he says:
“Listening to the sciences continually offers us new knowledge. Consider what we are told about the structure of matter and the evolution of living beings: there emerges a far more dynamic view of nature compared to what was thought in Newton’s time. Our way of understanding ‘continuous creation’ must be re-elaborated, in the knowledge that it will not be technology that saves us (cf. Encyclical Letter Laudato si’, 101): endorsing utilitarian deregulation and global neoliberalism means imposing the law of the strongest as the only rule; and it is a law that dehumanizes.”[56]
This fits very well with the fact of chirality as a "hidden universal dimension," as an expression of "forces dissymétriques," "qu'elles sont d'ordre cosmique" (Pasteur), which elude utilitarian as well as neoliberal-technicist access and control. And indeed, since Newton's time, the view of nature has developed into a far more dynamic perspective.
Theological debates on modern theories of evolution were, of course, strongly influenced by opposition to Darwinian and neo-Darwinian theories, by the rejection of theories of evolution that consider the spirit to be a mere epiphenomenon of matter and therefore cannot adequately justify the personal dignity of human beings, and indeed of every single human being from the very beginning. Pope John Paul II took up this issue in more detail in a 1996 address to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and developed it further.
He makes a clearer distinction between the multitude of individual discoveries and research results in different fields of knowledge on the one hand, and "meta-scientific" elaboration in the form of theories on the other. With regard to the latter, one must assume that there is a plurality of evolutionary theories, such as materialistic-reductionist or spiritualistic interpretations of evolutionary theory. The underlying metatheoretical-epistemological assumptions cannot be proven by these theories themselves; their justification is subject to a judgment that belongs to the competence of philosophy and, beyond that, theology, because the problem of evolution is inextricably linked to the question of the image of man.[57]
At this point, John Paul II, following the basic statement of the encyclical "Humani generis" on the immediate creation of the spiritual soul by God and the self-purposefulness and dignity of the human person thus expressed, asserts the ontological difference between spirit and matter, i.e., from the point of view of genesis, between the origin of the spiritual soul in God on the one hand and the origin of the human body in animate matter, which existed before it, on the other.[58]
However, this approach of "ontological discontinuity"[59] should not lead to a division between the spiritual soul and the body or to a devaluation of the body, because the spiritual soul is the integrating principle of the unity of the human person and, "including the body," gives it the dignity of the vocation to build a living relationship with God in truth and love.[60] Therefore, the approach of "ontological differentiation" or "ontological discontinuity" cannot remain static; rather, for John Paul II, it also means approaching this physical continuity, which appears as a common thread in research on evolution:
"With man, we find ourselves facing a different ontological order—an ontological leap, we could say. But in posing such a great ontological discontinuity, are we not breaking up the physical continuity which seems to be the main line of research about evolution in the fields of physics and chemistry? An appreciation for the different methods used in different fields of scholarship allows us to bring together two points of view which at first might seem irreconcilable. The sciences of observation describe and measure, with ever greater precision, the many manifestations of life, and write them down along the timeline. The moment of passage into the spiritual realm is not something that can be observed in this way—although we can nevertheless discern, through experimental research, a series of very valuable signs of what is specifically human life. But the experience of metaphysical knowledge, of self-consciousness and self-awareness, of moral conscience, of liberty, or of aesthetic and religious experience—these must be analyzed through philosophical reflection, while theology seeks to clarify the ultimate meaning of the Creator's designs.”[61]
In creation theology, the keyword "continuity" refers to the entire realm of "creatio continua," i.e., creation in all its spatial-temporal and historical dimensionality, that "total creation" of which Augustine spoke in his commentary on the Book of Genesis, whose existence is due solely to the "efficacy of the Almighty and All-Powerful."[62] It is God, the Creator, who brought creation into being "ex nihilo" and who is the creative basis of the continuum that sustains all development and unfolding. For John Paul II, this continuum is also a whole that applies not only to the entire realm of life, including human beings and their culture, but also to the entire physical world, and this continuity has already begun at the level of physics and chemistry.[63]
The latest insights and findings on the phenomenon of chirality in these areas, including biology, have confirmed this, so that in future it will not be possible to conduct theological research on "creatio continua" without taking into account the phenomenon of chirality in its entirety.
If we start from the "provocative questions of left-right asymmetry" as presented in the Royal Society's special issue, the findings on so-called cell chirality as an intrinsic, irreducible property offer a new horizon for better understanding the beginning of life in general, but especially that of human life. With regard to the individual human embryo, this internal property could be regarded as something that belongs to its concrete form of existence. This means that, in addition to all the symmetries that are important for the proportionality of the early organism and its development, chirality in the sense of a living tension must also be present: a coordinating "whole" must be assumed as a basis for all partial activities of a symmetrical and chiral nature, starting with the fusion of the egg and sperm cells. Only this whole enables the "continuous, close integration of physical and genetic mechanisms" as described in the individual technical articles, and it is clear that the father and mother are equally involved in the conception and development of this human being and are therefore equally responsible, and that the appropriate place for development is, by nature, "in vivo."
Within this framework, the ethically "provocative" instruction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on "Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and the Dignity of Procreation" (Donum vitae), as presented by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI in 1987, could also be interpreted.[64] Ahead of all individual medical, philosophical, and normative questions, the new insights from developmental biology provide arguments for the correctness of the basic intuition of Donum vitae. The instruction has – in relation to humans – aptly understood this continuous genuine "unified totality"[65] as "a personal presence at the moment of this first appearance of a human life," which can be perceived with reason.[66]
A comprehensive exploration of this richly meaningful formulation would, of course, first have to attempt to do justice to the complexity of the concept of personhood, which cannot be done here; the issue at hand is thus of a limited nature, although even within this limitation it is too extensive to be presented in a single treatise. The statements in "Donum vitae" indicate that the existence of a spiritual soul cannot be determined by experimental observation because it concerns the direct creation of the spiritual soul by God, and this "event" must be regarded as an "ontological discontinuity," as John Paul II put it. However, the situation is different with regard to "physical continuity," i.e., the continuum, which, as such, must be regarded as created from the point of view of faith—which has a beginning. It is the continuum of creation as a whole. As the continuum of the special creation of man, the creatio peculiaris hominis,[67] which in turn is a whole, it must be present from the first appearance of a human being, otherwise the coordinating "whole" as the basis of life development would be missing. With regard to this continuum, according to the statement in "Donum vitae," the findings of embryology provide valuable information about the biological identity of a new human individual from the very beginning. At that time, the relevant science was the newer field of genetics, which can at least describe the distinctive structures of this biological identity. However, today's insights from developmental biology, focusing on chirality as an internal property already at the cellular level, are apparently able to provide clearer insights into the beginning of life, because what is not possible from a genetic point of view is to provide a visual approach to the embryo from the very beginning, in the sense of an immediate, clear understanding of a very specific, concrete, i.e., "directed" referential context, in the sense of a repraesentatio singularis and not only in the sense of a repraesentatio generalis, the determination of which is nevertheless just as necessary by conceptual means.
In short, the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI, attempted with his formulation of "personal presence at the moment of this first appearance of a human life" to grasp the problem of the beginning of life in a more dynamic way, which includes the specific temporality of personal presence. This approach was taken up in a fundamental way in Pope John Paul II's encyclical "Evangelium vitae," which deals with the relationship between temporality and eternity in relation to the "incomparable worth of the human person"[68].
From an ontological perspective, this involves the task of expressing the evident equivalence of dignity and life—since without reference to "life," talk of "dignity" would be meaningless—in such a way that concrete earthly "life" is neither absolutized nor relativized. However, since we are concerned with the concrete existence of human beings within the limits of being begotten until death, the challenge is to express this connection between dignity and life "simpliciter" ("in and of itself") and not in dependence on certain qualifications ("secundum quid").
This is easier to express in a more delimiting way, for example in the form of a legal principle that human life is never something negative in the sense that it is no longer "worth" continuing. Such a distinction comes very close to the intentions of Evangelium vitae,[69] but also requires a convincing theological and ethical explanation of the positive content of the equivalence of dignity and life, and that means placing it in the context of the sanctity of divine life and participation in it. Thus, Evangelium vitae speaks of a "sacred reality" (res sacra)[70] ; but this could lead to an "absolutization" of human earthly existence, which—as is easily conceivable with regard to the right to self-defense, for example—would very quickly conjure up insoluble problem constellations; but even for the resolution of today's bioethical problems, such an "absolutization" of human earthly existence could conjure up situations that seem almost impossible to resolve reasonably.
This issue is also addressed in the "Testo Base" in Chapter XI, "Sfide etiche e temi emergenti". Among other things, this chapter deals with "Stati vegetativi e nutrizione", where it states:
“ln questo contesto, poi, «gli interventi sul corpo umano diventano sempre più efficaci, ma non sempre sono risolutivi: possono sostenere funzioni biologiche divenute insufficienti, o addirittura sostituirle, ma questo non equivale a promuovere la salute. Occorre quindi un supplemento di saggezza, perché oggi è più insidiosa la tentazione di insistere con trattamenti che producono potenti effetti sul corpo, ma talora non giovano al bene integrale della persona” (Testo Base 235 with reference to Francesco, Message to the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life on the occasion of the European Regional Meeting of the World Medical Association on end-of-life issues, November 16, 2017).
This statement is then confirmed as being in line with the understanding of human life in Evangelium vitae:
“Alla base di queste proposizioni di papa Francesco ritroviamo una comprensione della vita umana identica a quella affermata da S. Giovanni Paolo Il: la chiamata fondamentale dell'uomo «consiste nella partecipazione alla vita stessa di Dio. [...] Proprio questa chiamata soprannaturale sottolinea la relatività della vita terrena dell'uomo e della donna. Essa, in verità, non è realtà ‘ultima’, ma ‘penultima’» (EV 2). In questo orizzonte si possono affrontare le domande che i medici incontrano nel loro compito di prendersi cura della persona malata in situazioni di particolare gravità e in cui occorre valutare se i trattamenti in questione siano effettivamente proporzionati, e quindi vadano impiegati, o siano espressione di un'ostinazione eccessiva, e quindi occorra astenersene” (Testo Base 235).
In other words, the statements in Evangelium vitae on the "supernatural vocation" and the "relativity of earthly life" are understood in terms of normative ethics to mean that the balance between these two "poles" in concrete situations requires the "giudizio di proporzionalità dei trattamenti" (judgment of proportionality of treatments). Taken on its own and applied to specific situations such as "vegetative states and nutrition," this is of course correct.
In fact, however, this does not reflect the meaning of the statements in the opening section of Evangelium vitae, but rather the statements are based on a translation error that can be found in all available official translations. For in the available translations, the central statements in the introductory section appear at least incongruous or unbalanced and lead to real difficulties in understanding. If we refer to the English translation, the difficulties are no less apparent. It states:
"Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life even in its temporal phase. Life in time, in fact, is the fundamental condition, the initial stage and an integral part of the entire unified process of human existence. It is a process which, unexpectedly and undeservedly, is enlightened by the promise and renewed by the gift of divine life, which will reach its full realization in eternity (cf. 1 Jn 3:1-2). At the same time, it is precisely this supernatural calling that highlights the relative character of each individual's earthly life. After all, life on earth is not an "ultimate" but a "penultimate" reality; even so, it remains a sacred reality entrusted to us, to be preserved with a sense of responsibility and brought to perfection in love and in the gift of ourselves to God and to our brothers and sisters.”[71]
The talk here of "relativity" and "penultimate" reality, from which the conclusion of "sacred reality" is drawn, which is entrusted to us so that we may guard and develop it with a sense of responsibility, does not seem entirely harmonious. However, the real meaning of these statements from "Evangelium vitae" can only be understood from the original Latin and standard text. There, the text does not speak of "relativity," but of "indoles varians," i.e., of the "changeable natural condition," of the movement of change to which earthly life is subject. Instead of "penultimate" reality, it speaks of a "res non omnino 'ultima' verum 'proxima a postrema'".[72] This is not so easy to translate with a single word, but rather requires a paraphrase. It refers to something that is "closest" when viewed from the perspective of the "ultimate." However, if the "postremum," as stated earlier, is the "aevum aeternum," i.e. the ultimate eternity of God, then "proxima a postrema" must mean a "non-finite" order of time, namely the order of time of a presence that has a created beginning but differs in its nature from the order of time of the mere succession of the movement of change. Traditionally, one would attempt to capture this "non-finite" order of time with the term "aevum." "Aevum" is, as Pasquale Porro has described it, a "modello di durata," a model of what "duration" means.[73] Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI translated "aevum" as "presence", more precisely as "a personal presence already from this first appearance of a human being"[74] ; this can be perceived with reason even if the existence of a spiritual soul cannot be proven experimentally. Benedict XVI can thus tie in with considerations in his "Eschatology" on "aevum" as the special form of "'spirit-time'", a temporality that has a created beginning but belongs to a different order than "world-time" and its successivity.[75]
In today's parlance, these contexts in Evangelium vitae are not directly concerned with normative ethics, but with what is called "ontological commitment": It is therefore a matter of "ontological commitment" when speaking of human life; and this means that personal existence is not merely absorbed in a movement of change, but participates in a "non-finite" order of time from the beginning to the end of life by virtue of its very being (ens/esse). In short, "ontological commitment" in a non-directly ethical-normative sense means that basic names such as transcendentals or a dignified name such as "person"per se have a non-arbitrary reference to the basic properties of reality, i.e., a non-arbitrary connection between linguistic mode of expression and elementary characters of reality. There are now numerous alternatives to the originally highly formalized linguistic-analytical approaches, such as Paolo Valore's standard work "Fundamentals of Ontological Commitment"[76] ; to this extent, the fruitfulness of the "ontological commitment" approach has been increasingly discovered and applied for some time now, like a missing link.
And in this sense of the question of "ontological commitment," the meaning of "incomparable dignity" can also be related to the temporality of human existence without necessarily involving assumptions that would be downright counterintuitive. This can be illustrated by philosopher Rory Fox's study "Time and Eternity in Mid-Thirteenth-Century Thought."[77] In short, it is about an understanding of "continuity" as presupposed when one says that humans develop as humans and not into humans. The Latin "continuum" has two meanings, which are rendered in English as "continuous" and "dense." A "dense ordering" refers to an order that always allows for another "member" between two places ("members"), ad infinitum; it is therefore a connection that is permanent but not closed.
Viewed in this way, John Paul II and Benedict XVI carry out what is, in the original sense, a "dense description" of what human life means per se, or, to put it more actively, a "dense ordering." Since, unlike for Thomas Aquinas, for the Franciscan theologian Bonaventure the duration of the "aevum" also has an extensional meaning that refers to the physicality of this concrete human being in the manner of a "measured time" between conception and death, this "dense ordering" is an adequate form of expression for the equivalence of life and dignity, i.e., the "humanae substantiae dignitas."
If this approach to the question of "ontological commitment" is applied not only to the temporality of human beings, but also to "space," the explanations on chirality as a hidden universal dimension and as a fundamental "biosignature" show that this provides a new guideline for discovery, with the help of which a deeper understanding of "creatio continua" can also be developed, thus opening a door for future continuations of the "project" of a "theological ethics of life." This is all the more true since the phenomena associated with chirality are apparently still not really understood, but rather open up new fields of research. Basically, we are now at the point of a first, still very preliminary and by no means systematic pre-structuring of some of the problems associated with the new insights and findings on the phenomenon of chirality – figuratively speaking, we are seeing at best the tip of an iceberg, and even our understanding of this tip is still only rudimentary.
With regard not only to today's ethical questions about the treatment of life, but also to the question of the origin of life itself, we will not be able to do without the scientific and mathematical language used to describe the "mirror symmetry of space and chirality in chemistry, physics, and biological evolution."[78] For Martin Quack, the significant phenomenon that should lead research to the beginning of life is the aforementioned phenomenon of "homochirality." He summarizes today's findings of consistent biological homochirality on our planet as a "quasi-fossil" of early evolution, the interpretation of which remains mysterious and controversial to this day.
As already mentioned, the explanatory approaches are still very diverse today, so that no clear conclusion has been reached. However, the various theories can be classified into two approaches: the "de facto" approach and the "de lege" approach. The former considers the emergence of homochirality to be the product of a cosmic coincidence, while the latter attributes it to a law of nature. From a scientific perspective, it is not possible, at least at present, to decide which theory is correct.[79] One could argue that, according to the theories of developmental biology as presented in the Royal Society's special issue, chiral patterns cannot have arisen according to the so-called Turing principle, meaning that this random mechanism can at least be ruled out.
At least in one respect, however, the researchers are clear, namely in their general doubt as to whether it makes sense at all, or whether it is rather absurd, to think about the origin of life, a view attributed to Charles Darwin:
"We add here a brief discussion going beyond these now well-established results. Charles Darwin is occasionally quoted with a statement 'It is as absurd to think about the origin of life as it is absurd to think about the origin of matter'. However, if we do start this 'absurd thinking', we note three basic 'asymmetries' in our world ... . We might consider these as 'quasi-fossils' carrying information about the evolution of matter and life."[80]
However, it appears that the research approach to the kinetics of homochirality as the basis for the origin of life is anything but absurd—just as little as the question of the origin of the continuum, which is itself the subject of various philosophical-theological theories on creatio continua.
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[...]
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[2] Vicenzo Paglia (ed.), Etica teologica della vita. Scrittura, tradizione, sfide pratiche. Atti del Seminario di Studio Promosso dalla Pontificia Accademia per la Vita, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2022.
[3] Carlo Casalone / Maurizio Chiodi / Roberto Dell'Oro / Pier Davide Guenzi / Anne Marie Pellettier / Pierangelo Sequeri / Marie Jo Thiel / Alain Thomasset, The Joy of Life. A Journey in Theological Ethics: Scripture, Tradition, Practical Challenges. Introduction by Vicenzo Paglia, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2024 (hereinafter cited as “Testo Base”).
[4] Vicenzo Paglia, Introduction, l. c., 8, with reference to John Paul II, Enc. Veritatis Splendor [August 6, 1993], (https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents /hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html) and Francis, Apost. Const. Veritatis Gaudium on Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties [December 8, 2017], (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/papa-francesco_costituzione-ap_20171208_veritatis-gaudium.pdf).
[5] A detailed biblical-theological phenomenology of man is also provided in the text of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, "Che cosa è l'uomo?" (Ps 8:5) Un itinerario di antropologia biblica [30 September 2019], (https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/ congregations /cfaith/pcb_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20190930_cosa-e-luomo_it.pdf).
[6] Cf. Francis, Enc. Laudato si’ on the Care for our Common Home [May 24, 2015], (https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf).
[7] See, for example, Cornelio Fabro, The Intensive Hermeneutics of Thomistic Philosophy: The Notion of Participation. Translated by B. M. Bonansea, in: The Review of Metaphysics 27 No. 3: A Commemorative Issue. Thomas Aquinas 1224-1274 (Mar. 1974) 449-491; id., Partecipazione e causalità secondo S. Tommaso d’Aquino (Complete Works edited by the Cornelio Fabro Cultural Project, Instituto del Verbo Incarnato, Volume 19), Editrice del Verbo Incarnato: Second edition and first in the Complete Works series , Rome 2010.
[8] Francis, "Evangelii Gaudium": Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today's World [24 November 2013] , (https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/ apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.pdf).
[9] Pedro Cintas, Preface, in: id. (ed.), Biochirality. Origins, Evolution and Molecular Recognition. With contributions by D. B. Amabilino / S. D. Banik / D. G. Blackmond / C. Blanco / P. Cintas/ A. C. Evans / J. Gal / D. Gherase / C. Giri / F. Goesmann / A. González-Campo / J. E. Hein / D. Hochberg / U. J. Meierhen, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg 2013, V-VI, V.
[10] Immanuel Kant, On the First Ground of the Distinction of Regions in Space (1768), in: James Cleve / Robert Frederick (eds.), The Philosophy of Right and Left. Incongruent Counterparts and the Nature of Space (The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science. A Series of Books in Philosophy of Science, Methodology, Epistemology, Logic, History of Science, and Related Fields. Managing Editor Robert E. Buits, volume 46), Springer Science + Business Media, Dordrecht 1991, 27-33, 29-31.
[11] Baron William Thomson Kelvin, The molecular tactics of a crystal. Being the Second Robert Boyle Lecture, delivered before the Oxford University Junior Scientific Club on Tuesday, May 16, 1893, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1894, 27 Ref. 1, (https://archive.org/details/moleculartactic00kelvgoog/page/n27/mode/2up).
[12] See, for example, Egor Babaev / Dmitri Kharzeev / Mats Larsson / Alexander Molochkov / Vitali Zhaunerchyk (eds.) Chiral Matter - Proceedings of the Nobel Symposium 167, Högberga Gård, Lidingö, June 28 – July 2, 2021, World Scientific Pub Co Pte. Ltd, New Jersey USA 2023; Laurence D. Barron, Molecular Light Scattering and Optical Activity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.. 2004; id., From Cosmic Chirality to Protein Structure: Lord Kelvin’s Legacy, in: Chirality 24 (2012) 879-893; Pedro Cintas (ed.), Biochirality. Origins, Evolution and Molecular Recognition, l. c.; George H. Wagnière, On Chirality and the Universal Asymmetry Reflections on Image and Mirror Image, Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta, Zurich 2007.
[13] See Pedro Cintas, Tracing the Origins and Evolution of Chirality and Handedness in Chemical Language, in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition Volume 46, Issue 22 (May 25, 2007) 4016-4024, (https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200603714; https://onlinelibrary .wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.200603714); Howard D. Flack, Louis Pasteur's discovery of molecular chirality and spontaneous resolution in 1848, together with a complete review of his crystallographic and chemical work, in: Acta Crystallographica Section A. Foundations and Advances, A. 65 Part 5 (2009) 371-389, (https://journals.iucr.org/a/issues/2009/05/00/ sh5092/sh5092.pdf); Joseph Gal / Pedro Cintas, Early History of the Recognition of Molecular Biochirality, in: Pedro Cintas (ed.), Biochirality. Origins, Evolution and Molecular Recognition, l. c., 1-40 ; Alain Sevin, Pasteur and Molecular chirality, in : Bibnum. Textes fondateurs de la science. Chimie 2016, 1-16 (https://doi.org/10.4000/bibnum.459).
[14] Louis Pasteur, La Dissymétrie Moléculaire (Conférence faite à la Société Chimique de Paris le 22 décembre 1883), in: Œuvres de Pasteur, réunies par Pasteur Vallery-Radot, Tome premier : Dissymétrie Moléculaire, Masson et Cie, Paris 1922, 369-380, 373 f.
[15] Ibid. 375 f.
[16] Ibid. 376.
[17] Louis Pasteur, Observations sur les forces dissymétriques, in: Œuvres de Pasteur, réunies par Pasteur Vallery-Radot, Tome premier: Dissymétrie Moléculaire, Masson et Cie, Paris 1922, 360-363, 361.
[18] Louis Pasteur, La Dissymétrie Moléculaire. Conférence faite à la Société Chimique de Paris le 22 décembre 1883, l. c., 375.
[19] Frank Wilczek, Chirality: A Scientific Leitmotif, in: Egor Babaev / Dmitri Kharzeev / Mats Larsson / Alexander Molochkov / Vitali Zhaunerchyk (eds.), Chiral Matter - Proceedings of the Nobel Symposium 167, l. c., 1-14, 2. (https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/epdf/10.1142/9789811265068_0001); see also Frank Wilczek, The Cosmic Asymmetry between Matter and Antimatter, in: Scientific American Vol. 243, No. 6 (December 1980) 82-91 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/24966477) as well as the lecture by Guido Tonelli at the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life "The End of the World? Crises, Responsibilities, Hopes" (March 3-4, 2025) with the theme: La visione del mondo in cui viviamo, (https://www.academyforlife.va/content/dam/pav /documenti%20pdf/2025/Assemblea%20marzo/testi%20pdf%20sito/02_FT%20Tonelli.pdf).
[20] See, for example, the research overview by Yisen Yao / Oscar Ávalos-Ovando / Tao Ding / Ramon A. Alvarez-Puebla / Peng Yu / Eric Ashalley / Li Ma / Zhiming Wang / Gil Markovich / Alexander O. Govorov, From chiral biomolecules to chiral nanocrystals: A review of the latest developments and emerging concepts, in: Chem 11, July 10, 2025, 1-25, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2025.102544); For more on the new possibilities of chiral sensor technology, see Olga Smirnova, A new age of molecular chirality, in: Science 2025 Jul 17; 389 (6757) 232-233, (doi: 10.1126/science.adn0905).
[21] See Martin Quack, How Important is Parity Violation for Molecular and Biomolecular Chirality?, in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition Volume 41, Issue 24 (December 16, 2002) 4618-4630 (https://doi.org/ 10.1002/anie.200290005); id. / Georg Seyfang / Gunther Wichmann, Perspectives on parity violation in chiral molecules: theory, spectroscopic experiment and biomolecular homochirality, in: Chemical Science Issue 13 (2022) 10598-10643 (https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2022/sc/d2sc01323a;).
[22] George H. Wagnière, On Chirality and the Universal Asymmetry Reflections on Image and Mirror Image, l. c., 1.
[23] Ibid. 4: “The very complex molecules that make up living organisms, such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and sugars, are thus all chiral. RNA contains the carbohydrate moiety D-ribose and DNA its derivative D-2-deoxyribose. One of the most remarkable facts in biology is that the biomolecular chirality, be it in a virus, in a primitive bacterium, or in a human brain cell, is everywhere the same. A chiral molecule and its mirror image are called enantiomers. Life based on enantiomeric biomolecules, namely on left-handed B-DNA, d-amino acids, and L-sugars, is nonexistent on Earth. This remarkable selectivity is called biological homochirality."
[24] See ibid. 5: "In other words, is biological homochirality the direct consequence of universal and thus fundamental laws, or is it due to chance – whatever that means – and thus mainly dependent on local conditions? This is indeed one of the first questions to be asked if extraterrestrial life is ever observed. ... From a chemical standpoint, a chiral molecule and its enantiomer should, under identical external conditions, have exactly the same energy. In a so-called thermodynamic equilibrium with their surroundings, both enantiomers would consequently have the same probability of existing. If, however, one also takes into account elementary particle interactions called the parity-violating weak forces, then one concludes that there must exist a very small energy difference favoring one chiral form with respect to the other. The question then is, do these weak interactions suffice to determine biological homochirality.”
[25] See, for example, Quentin Sallembien / Laurent Bouteleiller / Jeanne Crassous / Matthieu Raynal, Possible chemical and physical scenarios towards biological homochirality, in: Chem Soc Rev 51 (2022) 3436-3476 (doi: 10.1039/d1cs01179k); Michele Fiore, Homochirality Emergence: A Scientific Enigma with Profound Implications in Origins of Life Studies, in: Symmetry 2025, 17(3), 473, 1-12, (https://doi.org/10.3390/sym17030473) ; Hans R. Kricheldorf, Life by Chemical Evolution? A Review and Evaluation of Experiments and Hypotheses, Springer-Verlag, Berlin 2025.
[26] Cf. George H. Wagnière, On Chirality and the Universal Asymmetry Reflections on Image and Mirror Image, l. c., Chap. 10 Prebiotic Evolution and Beyond, 197-221.
[27] Ibid. 200 f.
[28] Ibid. 202.
[29] Ibid. 203.
[30] Roberto Purello / Alessandro D’Urso (eds.), Fundamentals of Supramolecular Chirality, World Scientific, New Jersey 2022.
[31] Roberto Purello, Introduction - Chirality: What Is It, What Is It For?, in: Roberto Purello / Alessandro D’Urso (eds.), Fundamentals of supramolecular chirality, World Scientific, New Jersey 2022, ix-xi, ix.
[32] Cf. Aras Kartouzian / Robert P. Cameron, Unlocking the hidden dimension: power of chirality in scientific exploration, in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A Vol. 382; 2281 (2024) 1-14.
[33] Ibid. 10.
[34] Provocative questions in left–right asymmetry. Theme issue compiled and edited by Michael Levin, Amar Klar and Ann Ramsdell, Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society. Biological Sciences, Volume 371, Issue 1710 (December 19, 2016).
[35] See Michael Levin/ Amar J. S. Klar / Ann F. Ramsdell, Introduction to provocative questions in left–right asymmetry, in: ibid. (eds.), Provocative questions in left–right asymmetry, op. cit., 1-8, 1. 5.
[36] See Alan Mathison Turing, The chemical basis of morphogenesis, in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, Volume 237, Issue 641 (August 14, 1952) 37-72.
[37] Michael Levin/ Amar J. S. Klar / Ann F. Ramsdell, Introduction to provocative questions in left–right asymmetry, l. c., 3; Lewis Wolpert was one of the leading developmental biologists and embryologists.
[38] See ibid. 1: "Both are essential for completeness, but too much in either direction disrupts a critical balance – symmetry unchecked by asymmetry transmutes order, harmony, and beauty into static, sterile, and monotonous. Asymmetry unchecked by symmetry becomes aberrant, unrestrained, and chaotic."
[39] See ibid., 3.
[40] See ibid., 2.
[41] See Martin Quack / Georg Seyfang / Gunther Wichmann, Perspectives on parity violation in chiral molecules: theory, spectroscopic experiment and biomolecular homochirality, l. c., 10598: "The reflection (or 'mirror') symmetry of space is among the fundamental symmetries of physics. It is connected to the conservation law for the quantum number parity and a fundamental 'non-observable' property of space (as defined by an absolute 'left-handed' or 'right-handed' coordinate system)."
[42] Michael Levin / Amar J. S. Klar / Ann F. Ramsdell, Introduction to provocative questions in left – right asymmetry, l. c., 2.
[43] See ibid., 3: "One intriguing model that is fundamentally different from the commonly invoked morphogen model is based on DNA strand-specific segregation, driven by the mechanism of somatic strand-specific imprinting and selective chromatid segregation (SSIS). This mechanism invokes the processes of monochromatid gene expression, and that is based on the asymmetry of DNA chains of developmental control gene(s), followed by selective segregation of thus epigenetically differentiated sister chromatids in the mitosis of a deterministic cell to produce developmentally unequal sister cells.”
[44] See ibid.: "Another alternative model of symmetry breaking is grounded in the role of the cytoskeleton, with a mechanism that has strong implications for evolution. It should be appreciated that intracellular features of cellular polarity and cytoskeleton comprising cellular chirality ... must play a critical role for the SSIS mechanism to operate."
[45] Ibid., 5.
[46] See also, on this issue, the article by Leo Q. Wan/Amanda S. Chin/Kathryn E. Worley/Poulomi Ray, Cell chirality: emergence of asymmetry from cell culture, in: Provocative questions in left–right asymmetry, l. c., 1–9, and the study by Agnes Banreti/Shayon Bhattacharya/Frank Wien/Koichi Matsuo/ Matthieu Réfrégiers/Cornelia Meinert/Uwe Meierhenrich/Bruno Hudry/Damien Thompson/Stéphan Noselli, Biological effects of the loss of homochirality in a multicellular organism, in: Nature Communications Vol. 13 (2022), Article number: 7059, 1-15 (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34516-x).
[47] Michael Levin/ Amar J. S. Klar / Ann F. Ramsdell, Introduction to provocative questions in left – right asymmetry, l. c., 3.
[48] Ibid.
[49] Ibid. 4 with reference to the contribution by Leo Q. Wan/ Amanda S. Chin/ Kathryn E. Worley/ Poulomi Ray, Cell chirality: emergence of asymmetry from cell culture, l. c.
[50] Michael Levin/ Amar J. S. Klar / Ann F. Ramsdell, Introduction to provocative questions in left–right asymmetry, in: ibid. (eds.), Provocative questions in left–right asymmetry, l. c.. 6.
[51] Ibid. 5.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Laurence D. Barron, Chirality and Life, in: Space Science Reviews 135 (2008) 187-201, 201.
[54] Katherine Brading / Elena Castellani / Nicholas Teh, Nicholas, Art.: Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking. First published Thu Jul 24, 2003; substantive revision Tue Aug 1, 2023, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/symmetry-breaking/).
[55] See, for example, the overview by Nick Huggett / Carl Hoefer / James Read, Absolute and Relational Space and Motion: Post-Newtonian Theories. First published Fri Aug 11, 2006; substantive revision Mon Jul 19, 2021, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-theories/).
[56] Francis, Message of the Holy Father to the Participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life “The End of the World? Crises, Responsibilities, Hopes" [March 3-5, 2025, Conference Center of the Augustinianum], (https://www.vatican.va/content/ francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2025/documents/20250226-messaggio-pontificia-academia-provita.pdf). Pope Francis cites Teilhard de Chardin as an example of this type of research: We can cite as an example of this type of research Fr. Teilhard de Chardin and his attempt—certainly partial and unfinished, but daring and inspiring—to enter seriously into dialogue with the sciences, practising an exercise in trans-disciplinarity. It is a risky path, which leads us to wonder: “I ask whether it is necessary for someone to throw the stone into the pond – indeed, to end up being ‘killed’ – to open the way”. [1] Thus he launched his insights that focused on the category of relationship and interdependence between all things, placing homo sapiens in close connection with the entire system of living things.” (with reference to B. de Solanges, Teilhard de Chardin. Témoignage et étude sur le développement de sa pensée, Toulouse 1967, 54).
[57] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Plenary Session on "The Origins and Early Evolution of Life" [October 22, 1996], No. 4, (https://www.pas.va/en/magisterium/saint-john-paul-ii/1996-22-october.html).
[58] See ibid. No. 5.
[59] Ibid. No. 6.
[60] Ibid. No. 5 with reference to Gaudium et spes, No. 22.
[61] Ibid. No. 6.
[62] Cf. Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis. 2 vols. Translated by John Hammond Taylor. Mahwah, NJ, Paulist Press 1982., Book IV, chap. 12. and on the subject in general Walter Mesch, Reflektierte Gegenwart. Eine Studie über Zeit und Ewigkeit bei Platon, Aristoteles, Plotin und Augustinus, Vittorio Klostermann: Frankfurt a. M. 2nd edition 2016.
[63] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Plenary Session on "The Origins and Early Evolution of Life," l. c., No. 6.
[64] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum Vitae. Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation Replies to Certain Questions of the Day [February 22, 1987], (https://www.academyforlife.va/content/dam/pav/ documents/papi/documentisantasede/ENGLISH/donum_vitae_ENG.pdf).
[65] Ibid. Introduction 3 with reference to Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 11: AAS 74 (1982) 92.
[66] Donum vitae I, 1 This formulation is also taken up and confirmed in Pope John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium vitae, no. 60 (John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium Vitae. To the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women religious lay Faithful and all People of Good Will on the Value and Inviolability of Human Life [March 25, 1995], [https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jpii_enc_25031995 _ evangelium-vitae.html]).
[67] On the concept of creatio peculiaris, see: Joseph Kälin, Evolutionstheorie und katholische Weltanschauung, in: Divus Thomas 27 (1949) 5-16, 12.
[68] Evangelium Vitae, l. c. No. 2.
[69] Cf. Evangelium vitae No. 34.
[70] See Evangelium vitae No. 2.
[71] Evangelium vitae, No. 2.
[72] Cf. Ioannis Pauli PP. II Summi Pontificis EVANGELIUM VITAE. Litterae Encyclicae Episcopis, Presbyteris et Diaconis, Religiosis Viris et Mulieribus, Christifidelibus Laicis Universisque Bonae Volutatis Hominibus de Vitae Humanae Inviolabili Bono [Die vicesimo quinto mensis Martii, anno MCMXCV], No. 2, (https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/ la/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html).
[73] Cf. Pasquale Porro, Forme e modelli di durata nel pensiero medievale: l'aevum, il tempo discreto, la categoria "quando," Leuven University Press, Leuven 1996.
[74] Cf. Donum vitae I, 1; cf. also Evangelium vitae No. 60.
[75] Cf. Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI, Eschatology, Death and Eternal Life (Kleine Katholische Dogmatik Vol. IX), 4th edition, Friedrich Pustet Regensburg, Eichstätt 1978, 97 f, 150 f.
[76] Paolo Valore, Fundamentals of Ontological Commitment, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, Berlin 2016.
[77] Rory Fox, Time and Eternity in Mid-Thirteenth-Century Thought, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006.
[78] See Martin Quack, On biomolecular homochirality as a quasi-fossil of the evolution of life, in: Advances in Chemical Physics: Proceedings of the 240 Conference: Science's Great Challenges Volume 157 (2014) 249-290.
[79] See Martin Quack/ Georg Seyfang / Gunther Wichmann, Perspectives on parity violation in chiral molecules: theory, spectroscopic experiment and biomolecular homochirality, l. c., 10625.
[80] Ibid. 10628.
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- Citation du texte
- Gerhard Höver (Auteur), 2025, "Theological Ethics of Life" and the Phenomenon of Chirality, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1617336
