Abstract

Human Genome Project unfolds our collective identity as humankind. We progressively seem to acquire more power and greater responsibility. Our collective identity reminds us that all our actions have a profound effect on the environment and on virtually all forms of life. We become stewards of our own Genome and this calls us for greater responsibility. With the discovery of the nature of DNA and the genetic code, a new previously unknown world was opened up that lies within each of us; within the cells of all other living creatures. Insights into all that was considered to be human nature, from disease possibilities to dispositions were poised to enter humankind’s collective consciousness. Our explorations of the then unknown world which now have initiated unfolding in and through Genetic Revolution impels us to delve into the anthropic implications of the genome mapping and of the project of being human. In the middle of the 20th century, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin viewed human beings as “Evolution become conscious of itself.” Today in the beginning of the 21st century we can well broaden this understanding as “Evolution become capable of consciously extending or eliminating itself.” So too in the reflections ahead, the author probes into the shift that has taken place in our understanding of Human beings as co-creators; Human understanding of God; Human longing for fulfillment; Humans as being at-home in the universe; human capability to affirm life; human urgency to make choices as well as human vocation as trailblazers of self-extinction or self-extension. After focusing on the unique role and responsibility of humans in the universe of life, the author says that it is the task of the present humanity has to make constant and responsible choices collectively to determine our destiny – to extend or to extinct. In this sense today’s human beings are the train-blazers for the whole of life. We have reached the level of consciousness that other living beings can hope for. Either we can foster the evolution in all living creatures or we can wipe out evolution and consequently life itself from earth.