Human Nature in a Post–Human Genome Project World - Is Human Nature Obsolete? - page 299

matter that gives it depth and intensity, value, and the inclination toward
organization.
Eaves and Gross operate from a biological and specifically genetic per-
spective that “seeks a new framework for its comprehension that does
justice to all the so-called higher aspects of human consciousness in a
phylogenetic and ontogenetic framework.” This perspective focuses on
the mechanisms of inheritance, which “have within themselves the prob-
ability of presenting new transcendent possibilities for action within
history.” 81 Thus, they argue that surprise is inherent in nature and then
develop a view of nature itself as gracious. And like Rahner, Eaves and
Gross contend that “genetics provides a basis for grace within the struc-
ture of life itself. ” 82
This position serves as the basis for a rejection of crude determinism
for “the material processes of life have produced a person who tran-
scends all conventional definitions of personhood to the point where the
term freedom is the best we have available.” 83
This gives rise to two consequences: first, that “culture creates condi-
tions for completion in community that would otherwise be impossible
in a mere aggregation of individuals,” and second, the “recognition that
the conditions of life are such that the process that produces pain, in the
sense of genetic disease, is also the process that maintains life in the
cosmos.” 84
This second point is critical in that it highlights the value of genetic
diversity and provides the ground for criticizing simplistic models of
genetic waste, unfitness, and disease. Additionally, this point recognizes
a fundamental ambiguity in the nature of reality. Cancer is a result of
the extremely rapid division and growth of cells, the very same process
that allows life to continue. In the process of genetic recombination in
sexual reproduction, copying errors sometimes occur that result in
disease. Yet it is this very same process that allows reproduction to occur
at all. These biological processes are the means through which life is
transmitted from one generation to another, yet it is through these very
same processes that life can be transformed in ways that are sometimes
new and helpful and sometimes new and harmful.
A similar point emerges from a consideration of the multiplicity of
forms and species. As Eaves and Gross contend, “There are many forms
which do not constitute a value or an advantage in the struggle of life;