Ep 39: Ilia Delio, Christ & Evolution

The Christian Transhumanist Podcast

Ilia Delio explains how Jesus is like the Singularity, shows us why Christianity is the religion of evolution, and explores the thought of Teilhard de Chardin—the 1930s priest who foresaw the internet.

Bio:

Ilia Delio is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Washington, D.C.,
is the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University, and the author of 17 books, including The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love.

Books & Links

• The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love
• The Emergent Christ
• Other Books by Ilia Delio
• Conference: Christianity as Planetary Faith: Engaging Teilhard’s Vision

Topics:

• Christ & Evolution
  • Creation, Sanctification & Redemption is one process of Incarnation—a person coming into the world. Jesus is the beginning of the fuller incarnation.
  • Christianity is the one religion that says God is involved in everything
  • What's missing from Darwinian evolution
  • The Florida God, the Kool-Aid Man God, and the Christian God
• Teilhard de Chardin (as quoted in the Royal Wedding!)
  • The Jesuit Priest Who Believed in God and the Singularity — Micah's article for Motherboard
  • Teilhard's influence on Vatican II, Pope Benedict, Pope John Paul, and Pope Francis
  • The relationship between Teilhard & Julian Huxley ("the father of modern transhumanism")
  • The Omega Point
• Religion as zest for life
  • Religion in the best sense should wake us up, move us into the world, to be doing new things
  • The whole New Testament is future-oriented
  • Transhumanism will transform the church
• Does the Body of Christ include other religions?
• Developing religion toward the life of God
• "God loves new things"

Pull-Quotes:

"Jesus is like a new Big Bang. Jesus is the Singularity." <-- Tweet this

"Christianity is the religion of evolution."

"Christians are not separate from the whole. Christians are to be the prime evolvers."

"Our humanness is the ability to grow out of suffering."

"The comparative power of religious creeds may be measured by their respective power of evolutive activation." — Teilhard

(Watch the video of this conversation)