The dude was the first geologian.

Difficult to read. I think what Chardin is saying is that Man is the purpose of the universe, but not the end.

Teilhard de Chardin was a Jesuit priest as well as a scientist, focused on paleontology. His writings, condemned and silenced by the Church while he was alive, and only published posthumously, describe his view reconciling Christianity and evolution - engaging concepts such as the Omega Point, the noosphere, and the role of humanity in the transition from primordial ooze to divinity. A fascinating, but difficult, read.

I've known Teilhard de Chardin's name and influence even long before I became interested in religion myself, and this book was a long time in coming. And a long time in finishing, it just didn't woo me.

His prose is stronger than his argument. His science is not up to modern standards, but nor in many ways his own. What continuously bothered me was how often he resorts to normative statements, analogies between unrelated things and such to make both scientific and theological claims. Yes, evolution resembles a tree (if you graph it on paper) but that does not make it a tree.

All in all, very proto-New Age stuff to me. Fanciful analogy. I don't dislike his attempt at a synthesis or a grand scope of things, only the result.

Probably the most complicated book I’ve read of my own volition in 15 years. In France, Chardin is known primarily for his work in paleontology. I came to know of him through his prayers in a Jesuit compilation, and then learned that he spent years in the exact same cities in China that I did! (Tianjin, Urumqi, Beijing)

Given his renown as a Jesuit, I expected this book to be more blatantly spiritual, but it’s incredibly technical scientifically, which I’m sure contributes to Chardin’s legacy both as an evolutionist and a priest, but also makes him controversial to anyone who refuses to entertain the overlap. The scope of his worldview and its completeness is a marvel of its own.

I’m not embarrassed to say that a ton of this book went over my head. I do wish it had more diagrams (a total of 4 in 342 pages) to illustrate what seem to me to be ideas I’ve never heard elsewhere, yet make a lot of sense (as much as I’m able to grasp them) weaving science & religion together. Chardin makes up so many terms (and then they were translated from French) and his writing is old enough now (70 years almost) that it’s difficult to decipher what is truly difficult to grasp vs. what might be lost in translation. And since I’m not a paleontologist or scientist of any sort, I’m also unsure how much of his content should be adjusted by discoveries of the last 70 years (I’m convinced he’d want to adjust his own ideas with each new discovery!).

Aside from straining through all those hurdles as a reader, what I think I understand from this book is enlightening and helped me to take mental steps that bridge the physical world with the spiritual and the afterlife, and that seems to be an explanation to a question that so many people spend most of their lives grappling with. I’m not sure whether what I’ve distilled from Chardin’s framework is a natural progression of his thought process or whether he’d take issue with my conclusion, but it was worth the read for me to come to it on my own.

This is a thought-provoking must-read classic even for non-religious readers. De Chardin possessed an uncanny foresight to probe mind-boggling conundrums of the universe, envisioning such notions as the internet, the universe as cosmic awareness (i.e. star stuff aware of itself), evolution as ever increasing complexity towards cosmic awareness (that he called the noosphere), the hive mind, AI taking over, mind uploading, and many other ideas.

The telltale snippets of his insight can be traced in subsequent generations of scientists, science fiction authors, and script writers. Whenever I revisit the pages of Zelazny, Asimov, Lovecraft or Stapleton I see echoes of this unclassifiable thinker. I recently binge-watched Star Trek / The Next Generation and found de Chardin’s intellectual gems dotting the philosophical dimension hovering over the timeless scripts. Even Q (the enigmatic obnoxious nemesis of Captain Picard) wears a 19th century black cassock reminiscent of de Chardin’s photos, in the latest iteration of the Star Trek franchise (Picard), answering the decades-old question of so many fans (who or what the hell is Q?). Seemingly, Q is the embodiment of this cosmic consciousness called the noosphere, the universe being aware of itself, manifesting itself with a human countenance to this roving humans of the future.

Here’s a sample of the philosophical insight that used to pervade science fiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm5ND...

Trong thiên kh��o luận này c��a cha Chardin, thuyết tiến hóa được nhìn nhận một cách đủ đầy và đúng đắn. Vì là một nhà sinh vật học, cha trình bày rốt ráo mọi thứ mà Darwin từng nêu ra trong học thuyết của mình. Không những thế, cha Chardin còn mở rộng nó tới mức độ tiến hóa của tâm thức và phản tư, để đưa tất cả tới điểm tới hạn tiến hóa là Omega.
Một cuốn sách nhận phải rất nhiều phản ứng từ cả khoa học lẫn tôn giáo, nhưng cung cấp vô vàn dẫn chứng và lý thuyết hữu ích.

I return to Teilhard often to be challenged and enlightened. Sometimes difficult but always worth it

Seg bok men Cool idé: Människans skapelse är genom evolution fråm Alfa till Omega; det är egentligen att förena Dawins "Den själviska genen" med kyrkans "det inneboende trons Ord" så får man en syntes av kropp och själ och en världsbild som är kompatibel med alla fakta som presenteras; poesins språk är biologins språk.

This book changed my view of both religion and science, areas in which Teilhard was expert. His explanation of the convergence of the two over many millenia is breathtaking in its scope and novelty. Reading this book was life-changing for me.

An extraordinary book by renowned paleontologist and Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin, which essentially traces the history of life on planet Earth in order to think about where life might be headed in the future. One of the most captivating aspects of the book is Teilhard's account of the development of consciousness, which evolutionary theory has not thought much about. Teilhard proposes that the growth of external complexity is paralleled by a growth of inward complexity, so that just as more complicated organisms are able to do more things, so more neurons in the mind give rise to deeper and deeper reflection, until in humanity we reach the point of self-consciousness and self-reflection. In the conclusion, he then grounds the rise of consciousness (what he terms the Noosphere) with the Omega Point, which he describes as the Telos toward which the cosmic and enthroned Christ is pulling the whole world, the intention and purpose for which all things were made and toward which they are inexorably drawn.

It is a visionary speculation presented in the language of science.
The evolutionary process leads toward consciousness and thought according to the writer who was a priest.