Dear Editor: It’s been a few years since I’ve read anything by Father Teilhard but if I recall correctly he proposed that at the moment of creation some of the created matter carried a ‘psychic charge’ and that the convergence of this psychically charged matter over time to the point of individual consciousness underscores the evolution of man.

This seems to imply that initial instances of mind and soul were dependent upon the concentration of psychic charges in a body as a result of natural processes effectively rendering the spirit a lesser substance than the flesh.

There is no conciliation of science and faith if our spiritual nature is a consequence of physicality. If anything, positing that self-consciousness, our spiritual nature, arises from the accrual of psychic charge only furthers the divide.

Though it may appear to be only a minor though necessary philosophical point in an otherwise impressive body of work, in practice it becomes much more difficult to defend our stance on abortion, birth control and euthanizing those with Alzheimer’s and dementia if the Church recognizes self-consciousness as a result of accumulated psychic charge when those on the pro side can more powerfully argue that the critical level of charge evident in self-consciousness has either not yet been attained or has been lost.

RALPH KAROW

Bayside