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Warning: this post rambles about something that might not even exist. Reader discretion is advised.

During the past three weeks, I have discussed evolution in a scientific context on three separate occasions. Biology, then anthropology, then ESEM. The discussion has been mind-numbing. We evolved. I get it. I do appreciate evolution - after all, it explains the tremendous diversity of life on Earth - but I want to take a step back and analyze who we are, not where we come from.

The human species is unique. I would not call us more "evolved" than other organisms, since all living creatures have evolved to survive in their current environment. However, humans are puny in both size and stamina, and we have grown to rely on intellect, not strength. I have heard our intelligence described in terms of ice cream - on the proverbial Cone of Life, we are a scoop above a rat, two scoops above a frog, and three scoops above an anemone. Our advanced tools, our languages, and our myriad emotions all suggest that human intelligence surpasses other species, but how does our brain power define us as people? Are we an expression of a hyper-talented cerebrum and an extra scoop of vanilla, or is there more to us? Is our intelligence the product of a soul?

When the theory of evolution was first acknowledged in the scientific world, religion responded with outcry. How could scientists have the nerve to insinuate that life originated from random mutations, instead of the deliberate action of God? Even as religion grew to accept the notion that a divine hand might guide evolution, merging scientific knowledge with religious beliefs, a major dilemma remained: when did God give us souls?

The soul is essential to the Catholic faith I grew up in. Present in every human being, the soul is tainted by the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, which dragged mankind into a fallen state of sinfulness and death. Catholics claim that Christ's death on the cross was the ultimate repentance for the resultant sins of the world, thus opening a pathway to everlasting life for all righteous believers. The soul is the seat of the conscience, a person's governing body of free will, allowing him/her to choose a Christlike life, sinless and pure, or to face the certainty of Hell. Thus, without an immortal soul, humans would not be humans, but animals incapable of choosing to follow the Messiah. 

If evolution is correct, as many believe, then we and chimpanzees diverged from a common ancestor, some 5+ million years ago. Where in this timeline of evolution did the soul arise? Even if the human population bottlenecked at some point in our evolution, humanity never consisted of one man and one woman, the Adam and Eve of the Bible. Without Adam and Eve, the drama of Original Sin could never had occurred, and the need for Christ would not have followed. Denying the existence of Adam and Eve seems to bring down the entire fortress of Catholic Christian thought. What's more, the loss of Adam and Eve denies humans a soul.

Without a soul, what is the purpose of music, and art, and literature? Why else would humans possess a sense of aesthetics, an altruistic streak, and a near-universal belief in a higher power? Did our powerful brains invent the soul to explain our uniqueness? Did the soul evolve through our invention? Questions to ponder...answers I don't know.