Could I Meet the Taung Child in Heaven?
This is a question I've tossed around with one of my friends a few times over the last year. Would the Taung Child be able to go to heaven, working on the assumption of an existence of a heaven-like afterlife? Where does God draw the line on what is considered human and viable to be admitted? What about the Neanderthals, do they fall within range? Homo sapiens lived concurrently with them and both shared bipedalism, usage of tools, and artistic expression. A significant amount of people living today have a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA. Where does that leave us spiritually and what makes Homo Sapiens so special in the eyes of God? When does a lifeform gain a soul? Things may appear linear in isolation, but everything is connected. There is no linear evolutionary line, we're not becoming "more advanced" or "less primitive". Those are labels placed on arbitrary goalposts on the path to evolutionary perfection, something that does not exist. Technology and perceived progress does not determine value of being.
I'm not so much trying to make a statement on religion and faith, but more a questioning of existential value beyond one's perception of superiority. The mindset of a linear path from primitive to advanced is a misunderstanding of how systems, organisms, and culture ebb and flow, not towards a final penultimate form, but forever in flux with the only constant being change.
What would God think of simplifying all the complex beauty of life and existence and value to a collection of two dimensional spectrums suspended in isolation of each other?