Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

French paleontologist and Jesuit priest known for scientific and genetic research and for philosophical works on the meaning of evolution and the future of mankind. A Christian mystic, he sought to reconcile the Christian message with modern science. Controversial, he has emerged as an important force in contemporary thought, but was forbidden by his religious superiors to publish any works aside from those on paleontology during his lifetime, which caused him great distress. Consequently, his most important works, "The Divine Milieu" and "The Phenomenon of Man" were published posthumously. His central thesis is that evolution progresses directly from simple atoms to the complex organisms, and so on to man and consciousness. From that thesis, his concept was "the law of increasing complexity-consciousness" which states that throughout time there is a tendency for matter to become increasingly complex, and this is accompanied by a corresponding development in consciousness.

Teilhard was the fourth of eleven children and a distant descendant of Voltaire. His father was a country gentleman of means with a scholarly interest in history, and he instilled in his son a passion for animals and plants, and the volcanoes and rocks of the region in which he grew up. In 1892, he started his formal education at a Jesuit college, and won many prizes for his hard work and high intelligence. Interestingly, he always fared poorly in religious instruction because he was at odds with the format of the teaching.

At age 17, he dedicated his life to religion and began his novitiate as a Jesuit at Aix-en-Provence in 1899. Within two years, the anticlerical movement in France evacuated the seminary to Jersey. At age 24, he was sent to Cairo to teach physics and chemistry in a Jesuit school. His "Lettres d"Egypte 1905-1908" written at this time revealed his interest in searching the local hills and deserts for fossils.