Evolution of Spiritual Nature

Does this sit well in anyone's gut?

It shouldn't because anyone who's ever watched a developing (pick a species) can imagine their
'will' spurring the fledgling to develop a capacity for action. It begins as a struggle, continues as
conscious effort, and with practice becomes a mastered ability - more reflexive than counscious.
I'm not going to suggest that part of that process isn't written in genetic code, but I do proffer
that there is a component of 'spirit' involved. Herd animals walk within minutes of being born.
First there's an effort to stand. Then on shakey legs it tries to reach Mom to nurse and very soon
it's walking along with the herd. Except for the few that are born fully formed and yet for some
unknown reason, don't make the effort. Is that also in their DNA or do they just lack the will?

Is DNA or WILL the essence and impetus of individuation within Life?

Only a fertilized egg can become a new and unique multicelled organism. We know that sperm and
egg cells each contain half of the DNA needed for a new life to begin. DNA is something physical
that we can observe, analyze and experiment with. I'll go along with DNA providing the blueprint
for the structure and function or the egg and sperm, but I don't think DNA can account for only
one sperm penetrating an egg cell. If all of the sperm are "programmed" for the same purpose they
should continue their quest and the egg would logically be more vulnerable after the first sperm
encountered a weak spot in the egg's membrane. But that doesn't happen. Once the egg is fertilized
she procedes to become attached to the uterine wall and gestation begins. One explanation could be
that the moment of conception has been encoded in such a way as to render the egg repellent to the
other sperm. Another is that the successful sperm relays to the others its "state of success" thereby
curbing the other sperms' will. Not by intelligible communication but something akin to intuition.

Could intercellular communication function similarly to quantum entanglement?

Two quantum particles are said to be entangled when the state of one is dependent and
inexplicably linked to the other. Any change of a characteristic in one of them is
instantaneously reflected in the other regardless of the distance between them. Nobody
really understands this phenomenon but the observation is accepted, accounted
for and an open area of research in quantum science. If bosons and electrons and whatnot
can be quantumly entangled on a material level, that opens the possibility of
cells stemming from a single body to be entangled on a biological level. If all of the sperm
issuing from the male are entangled on the criteria of joining with an egg
then the state of success in one sperm would instantly be instantiated in the others.
All of the other sperm would effectively lose their will and die.

Is there life and death or just one continuous Life?

Science has never even been close to sparking Life in even the simplest cell. Maybe that's
because Life is a continuum rather than a series of discreet packets. Life begets life. It doesn't
start and end and start and end. Individual forms of life may be discreet packets, but the actual
force and energy of Life is continuous. Force and energy are not tangible objective things. We
can sense them, intuit them, and measure their effects, but they're of a different nature than what's
material. It's hard to say force, energy and materiality are of a different substance because of what
physicists tell us about the interchangibility of matter and energy, but I think it's fair to say that
their different states do present us with different natures. Animate matter and inanimate matter are
unquestionably of the same substance yet unquestionably of very different natures. Maybe that's
because living matter is not only effected by the inanimate fundamental forces and energy of the
physical world, but also affected by animate forces and energies of a spiritual nature. I don't see
this as dualistic so much as synergistic. I'm not saying that sperm and egg cells have minds, souls
and bits of consciousness. Just that they have a yen for their life within the harmony of Life along
with a taste of the who(s) they came from. Not memories or developed facilities of either parent.
Only the slighest essence of each parent to meld and become a new and wholly unique individual.

Could a fusion of two 'human yen' spark a new human will?

That would certain give us a different perspective on how genes get expressed, why/when the
cell(s) start off replicating then start differentiating into different types which which then
replicate only the same type, why you get the occasional indentical twin and maybe even show
that 'garbage DNA' isn't really a huge pile of garbage, but an array of choices that weren't
enacted. The big practical question if we're to get our minds around the possibility is: How do two
'yen' combine into one? The problem for a science grounded in quantitative mathematics is
that this would be a purely qualitative addition of 1+1 without any quantitative component. If we
didn't have a precedent in the synthesis of complex sounds from pure sine waves, the idea
would really be off the wall. Adding two bland (and perceptually intolerable) sine waves together
results in a qualitatively enriched sound with a characteristic timbre. At conception two
halves of a new strand of DNA are mysteriously spliced into one. How the new DNA gets enacted in
gestation and expressed later on in life just gets more and more mysterious the more it's
studied. Considering two 'yen' fused into a unique will doesn't solve the mystery but it does open
areas in which to look for clues. And if human will is really free, it can't be constrained
at any point from conception onward. The period where the initial cell merey replicates may be where
the will gets its bearings, but it starts to get its feet wet once differentiation begins.

Can 'will' develop/evolve into mind, soul, consciousness and self-awareness?

Development and evolution and continuous processes that do not change over time. We can always
talk about discrete points like attaining the thumb, and the capacity to use it in coordination with
the other fingers, but the ability to use the thumb to grasp, signal approval or strike a piano key with
just the right nuance at just the right time for just the right musical impression is a consequence of
will. An infant learning to use the thumb to grab something is doing so out of a will to do so. The
infant will grab indiscriminately at first, but as it develops the child learns the nuance of touch along
with its communicative and expressive abilities. These are traditionally aspects of mind and soul
and it's only with mind and soul that we can have consciousness and self-awareness. Triggering the
motor responses for thumb with respect to sensate feedback may well be mechanical, but the nuances of
thumb are not found in measureable quantities like velocity, pressure and duration. The nuances are
qualitative aspects of what the previously mentioned quantities convey. Qualities we feel in ourselves
and wish to communcate to others. I think we can see that will functions at a level far below that of
mind/soul/etc., and also that a will for anything implies a will for something more. Attaining whatever
that 'something more' is what the developmental and evolutionary processes are . . . so yes Virginia ....
mind/soul/consciousness/self-awareness (spritual nature) most likely did evolve and do develop from will.