Some thoughts...
Religious Transfiguration - Scientific Metamorphosis, stage or cycle. Getting to the next level, observed with the Xeno etc, cuddles, David, Weyland and Shaw.
The sacrifice engineer is a clue. One must die AKA David saying, "sometimes in order to create you must destroy".
Now the transfer consciousness during the metamorphosed change is what eludes both man and Engineer. It's easy for the Android, David could update his hardware and keep all his memories and learning intact. The humans option is relying on recorded history to learn from and even that is left up to interpretation.
Xeno, it doesn't matter, it doesn't need all those emotions etc bogging it down, "it's the perfect organism", only seeking survival. One could say though it has no harmony with nature and with any other organism. I'd say it's a parasite than anything else.
Engineers went with the Xeno approach, Xenos are amoral. Worst case scenario, infestation.
Humans went with artificial intelligence, David is amoral. Worst case scenario, total self-awareness, Skynet.
The religious aspect take on the subject can be observed with biblical text. Example Jesus spoke about it often. Jesus knew that he needed to die for the purpose of transfiguration process, same with his followers. Shaw wanted to know what was next after death, her Dad died. David observing her dream of the funeral.
Bible text:
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption".
or
" There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
Weyland needed another body, his body was corrupt, decayed. ironically he could've had the answer right in front of him, his creation, David. If Weyland could have transferred all his knowledge, personality his essence to the body of David, Weyland would be the Ubermensch. David communicating with a sleeping Weyland jumps out at me as a possibility for metamorphosis.
The engineers were trying too, last engineer had this biomech grafted to his body. Dude was in cyrosleep for what 2000 years?!
We are at the dawn of this now mentality, wearable computers, but where does it go?
We see this in the art in Giger, this cycle. The pursuit of change.