It's worth noting that Genesis 1 does not have a separate
statement of the goodness of humanity, as it does for works of other
days. Humanity is comprehended in the statement that the whole was
"very good" - that it was harmonious & in accord with God's purpose.
Irenaeus, e.g., thought that humanity had been created without
sin but in an immature childlike state rather than a state of completed
perfection. Such an idea might be applied to human genetics too, but we
should avoid reading into the Bible or the Christian tradition
conclusions about issues they just weren't concerned with.
>> I asked, " Is it possible that God allowed Satan to muck around with
> >physical processes as well? Could Satan have distorted the geological record
> to put it at odds with Special Revelation?"
>
> >You replied, "This is effect makes Satan the creator of the world as we know
> >it, & thus approaches the Manichean heresy, according to which an "evil
> >God" is the creator of the (evil) material world. It is a large scale
> >version of an extreme idea of original sin which was condemned at the
> >time of the Reformation (Formula of Concord, Article I), which said that
> original sin was the substance of fallen human nature."
>
> I didn't mean to imply that Satan created the world; that would, as you
> point out correctly, lead to an evil material world vs. a "good"
> spiritual world. My question was, "could God have "unbound" Satan to
> the extent that he (Satan) could distort the geological record?"
My typo may have been misleading. It should read "This _in_
effect makes Satan the creator...". Satan, however much unbound, cannot
be seen as anything other that a creature of God and an instrument
through whom God chooses to work. So if Satan could rewrite the
geological record to give a misleading "apparent age" for the earth, the
responsibility is ultimately God's. Satan would be an "evil God" if
Satan were understood to operate independently of God.
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@imperium.net
http://www.imperium.net/~gmurphy