RE: The puzzle of Adam

George wrote:
  I think that R. Niebuhr's distinction is still helpful: Sin was
"inevitable" but not "necessary." I.e., sin is not essential to what it
means to be human. But even in traditional Augustinian theology, the 1st
humans, while originally without sin, had the possibility of sinning - posse
non peccare rather than non posse peccare. From what we know & can surmise
about human evolution, that was probably only a possibility (!) that was
never actualized in any "state of integrity" of significant duration.

  There are 2 components to original sin - the biological and the cultural.
The more early humans yielded to biological inclinations to violence,
deceit, sexual promiscuity
  and defiance of what may have been known of God's will for them, the
stronger became cultural reinforcement for such behavior. This is one
aspect of the fact that humanity is (as Phil Hefner puts it) a "symbiosis"
of biology & culture. (Cf. his book The Human Factor.)

  Shalom
  George
  http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

Don P:

Would this not bring us back to the point of accountability? Early humans,
prior to Adam if one believes in them, would have performed many of the same
acts that we now consider sinful. Along comes Adam and we become
accountable? Query: Is it possible that God did not make us accountable,
but rather man made himself accountable by seeking knowledge of Good and
Evil? Had we not done so, would we have known what sin was? And once we
knew, we were then accountable and must continue to be so, until redeemed,
through perfect obedience (ot) or salvation (nt)? The reason I ask is that
some believe that we must return to what we were supposed to have been
before the fall. If however what I submit above is true then we cannot go
back to what we were supposed to have been, but must go forward into a
deeper religious evolution. If so, then it would beg the question of
whether salvation is the next stage of this evolution or the end result.

I would appreciate your opinions.

Don P
Received on Sat Nov 27 17:04:37 2004