Re: [asa] Believing Scripture but Playing by Sciences Rules

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Campbell" <pleuronaia@gmail.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [asa] Believing Scripture but Playing by Sciences Rules

>> I suppose I am still stuck on the notion of how a scientific development
>> of
>> life on Earth "allows" sin to enter into animals that henceforth became
>> humans. Note that the notion of sin has no place in a scientific theory.
>
> Sin cannot be identified as such by science. However, this means that
> a scientific model of life's development doesn't have much to say one
> way or the other about how sin appeared. The physical evidence
> strongly supports the premise that our physical bodies have their
> origins through evolution. How God worked through and/or above that
> process to make us morally responsible is not answered by that
> physical evidence. Stepping in from outside or designing a process of
> spiritual development that would take place without a "stepping in"
> (though not without full divine involvement in the ordinary manner)
> are possibilities.
...............................
Sin is not a scientific category. But science can supply evidence about how
human beings and their predecessors have behaved at various periods of
evolution. If this evidence suggests that our ancestors, before they became
moral agents, were doing things that would be sinful if they _were_ moral
agents, and if it seems likely that such behaviors were important parts of
their biological &/or cultural makeup, propensities for which would be
passed on to later generations, then it would be reasonable to infer that
the first humans who were moral agents would have strong tendencies for
certain types of sin. In other words, science can give us some evidence
about the plausibility of the concepts of an "original righteousness" of
human beings or an initial "state of integrity." The definition of sin, and
of types of behavior which are sinful, must come from theology, but science
can then tell us something about whether or not those behaviors have taken
place in various situations.

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

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Received on Wed Feb 14 15:38:11 2007