Doing Without Adam and Eve: Sociobiology and Original Sin (Theology and the Sciences)
Contents:
The universe is always in a dynamic process of change. Biological species evolved from one another. Humankind is simply another species, evolved like other species and from other species. All creatures are mortal, and garnering resources and reproducing are the tasks of all living things. The three branches of the Christian church have had three different reactions to this collision between science and Scripture.
Science and Scripture Conservative Protestant churches have asserted that the Bible is a scientific and historical document, to be read literally and treated as inerrant or infallible. Where science and Scripture disagree, science is wrong, even demonic. The modern Roman Catholic Church has taken a second, more moderate position. Having learned from its mistake over Galileo, it recognizes the claims of science. It says the Genesis creation narratives contain figurative language.
However, where questions arise about the historicity of Adam, Eve, and the fall, the church insists that the narrative in Genesis is historical: Taking a third position, the liberal Protestant churches say the Bible is not a scientific or historical document.
They treat the creation and fall as metaphor and myth that tell us about ourselves and our relationship to God, but not about science or history. These churches are willing to accept the scientific story in its entirety. Each of these positions has its difficulties. The position that the Bible is infallible is challenged not only by science, but also by evidence internal to Scripture. Claims to inerrancy are not logically tenable because the Bible has internal inconsistencies.
Doublets of narratives, events, and even genealogies contradict each other so that both cannot be true. Genesis 1 and 2 provide an example. Both these accounts cannot be historically, inerrantly true. Such contradictions are not limited to the Hebrew Scriptures. The infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke also contradict each other. They are motivated by fear of a massacre, then by a desire to avoid settling in Herod's son's territory.
Matthew has a star leading astrologers to Joseph's house, Luke an angelic host pointing shepherds to a stable. Again, both these narratives cannot be historically, inerrantly true.
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Astrologers at Joseph's house or shepherds in a stable, massacre or census, Egypt or Jerusalem—only one story, if either, is true. To read the Bible literally and believe it infallible means rejecting the simple logic indispensable in daily life. The price is too high. The liberal option also pays a high price. Liberal churches have tended to embrace the God of the gaps. The God of the gaps fills explanatory gaps left by incomplete scientific explanations. For example, the Middle Ages considered God to be directly active in every event. In , Isaac Newton demonstrated that gravity, not the mighty hand of God, moved the planets in their courses.
The response was to find God's hand in the familiar, natural world.
God might not move the planets, but God directly created each biological species. In , Charles Darwin closed that gap.
Since then, other gaps have closed, and God has continued to retreat. As the twentieth century ended, the God of the gaps was vanishing over the horizon. It is true that God is still seen as creator of the Big Bang and of laws governing the universe. However, this is not the personal God of Christianity but the distant God of Aristotle and of the eighteenth-century Deists; the God of the philosophers, not the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; the unmoved mover, not the living God who meets, rescues, and frees us.
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This is the originator of everything, the sustainer and savior of nothing, the God whose creation we inhabit but whose presence we no longer need. From this perspective, Jesus becomes a great man, a sage or a prophet, but he is no longer divine. As far as the fall is concerned, liberals insist it be retained as central because of its theological importance for the atonement, yet they consider it a myth.
Logically, however, the living, historical Jesus can no more atone for the sins of fictive, mythological forebears than we can suffer the real consequences of their fabled sins. On a strictly logical level, treating the narrative as myth means it has no theological work to do.
Read More In this provocative new addition to the Theology and the Sciences series, Patricia Williams assays the original sin doctrine with a scientific lens and, based on sociobiology, offers an alternative Christian account of human nature's foibles and future. To help, we provided some of our favorites. Doing Without Adam and Eve: Through the Advanced Search , you can find items by searching specific terms such as Title, Director, Actor, Genre, etc or you can narrow your focus using our amazing set of criteria parameters. Augsburg Fortress Publishing Published: Shipped to over one million happy customers. Williams taught philosophy at Virginia State University, has authored many scholarly articles on the philosophy of biology, and is co-editor of Evolution and Human Values
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Share your stories and reviews with other customers! The Alibris Blog Can't get enough about books, music, and movies? Check out these wonderful and insightful posts from our editors Browse Now. Enter Your Email Address to Subscribe. Sociobiology and Original Sin. Doing Without Adam and Eve: Read More In this provocative new addition to the Theology and the Sciences series, Patricia Williams assays the original sin doctrine with a scientific lens and, based on sociobiology, offers an alternative Christian account of human nature's foibles and future.
Low to High Price: High to Low Condition Condition: Reverse Pub Date Pub Date: Augsburg Fortress Publishing Published: Ships from Reno, NV. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside.
Doing Without Adam and Eve: Sociobiology and Original Sin
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