tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6367540557347019200.post2629394564652784430..comments2024-02-20T00:47:19.513-08:00Comments on Currents in Catholic Thought: Human and Divine: Genesis in QuadragesymmetryJoe Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191089729473477072noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6367540557347019200.post-75636128668719262832018-09-17T20:25:46.971-07:002018-09-17T20:25:46.971-07:00“I'll certainly not present a theology of sin ...“I'll certainly not present a theology of sin here, but I will suggest that sin is a departure from the order of creation.”<br /><br />This means that the necessary and sufficient conditions *for* that departure from the natural order are *in* that order, or of it, belonging to it in some sense. Is it simply impossible that God could create otherwise? I don’t know. Is it simply impossible that God could create a particular world in which the conditions for this damage remain, but only as possibilities? <br /><br />How can creation depart from itself in such a way that God is not responsible for that departure?<br /><br />I won’t attempt a theology of sin, either. But I don’t see how a theology of sin would deal with the fact and the theory of evolution. Our will to know (and to be motivated to know for many different reasons), to power, to domination—where does this come from? Those are not evolutionary novelties that just appeared out of nowhere in H sapiens. Those predispositions, and many others, have a rich evolutionary history that we are only beginning to understand. Those things which have brought us to this point in earth’s natural history suddenly become more or less what you call original sin. <br /><br />Any theology of sin must deal with a lot more than the symmetry between humans and God. It has to deal with the symmetry between humankind and its nonhuman inheritance. <br /><br />Basically, given his desire for a particular kind of relationship with us, God pretty much chose what looks like the worst method for that end. <br /><br />A better way to put this question is not to ask about God’s symmetry with creation, but God’s symmetry with evolution. Costly scientific labor is ushering us, like Job, into the foundations of the world—it is fascinating; it is terrifying. Above all, it’s tragic.Joseph Charles https://www.blogger.com/profile/02849704279926794392noreply@blogger.com