A lot of people believe that evolutionary theory is in deep conflict with the basic ideas of Christian theology – including US pastors. One of those conflicts is about the first humans, Adam and Eve. Many creationists point out that if you don’t accept that Adam and Eve have ever lived, you also have to give up the idea of the fall and thus of original sin. But if so, Christology also loses its force – for if the fall never happened, why then did God have to become human?
If one sticks to a literalist interpretation of the Genesis-text, there indeed is a problem. LeRon Shults, once a student of Princeton professor Wentzel van Huyssteen, now a professor in the philosophy of religion in Norway, writes in his Reforming Anthropology: After the Philosophical Turn to Relationality (Grand Rapids/Cambridge: Eerdmans 2003):
The idea of a first couple coming into existence in a state of perfection sometimes in the last ten thousand years simply cannot be reconciled with evolutionary science. The sciences of embryology and genetics deminstrate the continuity of human organisms with the rest of organic life as it has emerged and become more complex over millions and milions (not merely thousands) of years. Analysis of the mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid of contemporary homo sapiens indicates that human populations never consisted of fewer than several thousand individuals. Paleological evidence shows that death and suffering were in the world long before the emergence of human beings. (208)
Okay, doesn’t this indicate a problem? Again, on a literalist reading of the Bible, yes. However, Shults argues:
One can accept the illuminative force of evolutionary hypotheses without denying the heart of the doctrine of original sin, which is that each and every person is bound by relations to self, others, and God that inhibit the goodness of loving fellowship, and that only by divine grace may humans share in the righteousness of God. (209)
To this I fully agree. Leaving a literalist reading of the Bible behind doesn’t mean giving up on the basic ideas of Christianity. Indeed, in my view (and in Shults’), it opens up a perspective that allows one to incorporate insights of different (also scientific) disciplines. How that might work out in detail? – For that I urge you to check out LeRon Shults’ book (which, by the way, is about much, much more than merely original sin)…
Actually, I’m trying to get away from discussions concerning creationism and Intelligent Design, since I think in the last couple of years everything there’s to say about it has already been said. There are topics in the field of science and religion that are more interesting, rewarding, and fruitful. However, every once in a while I simply come across something that infuriates me and that I need to write about. Creationist brainwashing strategies to confuse the whit out of young children’s minds is one of them…
Quite disturbing news today. A poll by LifeWay Research shows that apparently many US protestant pastors have big issues with evolutionary theory. 74% of the pastors believe that Adam and Eve were real people, and 64% reject the claim that God used evolution to create people. A startling conclusion follows:
Earlier I posted about a recent article by Justin Barrett. During the Calvin College seminar last year, Barrett also told the participants about a book that he was in the process of writing. It wasn’t his 