Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Prologue
- CHAPTER ONE Darwinism
- CHAPTER TWO Christianity
- CHAPTER THREE Origins
- CHAPTER FOUR Humans
- CHAPTER FIVE Naturalism
- CHAPTER SIX Design
- CHAPTER SEVEN Pain
- CHAPTER EIGHT Extraterrestrials
- CHAPTER NINE Christian Ethics
- CHAPTER TEN Social Darwinism
- CHAPTER ELEVEN Sociobiology
- CHAPTER TWELVE Freedom and Determinism
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
CHAPTER TWELVE - Freedom and Determinism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Prologue
- CHAPTER ONE Darwinism
- CHAPTER TWO Christianity
- CHAPTER THREE Origins
- CHAPTER FOUR Humans
- CHAPTER FIVE Naturalism
- CHAPTER SIX Design
- CHAPTER SEVEN Pain
- CHAPTER EIGHT Extraterrestrials
- CHAPTER NINE Christian Ethics
- CHAPTER TEN Social Darwinism
- CHAPTER ELEVEN Sociobiology
- CHAPTER TWELVE Freedom and Determinism
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
I come to my final topic. Let me recap the Christian position and then see what Darwinism has to say on the subject and how the two compare.
Original Sin
Freely, God created Heaven and Earth and put us humans in a privileged place within this creation. It is an absolutely central part of Christian theology that we humans likewise are free agents. We ourselves have the power to evaluate and decide between courses of action, and to act on our own decisions. This is at the very heart of what it means to be made in the image of God. But since we have free will and are created by God, how then is it that we sin? How is it that human-caused evil comes into existence? We could not sin unless we were free – the earthquake is not sinful, no matter how many it kills – yet why do we misuse our power, if a perfect Being created us? Surely He cannot be the source of sin?
No indeed! Sin comes from within, and since there is no apparent reason why we should be innately sinful, it is here that the notion of original sin comes into play. The first humans – Adam and Eve – freely chose to disobey God's explicit command. Even those who accept today's science insist on some point of moral failure: “In the course of evolution, there must have been a first moment of conscious moral choice.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Can a Darwinian be a Christian?The Relationship between Science and Religion, pp. 205 - 216Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000