One of the many false canards used by Theistic Evolutionists to dismiss Young Earth Creationism and is the idea that belief in a literal Adam is something of a novelty. We are told, over and over, that Ancient Near Eastern thought doesn't really care about science or history the way we moderns think about those things. All that really matters is the narrative and the theological ideas behind the stories.
We are told Augustine's "Literal Meaning of Genesis" cautions against pitting the Bible against science, for if we are wrong about the science it will discredit faith. We are told many of the church fathers allegorized the early chapters of Genesis.
Ultimately, the whole science/faith divide boils down to a few misguided fundamentalists creating a false dichotomy between science and faith. (more)
I recall, however, as a young teen growing up within Catholicism, the first time a youth leader (post Vatican II) started to lead us down a path that included Transcendental Meditation and other things that seemed at odds with what I was taught as a child. I had started reading Evangelical literature including some texts from Young Earth Creationists, but there was a reason I sought answers there. When our parish priest responded to a question about origins that seemed to try to reconcile Genesis to Darwin, I found myself at odds.
Looking back, I wondered why, as a Catholic, not a fundamentalist, I first started to bristle at the attempts to reconcile Darwin and Genesis by allegorizing Genesis. When my mother found herself wondering what was up with her son disagreeing with the priest, my sister piped up "he's just trying to defend what he was taught in the Baltimore Catechism.
So today, I go back to the old Baltimore Catechism and what it states about origins. It should be obvious that the conflict between Darwin and Genesis is not, and never was, limited to fundamentalists waging an anti-intellectual war against science.
The Catechism is a series of ideas expressed in a question and answer format meant to be learned much the way teachers use flash cards today. Several questions deal directly with Genesis.
48. What is man?
Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the
image and likeness of God.
And God created man to his own image. (Genesis 2:7)
51. Who were the first man and woman?
The first man and woman were Adam and Eve, the first parents
of the whole human race.
And Adam called the name of his wife Eve. (Genesis 3:15)
So as a small child, I was taught in my Catholic religious education, that Adam and Eve were the first humans. My opposition to the fudging on Genesis by my parish priest, were not rooted in fundamentalist Biblicism, but in ideas I had learned as a child.
The Catechism continues:
52. What was the chief gift bestowed on Adam and Eve by God?
The chief gift bestowed on Adam and Eve by God was
sanctifying grace, which made them children of God and gave them the right to
heaven.
53. What other gifts were bestowed on Adam and Eve by God?
The other gifts bestowed on Adam and Eve by God were
happiness in the Garden of Paradise, great knowledge, control of the passions
by reason, and freedom from suffering and death.
He gave them counsel, and a tongue, and eyes, and ears, and
a heart to devise; and he filled them with the knowledge of understanding.
(Ecclesiasticus 17:5)
Most evangelicals have had a problem with Theistic Evolution not only because of the implications for creation, but also because of the implications for the Fall. The biblical narrative teaches, on face value, that human beings existed first in a Paradisical Eden, where work was pleasant, live was good, there was not guilt or shame and there was perfect fellowship with God. But because the first man rebelled, a moral culpability was spread to all his descendants. This is the origin of sin, suffering and evil, all called into question by attempts to embrace Darwinism.
The Baltimore Catechism continues:
54. What commandment did God give Adam and Eve?
God gave Adam and Eve the commandment not to eat of the
fruit of a certain tree that grew in the Garden of Paradise.
And he commanded him, saying: "Of every tree of
paradise thou shalt eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the
death." (Genesis 2:16-17)
55. Did Adam and Eve obey the commandment of God?
Adam and Eve did not obey the commandment of God, but ate of
the forbidden fruit.
And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to
the eyes, and delightful to behold; and she took of the fruit thereof, and did
eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. (Genesis 3:6)
56. What happened to Adam and Eve on account of their sin?
On account of their sin Adam and Eve lost sanctifying grace,
the right to heaven, and their special gifts; they became subject to death, to
suffering, and to a strong inclination to evil, and they were driven from the
Garden of Paradise.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou
return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken; for dust thou art, and into
dust thou shalt return. (Genesis 3:19)
57. What has happened to us on account of the sin of Adam?
On account of the sin of Adam, we, his descendants, come
into the world deprived of sanctifying grace and inherit his punishment, as we
would have inherited his gifts had he been obedient to God.
But, by the envy of the devil, death came into the world.
(Wisdom 2:24)
58. What is this sin in us called?
This sin in us is called original.
59. Why is this sin called original?
This sin is called original because it comes down to us
through our origin, or descent, from Adam.
Therefore as through one man sin entered into the world and
through sin death, and thus death has passed unto all men because all have
sinned. (Romans 5:12)
60. What are the chief punishments of Adam which we inherit
through original sin?
The chief punishments of Adam which we inherit through
original sin are: death, suffering, ignorance, and a strong inclination to sin.
Not only does the Catechism deal with original sin with direct and fairly literal readings of the same biblical passages Creationists refer to it continues by referring to both judgment and redemption.
61. Is God unjust in punishing us on account of the sin of
Adam?
God is not unjust in punishing us on account of the sin of
Adam, because original sin does not take away from us anything to which we have
a strict right as human beings, but only the free gifts which God in His
goodness would have bestowed on us if Adam had not sinned.
62. Was any human person ever preserved from original sin?
The Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from original sin in
view of the merits of her Divine Son, and this privilege is called her
Immaculate Conception.
I will put enmities between you and the woman, between your
seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait his
heel. (Genesis 3:15)
The Baltimore Catechisms originated in 1885 and taught a literal reading of Genesis through the 1960s. My discomfort with compromise on Evolution originated from my Catholic education, and in the end caused me to seek answers. That led me to reading Henry Morris and other Evangelical authors as I sought answers to the internal conflict.
I find many things I do not believe in the Catechism. discussions about mortal and venial sins, for example, Catholic doctrines that I came to believe went too far beyond scripture, but I am thankful for the grounding my Catholic upbringing gave me in the Creeds, the Lord's Prayer, the Commandments and a general theistic world view.
Today I remain sympathetic to many of the concerns of the Young Earth Creationists, though I find that they sometimes are too dogmatic about lesser issues. I don't think the age of the earth is as cut and dried as they claim and I think the historicity of Adam and the Fall are the main issues worth debating. I am sympathetic to the Intelligent Design movement, and I am very comfortable with the idea that Naturalism is a false and illogical assumption, and that natural selection plus unguided variation is not a mechanism that can produce anything like a new species.
But I really get tired of being told by Theistic Evolutionists that a reading of Genesis that assumes the events are based in history is some fabrication of misguided fundamentalists. The novel idea is the one that turns Genesis into mere theological narrative and reduces references to Adam and the fall in the New Testament to mere theologizing divorced from space-time history.
Put simply, when theistic evolutionists blame the Creation/Evolution debate on fundamentalists, they are not telling the truth. Belief in a historical Adam, a historical fall from grace and its resultant effects on the human condition were the norms for most Christians until modern science discarded the supernatural and embraced a view of science that could only allow for cause and effect within the boundaries of nature and natural law.
No comments:
Post a Comment