Most
readers of this blog know that the creationist insistence on a literal reading
of Genesis is completely wrong. One reason for this is that they are picky
about which parts they take literally and which parts they consider figurative.
They say the Genesis days are 24 hours but they do not believe the “firmament”
is actually firm, as implied in the original Hebrew of Genesis 1, or that rain
falls through the “windows of heaven” as stated in Genesis 6. Same old, same
old, I won’t bore you with this.
What
I consider more interesting is that Genesis is wrong even as a figurative picture of the universe, life on earth, and
humankind.
One
example of this involves human nature, human evolution, and the origin of
society. Christian evolutionists (they do exist) have struggled to figure out
which stage of human evolution was represented by Adam and Eve. They believe
God made Adam from the “dust of the ground,” but that this phrase refers to
matter, which includes DNA and cells. Perhaps, they speculate, that there was a
point in history in which the spirit of God infused itself into an existing
animal species, Homo sapiens. For
centuries, even conservative Bible believers have speculated about the
existence of “Pre-Adamite” humans.
However,
there appears to be no abrupt point in human evolution in which an animal species
became suddenly spiritual. Christians in science who try to reconcile Genesis
and evolution have had a devil of a time.
And,
I believe, they need not bother. The picture of human origins in Genesis is all
wrong. It depicts a primordially sinless human race, which experienced “The
Fall,” after which humans had a sinful nature. There has never been a time when
humans or any of our evolutionary ancestors have not been fighting and killing
one another. As far back as you look, you find what we would call sin.
Recently, it was reported that one of the Homo
heidelbergensis bodies in Sima de los Huesos in Spain was a murder victim
at least 350,000 years ago.
And,
furthermore, the Christian story depicts humans as falling not only from
primitive sinlessness but into modern depravity, or “original sin.” That is,
that modern human nature is evil, unless the person has the Spirit of God
living in him or her. But this cannot be true. Human nature is not entirely
evil. Human nature is characterized by (imperfect) goodness and altruism within groups—cooperation, even love. It
is also characterized by genocidal evil between
groups. Human nature has both.
So,
for example, good Jewish soldiers under Joshua could carry out genocide against
Canaanites with not a second thought, because the Canaanites were outside their
group. Good Christian Massachusetts pilgrims could slaughter Pequot villagers
with scarcely a second thought because the Pequots were not in their group. (I
say scarcely, because in his own record of the events, William Bradford was
actually bothered by the screams of the Native Americans as they burned or were
shot; however, in God’s name, he suppressed those inconvenient humanitarian
thoughts.) In the Confederacy, until recently revered by the state of South
Carolina and still worshiped by hundreds of thousands of Christian racists,
Christian men and women could torture slaves because they classified slaves as
“other,” in particular as property rather than persons. As Jon Stewart and
associates said, it is difficult to kill a person, but easy
to kill a heretic.
One
reason we know the Bible is wrong about human nature is that those religious humans
who supposedly have the Spirit of God living in them are no better than any
other humans, on the average. Conservative Christians are no more or less
likely than anyone else to commit fornication, adultery, financial crimes, etc.
The constant stream of Christian televangelist scandals is no different than
revelations of scandals in any other group of people, except that
televangelists proclaim themselves to be morally superior. Reverend Ted
Haggard’s homosexual partner was not bothered by the relationship itself, but
by Haggard’s hypocrisy—that’s why he spoke out. If there is an indwelling
Spirit, it has no overall effect on Christians compared to non-Christians. I
know good Christians and good non-Christians and so do you.
There
actually is some good news in human history. Humans have gradually (on the
whole, not in every individual instance) expanded their compass to include more
and more humans in their group. Who could forget the Wedgwood medallion of the
early 19th century, depicting a slave in chains, with the words, “Am
I not a man and a brother?” Including slaves in our human family is the only
reason they ever got freed.
Therefore,
the real picture of human history has been a gradual widening of humanitarianism rather than a sudden Fall from
sinlessness into depravity. Furthermore, much and perhaps most of this
expansion has occurred in the last few
hundred years, long after the completion of the New Covenant and the
founding of the Christian Church. In Christian doctrine, New Testament
principles as expounded by Jesus were the ultimate expression of goodness, and
there has been no improvement since that time.
Consider,
for example, Christopher Columbus, about whom I will write as we get closer to
October 12. When Columbus tortured and enslaved Native Americans, he was either
evil or not. If we believe that the Bible condemns such actions, then Columbus
was evil, and we cannot do such things today because they are evil. But if we
believe that Columbus was a hero who brought the light of Christianity to the
heathens, then he was not evil, and we should be able to do such things
today. No Christian should say “It was
OK for Columbus to do those things but it would be wrong for me to do them,”
because that implies that during the two thousand years since the New Covenant
began God somehow changed the rules.
An
evolutionary view, in contrast, would say that since the time of Columbus we
have widened our compass of humanitarianism. We can say the standards of good
and evil are different now than in Columbus’ day. We cannot condone Columbus
(he should have known that rape and murder were wrong) but we can perhaps
understand him better. Unlike us, he was raised
to think that anyone who was not a member of his holy Catholic Church should
die.
In
conclusion: Genesis is wrong about human nature and its origin. Genesis implies,
even figuratively, that primitive humans were sinless, and modern humans are
depraved unless God saves them. An evolutionary view indicates that human
nature has always been both good and evil and that morality has evolved.