Nova recently aired a program about the Intelligent Design trial in Dover, PA. One of the interviewees questioned Darwinism, stating that it robbed man of his dignity.
I wondered whether the scriptures support this idea. My conclusion is that they do not. Yes, we were created in God's image, but our physical creation does not separate us from the animals. Rather, we have the same passions, drives, desires that they do (more or less). Importantly, it is this "natural man" that we must overcome.
We are not born "dignified" because of the manner of our creation any more than we are born "chosen" because we are "children of Abraham." Human dignity comes not by looking like but by acting like Jesus.
(More detail is posted at Feast Upon The Word Blog.)
19 November 2007
Intelligent Design and the Natural Man
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4 comments:
Even more defining is that we are children of God.
Appreciation of our inbuilt abilities as an equal with God can't be fully found without realisation that God is both the father of our spirit and physical body (the latter through descent).
The scriptures also demonstrate that Adam was not only the first man, but the "first flesh upon the earth". So much for scriptural evolution.
Tiger: I think the scriptures leave that open, to some degree. True, we are spiritual children of Heavenly Father, but only by being born again do we become children of Christ. Thus, we are and are not children of God.
DT: "inbuilt abililties as an equal with God...." Unless I totally misunderstand you, that doesn't sound scriptural. You might guess, but I'll go ahead and be clear: I don't believe in Adam-God theory and I don't read Genesis literally.
brian
I don't believe the Adam-God theory either. In fact I explain the misunderstanding of Brigham's statements in a post on my site.
Adam was actually God's child born with a perfect body. This is stated in Luke and Moses. Paul also makes this plain in Acts where he states that God can't be made of gold etc, because we are his offspring and we aren't made of gold etc. Christ was his only begotten in the fallen flesh - which is what flesh means in some scriptural instances.
Therefore we are sealed back to Adam, who is sealed to God (his father) in the temple. Thus there is the family line back to our father - God.
Whatever a person's feelings are on Genesis, the book of Abraham makes the whole thing crystal clear.
We are equal with God in that we are fellow intelligences. We have the same inbuilt abilities IF we apply the same eternal principles. He is there trying to teach us these principles and get us to his level.
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