A group of us were talking when the subject of Hugh Grant picking up a
“A woman doesn’t have to be better looking than a guy’s current girlfriend or wife,” I explained. “Men want sexual variety.”
“It’s sin nature,” she replied. She was referring to the Christian notion that humans have a sinful nature.
I grew up believing that, but I had the uneasy feeling that something was wrong with the idea that humans are evil by nature. As I thought it through, I came to the realization that a belief in humans’ sinful nature makes no sense.
Sin Nature Is a Design Flaw
Suppose I want a go cart that steers straight, but when I build the go cart, it veers to the left. How does that happen? Simple –I screwed up. A go cart that veers to the left represents a design flaw, something that is inherently screwed up in its design and construction. I can screw up while building a go cart because I’m human and I don’t always know what I’m doing.
So how does God make something that’s screwed up? (Like Christians claim that humans are fundamentally flawed.) Either he unintentionally built something crappy, which is something humans do all the time, or he intentionally made humans with a design flaw. Neither makes sense.
Follow the logic:
God hates sin, so...
God makes humans who sin by nature.
If Humans Are Made to Sin, then Punishment Makes No Sense
It becomes even more nonsensical when we add the element of punishment. God hates sin, so he made you sinful by nature, but if you sin (and we know you’re going to sin because God made you that way) He will burn you alive forever.
Imagine I want a go cart that steers straight. I intentionally make a piece of crap go cart that veers to the left. I get ticked off at the go cart for behaving in the way that I built it, and run over it with my 4 x 4 monster truck.
Suppose I hate hopping. I detest jumping of any sort. I create a kangaroo that hops by nature. When I see it hopping in the backyard I yell, “You’d better stop that damn hopping or I’m going to beat the @#!% out of you with a baseball bat and set your sorry ass on fire!” These are the actions of a madman. And yet that’s nothing compared to hell, considering that any sane person would rather get whooped with a baseball bat and get set on fire than endure the eternal torment of hell. Logically, getting whooped with a baseball bat can only last so long before you black out.
Let’s look at the “reasoning” again.
God hates sin, so...
God makes humans who sin by nature.
God is going to punish if you sin.
A Rational Alternative
A key element of being human is choice. God didn’t make robots, but free persons who can make choices. If you’ve ever had children, you know how it works. They are free agents who can choose what to do. Inevitably, they’re going to make a bad choice. This doesn’t make them evil, it makes them human. The idea is to steer them toward good choices, and appropriate punishments are part of that. If children were evil or sinful by nature, you wouldn’t love them.
So Why Do Christians Teach That Humans Are Sinful by Nature?
Most people are not evil. Most of us know a lot of very good people. I’m guessing that your mom and dad are evidence to the contrary that humans are sinful by nature –mine certainly are.
The problem is that the rigid morality of Christianity is such a piss-poor lifestyle that people must be coerced into it. People might opt out of going to church and helping to buy Reverend Billy Bob’s new Cadillac, so the specter of hell has to be raised to keep people in line. Basically, God is going to beat the hell out of you (or into you) if you don’t get in line and start going to church. Preachers work to create the conception of human life as miserable, when research shows that most people are happy.
Here’s my question: Do you have a lifestyle that appeals to people, without having to throw in some kind of threat?
5 comments:
Interesting take. Definitely gave me something to think about.
Frederick Douglass? How cool is that?
1 out of 100 guys wouldn't know him if they tripped over his corpse.
I read your blog, and I'm adding it to the blogroll.
Welcome back.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Was that written by by Reverend Billy Bob on his way to the Cadillac Dealership? Um . . . no, actually. So it's really not about Cadillacs for most people, even most pastors.
But your argument is more sophisticated than that, so on pain of pedantry, let me try to take it point by point:
Design Flaw. Nope, the human race was created perfect and sinless. But by the sin of Adam, which all of us inherit, we are now what you see around you.
Our punishment is unjust. So by inheriting Adam's sin, we inherit his punishment. I gather this would offend your sense of individual autonomy; you wish to be judged only on what you do. Fair enough. But remember, not only was Adam created perfect and immortal, and lived in paradise, but he personally talked with God every afternoon. And he still screwed up. On what grounds do you think that you, as a baby clawing your way to rationality, and surrounded by the world as it is, would do any better?
Read Romans 9 again.
Humans have freewill. At a risk of being flippant, flap your arms and fly like a bird. Having trouble? So is your will the problem? Or is it not in your nature to have the ability of unassisted flight?
It should be no surprise to us that our abilities are circumscribed by our nature. Why should it surprise us that our ability to lead a sinless life is likewise limited?
There are so good people. Yes there are . . . when we grade on the curve. Nobody said that humans are always and everywhere as bad as they could possibly be. Only that everything we are and do, including the good and noble things, is touched by sin in some way. Including the love I have for my family.
Sorry, the Billy Bob line is a cheap shot. But it does become easy for many well-intentioned ministers to see their success as God's success. So God wants people to attend church, and God wants people not just to donate, but to tithe, so when I as Reverend Chickenwing encourage that, I incidentally happen to get money and prestige. All of which amounts to the Lord "blessing" my ministry.
I see the Adam and Eve story as allegorical. I believe the intention is to show that men and women are complementary (and homosexuality is a deviant lifestyle), and that life on earth can't be perfect. Maybe that's how we're different from animals, in that we can imagine a perfect existence, but can't quite achieve it.
There are certainly evil people, but I don't buy into the sin notion, in that all of us have sinned and therefore all of us are doomed to hell. Unless of course we are saved, which often entails attending Rev. Chickenwing's church and contributing.
I think that the wickedness of all of humanity, including Ronald MacDonald and the Care Bears, has to be exaggerated and the specter of hell raised in order to convince people who wouldn't otherwise enroll.
I have a daughter who "sins." Sometimes I get angry, but I don't have to kill her over it. She says she's sorry, I say I'm sorry, and we move on. That's how I picture a human relationship with God.
Dear Raymond,
I appreciate you writing this post, but I don’t agree with anything you wrote. I’m not sure if you are a Bible reader, or whether or not you believe in the Bible as the Word of God, but your arguments do not make sense, and cannot be supported by what the Bible says.
Yes, we are ALL sinners. And yes, we are born with a sinful nature. Not because we are evil people (the two of them don’t mean the same thing), but because we are not righteous under the sight of God. We were made perfect. God did NOT create sin. Sin was introduced into the world by Satan, through Eve and Adam. If you believe in the Bible, see Romans 5:12.
You asked your readers to reflect on why then God allowed sin to enter into the world!? We all know that God is very loving, and that He would not create men so He could punish them. No, that does not make any sense.
But now here is the good news. God KNEW (since He knows everything) that men would sin, and that this would bring suffering and death into the world. God was not surprised by Eve and Adam’s fall. He knew they would be tempted by the serpent (devil) and that they would sin. So, since He is the amazing God He is, He had a PLAN for that. He would come Himself to the world (as Jesus Christ) and REDEEM everybody who believed in Him from SIN, from DEATH. That’s the solution. And that is what we, Christians, should be talking about, the amazing plan that God has for our lives, through the redemption of our sinful nature by Jesus.
I would love to hear your opinion on my comments.
Take care,
Tathiana
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