RT Article
T1 Can we give up the origin of humanity from a primal couple without giving up the teaching of original sin and atonement?
JF Science & Christian belief
VO 27
IS 1
SP 59
OP 83
A1 Suarez, Antoine
LA English
PB Paternoster Press
YR 2015
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1577151275
AB Recent genetic studies have strengthened the hypothesis that humans did not originate from a single couple of the species Homo sapiens. Different models have been proposed to harmonise this with Christian belief on original sin and atonement. In this article I discuss these models and propose a new explanation derived from Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica I, 98-100 and Romans 5:19;11:32.1 argue that generations may have passed before the appearance of sin, and hence belief in 'original sin' does not require that it was committed by a pair of persons who are biologically the common ancestors of all human persons. In the light of this analysis I consider moral responsibility as the distinctive sign of human personhood, and assume that the creation of the first human persons happened during the Neolithic period. The article concludes that views of the biological origin of humanity from a primeval Homo sapiens population (polygenism) or a single couple (monogemsm) are both compatible with Christian belief, and therefore deciding between these two hypotheses should be better left to science.
K1 'Homo divinus'
K1 'relational damage'
K1 Atonement
K1 Adam and Eve
K1 Bible. Romans
K1 Darwinian principles
K1 God's intervention
K1 Human Evolution
K1 LIFE of Adam & Eve
K1 MONOGENISM & Polygenism (Human origins)
K1 Original Sin
K1 Research
K1 Responsibility
K1 Romans 11:32
K1 first human persons
K1 genetic diversity
K1 monogenism
K1 Moral Responsibility
K1 polygenism