Eden's Garden: Rethinking Sin and Evil in an Era of Scientific Promise

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2007 - Philosophy - 301 pages
The time is ripe for a robust discussion of human nature. In Eden's Garden: Rethinking Sin and Evil in an Era of Scientific Promise, Richard Coleman examines the notion of sin in a contemporary world that values scientific and nonreligious modes of thought regarding human behavior. This work is not an anti-science polemic, but rather an argument to show how sin and evil can make sense to the nonreligious mind, and how it is valuable to make sense of such phenomena. The author reconceptualizes sin and evil as 'indelible pieces of our evolutionary history' preventing them from being ostracized as 'too religious, without substance, mired in the past.' Coleman redeems theology for what it can offer to the understanding of sin and evil while embracing and respecting what science can offer to further the common good. Examining themes in religion, philosophy, and theology, it is ideal for use in the numerous courses that move across these disciplines.
 

Contents

Knowledge Too Powerful to Be Ignored The Good and Noble Scientist
45
Knowledge Too Good Not to Be Exploited The Compromised Scientist
79
THE NEW OCCASION FOR AN ORIGINAL TEMPTATION
127
Sin of the Common Variety Distinguishing Sin from Evil and Sin from Sins
129
Sin Uniquely Christian A Fresh Interpretation of The Fall
161
Sins Genealogy The Emergence of Sin
189
Science as the New Occasion for Sin When Humans Overreach
223
SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY IN COUNTERBALANCE
247
What Can We Expect? So Much Depends on How We Answer
249
Selected Bibliography
283
Subject Index
293
Author Index
295
About the Author
299
Copyright

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Page 26 - Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select — doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.

About the author (2007)

Richard Coleman is a retired minister in the United Church of Christ and is a participant in the pastor-theologian program sponsored by the Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. He lives in Pembroke, Massachusetts.

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