Eden's Garden: Rethinking Sin and Evil in an Era of Scientific PromiseThe 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. |
From inside the book
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Page 22
... kind of moral evil could be responsible for this kind of natural evil ? Rousseau provides a straightforward answer . Natural evils , such as earthquakes , are genuine and need no further explanation . Rousseau's theology has no need to ...
... kind of moral evil could be responsible for this kind of natural evil ? Rousseau provides a straightforward answer . Natural evils , such as earthquakes , are genuine and need no further explanation . Rousseau's theology has no need to ...
Page 25
... kind of modification , " said Alan Colman , research director at PPL Therapeutics in Edinburgh — the same laboratory that helped produce Dolly the cloned sheep in 1966 . PPL Therapeutics hopes to use the gene targeting process to create ...
... kind of modification , " said Alan Colman , research director at PPL Therapeutics in Edinburgh — the same laboratory that helped produce Dolly the cloned sheep in 1966 . PPL Therapeutics hopes to use the gene targeting process to create ...
Page 32
... kind of passionate ( savage ) love that makes you unmanageable . As perceptive observers of history , Orwell and Huxley depict for us a world where comfort and happiness have become the highest good . B. F. Skinner is the only scientist ...
... kind of passionate ( savage ) love that makes you unmanageable . As perceptive observers of history , Orwell and Huxley depict for us a world where comfort and happiness have become the highest good . B. F. Skinner is the only scientist ...
Page 33
... kind of thought experiment would consider a science tempered by humility and sensitive to the human touch . It would have to be a story of scientists who blend together a passion for truth and justice . I wonder what that would look ...
... kind of thought experiment would consider a science tempered by humility and sensitive to the human touch . It would have to be a story of scientists who blend together a passion for truth and justice . I wonder what that would look ...
Page 36
... kind of interlocutor , because they press the author to make muddy water clear . Skeptics come in many varieties . There are Chris- tian skeptics who need to be convinced , once again , that they are in bondage to sin and that I am no ...
... kind of interlocutor , because they press the author to make muddy water clear . Skeptics come in many varieties . There are Chris- tian skeptics who need to be convinced , once again , that they are in bondage to sin and that I am no ...
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 |
293 | |
295 | |
299 | |
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Adam and Eve altruism androids argument atomic bomb Auschwitz become begins behavior believe better biological biotechnology Blank Slate Boston Globe capacity century chapter Christian Cold War common create creature culture death desire distinction empiricism ence enhancement ethical everything evil evolution evolutionary expect feel Franck Report Fukuyama fundamental future genes genetic Genome global happens hope human condition human nature issue John Polkinghorne Kass kind knowledge language Leon Kass lives Manhattan Project Matt Ridley matter means mind modern moral nation Neiman never Niebuhr Oppenheimer original sin ourselves philosophers Pinker political posthuman question reality reason Reinhold Niebuhr religion responsibility Robert Oppenheimer Rousseau science and theology scientific scientists self-awareness self-transcendence sense sinful social society speak story theologians theology thing tion tradition transcend Trinity test trust truth understanding University Press writes Yahweh York
Popular passages
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.