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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Grzech pierworodny w kontekście ewolucyjnego obrazu świata

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Modern science portrays the genesis of man as just another link in the chain of evolution - first cosmic and then biological evolution. In such a worldview there is no place for a Garden ofEden or a miraculously innocent couple. Also, violence, suffering and death have accompanied humanity from the very be�ginning. The aim ofthis paper is to show that the Christian doctrine oforiginal sin does not conflict with the scientific worldview, provided, however, that it is properly understood. Within the evolutionary model ofthe world, original sin can be defined as the refusal to take a certain step that at some point should have been taken and that was made possible by Gods call. The failure to take this step is mans first and grave fault - it constitutes peccatum originale. It is possible to suppose that, ifthis step had been taken, it would have transferred humanity to a completely different state from the one in which it currently finds itself. Thus the limits ofthe synthesis achieved are indicated: for the em�pirical sciences, this conviction must for obvious reasons remain alien. From a theological point of view, it can also be assumed that a sinful form of behaviour has influenced evolution and has thus left its mark on the biological nature ofhumanity, as well as on our tendency to behave in one way or anoth�er. The main trouble theology has with the evolutionist worldview is that the evolutionist worldview reactivates the theodicy problem: Could not a good and all-powerful God have created the world in a different way, one that did not involve the necessity of pain, suffering, and death? Giving up the doctrine of original sin would mean destroying Christian soteriology, as Islam proves.