From a friend:

If there were satisfactory Christian explanations for the extent of evil in this world, human and natural, I doubt the Templeton Foundation would have fronted $1.5 million for new work on the problem of evil.

Take a closer look at these two very perceptive papers:

Re. sin: ‘Recent studies in primatology, sociobiology, and phylogenetics are also pertinent to the historicity of Adam and Eve and to the Christian doctrines of the Fall and original sin. Here a range of evidence establishes that virtually all of the acts considered “sinful” in humans are part of the natural repertoire of behavior among animals—especially primates, but also birds, insects, and other species—behaviors including deception, bullying, theft, rape, murder, infanticide, and warfare, to name but a few.” (Daniel Harlow, “After Adam: Reading Genesis in an Age of Evolutionary Science”.

Click to access PSCF9-10Harlow.pdf

“In the Augustinian version of the historical Fall, the purpose is to exonerate God from this charge (of being responsible for sin), and to pin all the blame on creatures—demonic and human. As we will see, the narrative of human evolution makes it very hard, if not impossible, to maintain this position and its approach to theodicy. For it seems, on this science, that not just natural evils, such as animal suffering and violent episodes in nature, but also the disposition for human moral evils, are practically part of God’s original design.”

John Schneider, “Recent Genetic Scienceand Christian Theology on Human Origins: An Aesthetic Supralapsarianism’

Click to access PSCF9-10Schneider.pdf

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Two responses:

1. I assert that Christian theology has long distinguished between an original good creation and subsequent “cursed modification” (Fall), noting in passing that this won’t satisfy those who don’t hold this view. This disturbs all the enlightened, you say, especially yourself and Templeton board members. So what? Do you really think that suffering in the natural world has escaped the notice of Christians for two millennia? Obviously, for a vast majority of believers, the biblical data and orthodox views have proved satisfactory. There are numerous Christian philosophers/theologians post-Darwin who continue to defend the Fall as a component in a satisfying theodicy. Their arguments will not satisfy everyone: I never claimed they would.

2. Let’s just consider The Amazon Basin as the Garden of Eden and the subsequent rape and exploitation of this garden as ‘the fall’. When we eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge we have the human choice to use that knowledge for good or evil…no other creation has that choice.