Oh the inhumanity...
I've been thinking - a dangerous pastime I know - about our place in the universe, our nature, and thenature of God. This new Sunday school class I'm going to is fascinating, not neccisarily anything too horribly new, but fascinating nonetheless. It focuses on how being a Christian should give you a Christian worldview that should prevade all your thoughts and actions. The idea that being Christian is not somthing you simply turn on or off on Sunday or when you give a charitable donation. We also talked about the lies of the world and how easily we can become entrapped by them and not even know it. This all lead Jenn and I into a discussion of the nature of man, a conversation that I thought on for quite some time afterwards....
What is the nature of man? This question has been puzzled throughout the ages, pondered by the Greek Sophists and Protestant Reformers alike. Some would have us believe that the nature of man is basically good. That all in all the human race is a kind, loving, and decent bunch and that those who are not are mere aberrations, a blot upon humanity's otherwise white soul. Even our very words reflect that belief. If something is atrocious or unbelievably cruel we say that it is inhumane. That it is not human, that it is other than humanity. Genocide, rape, exposure, murder, the list goes on and on. And we say "oh the inhumanity of it all".
I say that there is nothing more human. These atrocities are a better window into the human soul than anything else. They show us for what we really are. So no, humanity is not basically good, we are blotted and stained with evil. What is evil than you ask? The absence of God. God is good, that is His nature. It is as C.S. Lewis said of Aslan, "he's not safe, but he's good." It is the same with God. Evil is simply anything that is not of God. And if it is not of God it is of the Devil.
In the garden of Eden humanity was given a choice whether we would be of God, or of the Devil. We chose poorly. Adam and Eve were tempted and because God had not made them puppets but creatures with free will they failed and they fell. Can we blame our forefathers than for our sullied nature? Yes, but which one of us has never given in to temptation? We would have fallen as surely as they did. And so in that choice we chose what was not of God, and thus humanity chose evil.
You scoff. Why then is the earth not some miserable Hell hole steeped in horrors. Why do we feel appalled when we read of Concentration camps, child molesters, and the slaughter of innocents? What of all the good in this world, the love and compassion? Is that in our evil, fallen nature?
We were made in God's image, a weaker reflection of His glory. The good in this world, and in us, comes from Him. By His grace our own natures do not wholly consume us. At least not all of us. We still have the capacity, even the propensity for good because we are still made in His image and reflect His goodness. That reflection is dark and distorted now by sin, but it is there nonetheless. When we see good in this world, it is not human nature, but rather God's nature shinning through.
What then is the nature of man? Human nature is basically evil with the propensity for good. If we were basically good, what then do we need to be saved from? If our very natures do not set us at the brink of destruction from our very conception, why then do we need to be saved? Why did Jesus have to live as one of us, as a perfect human being if our natures are basically good? Why then did he have to die such a horrible, tortuous death? Why don't we just rescue ourselves?
What is the nature of man? This question has been puzzled throughout the ages, pondered by the Greek Sophists and Protestant Reformers alike. Some would have us believe that the nature of man is basically good. That all in all the human race is a kind, loving, and decent bunch and that those who are not are mere aberrations, a blot upon humanity's otherwise white soul. Even our very words reflect that belief. If something is atrocious or unbelievably cruel we say that it is inhumane. That it is not human, that it is other than humanity. Genocide, rape, exposure, murder, the list goes on and on. And we say "oh the inhumanity of it all".
I say that there is nothing more human. These atrocities are a better window into the human soul than anything else. They show us for what we really are. So no, humanity is not basically good, we are blotted and stained with evil. What is evil than you ask? The absence of God. God is good, that is His nature. It is as C.S. Lewis said of Aslan, "he's not safe, but he's good." It is the same with God. Evil is simply anything that is not of God. And if it is not of God it is of the Devil.
In the garden of Eden humanity was given a choice whether we would be of God, or of the Devil. We chose poorly. Adam and Eve were tempted and because God had not made them puppets but creatures with free will they failed and they fell. Can we blame our forefathers than for our sullied nature? Yes, but which one of us has never given in to temptation? We would have fallen as surely as they did. And so in that choice we chose what was not of God, and thus humanity chose evil.
You scoff. Why then is the earth not some miserable Hell hole steeped in horrors. Why do we feel appalled when we read of Concentration camps, child molesters, and the slaughter of innocents? What of all the good in this world, the love and compassion? Is that in our evil, fallen nature?
We were made in God's image, a weaker reflection of His glory. The good in this world, and in us, comes from Him. By His grace our own natures do not wholly consume us. At least not all of us. We still have the capacity, even the propensity for good because we are still made in His image and reflect His goodness. That reflection is dark and distorted now by sin, but it is there nonetheless. When we see good in this world, it is not human nature, but rather God's nature shinning through.
What then is the nature of man? Human nature is basically evil with the propensity for good. If we were basically good, what then do we need to be saved from? If our very natures do not set us at the brink of destruction from our very conception, why then do we need to be saved? Why did Jesus have to live as one of us, as a perfect human being if our natures are basically good? Why then did he have to die such a horrible, tortuous death? Why don't we just rescue ourselves?