Adam and Eve

Original Sin

• The original sin was disobedience to God's command, not sex. Sex, in and of itself, is a gift from God, designed for procreation (Gen 1) and for the intimate union of husband and wife ("the two become one flesh," Gen 2).
• Sex is an essential aspect of the sacrament of marriage. It is from God and is blessed by God when it is used in the marriage relationship.
• "We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with human nature, "by propagation, not by imitation" and that it is... 'proper to each'" (Paul VI, CPG § 16; emphasis added).

"Reification" means treating something that is not a thing as if it were a thing. This is a normal feature of our minds, which are powerfully adapted to think about things that are objects of our senses. If we didn't associate concepts with images, we would be unable to tell one concept from another or to store the ideas in such a way that we can retrieve them again for future reference. Problems arise from reification when we accidentally attribute physical existence to things that do not physically exist. So, for example, "nothing" is not a thing in and of itself, but is the absence of all things. Nor is darkness a thing; it is just the absence of light--and yet, I need to call it "it," treating it as if it were a physical thing, in order to say that this "it" that I am thinking about is nothing.

Reification is good for beginners. The images of Original Sin as a "thing" is a first approximation. But that imagery needs to be surpassed, as with Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Original Sin is not a physical thing that we hand on like a baton from parent to child, but a spiritual condition or state of dwelling in darkness, disconnected from the power and the light of God. The effect of Adam and Eve's disobedience is that we lack a relationship with God, a relationship for which we were designed and intended and that we need desperately in order to be happy. In the state of being disconnected from God, we have no power, no light, no grace, no goodness, no love.

At the moment when Mary was conceived in St. Ann's womb through the ordinary gift of marital union, God said again, "Let there be light," and, in her, the darkness vanished forever.

Consequences of Original Sin

Book of Wisdom

"God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. ... It was through the devil's envy that death entered the world" (Wis 1:13; 2:24).

Romans

"Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned--for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come." (5:12-14)

The victory that Christ won over sin has given us greater blessings than those which sin had taken from us: "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (CCC #420; Rom 5:20).

"For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies." (8:19-23)

Catechism of the Catholic Church

I. Where Sin Abounded, Grace Abounded All the More

The reality of sin

386

Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.

387

Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another.

Original sin - an essential truth of the faith

388

With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story's ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin. The Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen Christ, came to "convict the world concerning sin", by revealing him who is its Redeemer.

389

The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ.

How to read the account of the fall

390

The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.

III. ORIGINAL SIN

Freedom put to the test

396

God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" spells this out: "for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die." The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.

Man's first sin

397

Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.

398

In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God", but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God".

399

Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image - that of a God jealous of his prerogatives.

400

The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay". Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will "return to the ground", for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.

401

After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin There is Cain's murder of his brother Abel and the universal corruption which follows in the wake of sin. Likewise, sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the Covenant and as transgression of the Law of Moses. And even after Christ's atonement, sin raises its head in countless ways among Christians. Scripture and the Church's Tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in man's history:

What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship which should link him to his last end, and at the same time he has broken the right order that should reign within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures.

The consequences of Adam's sin for humanity

402

All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned." The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men."

403

Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam's sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of the soul". Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin.

404

How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam "as one body of one man". By this "unity of the human race" all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not an act.

405

Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called "concupiscence". Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.

406

The Church's teaching on the transmission of original sin was articulated more precisely in the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine's reflections against Pelagianism, and in the sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God's grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence of Adam's fault to bad example. The first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil (concupiscentia), which would be insurmountable. The Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on original sin especially at the second Council of Orange (529) and at the Council of Trent (1546).

Battle of the Sexes

CCC #444

The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay". Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will "return to the ground", for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.

Between Pelagianism and Perversion

CCC #406

The Church's teaching on the transmission of original sin was articulated more precisely in the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine's reflections against Pelagianism, and in the sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God's grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence of Adam's fault to bad example. The first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil (concupiscentia), which would be insurmountable. The Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on original sin especially at the second Council of Orange (529) and at the Council of Trent (1546).

Pelagius thought that our human nature was so little affected by sin that we only needed the good example of Jesus' love and mercy to inform us of what we should do. Once we saw Jesus' love, Pelagius held that we could choose to imitate Him by our unassisted powers of intellect and free will.

The Church teaches that our natural powers must be elevated by sanctifying grace in order for us to choose and do good. Without God's grace, we could not escape the bondage of self.

Some Protestants taught that human nature itself is broken by sin. The Church replied that "God does not make junk." We are still "in the image and likeness of God," and our nature is "very good" (Gen 1:26-27,31). We are in a fallen condition from which we cannot rescue ourselves, but the evil is primarily in our circumstances, not in our nature itself. "Man has a wounded nature inclined to evil" (CCC #407).

Questions arising from evolutionary biology

What do you think about the claim that Neanderthal genes were found in the DNA of homo sapiens?

I'm not a geneticist.

We have to follow the facts wherever they lead.

The Church is not wedded to any scientific theory (or observation) about how we developed.

Cf. Humani Generis for the theological commitment of the Church to monogenism: we believe that there was an original First Pair of human beings from whom all of us are descended and from whom we inherit the condition of being alienated from God and from each other (Original Sin).

We don't know how far back in history that event goes.

We don't know the "real" names of the First Pair. The Bible calls them "Adam" and "Eve" (Gen 2-3). "Adam" means "the man" and "Eve" is said to mean "mother of all the living" (Gen 3:20).

John Paul II wrote on evolution in 1996. He says that we must accept the fact of evolution in the sense that one form of life comes from another. We may not accept the atheistic interpretations of that fact.

I know it's a speculative question, but it's somewhat interesting to consider whether neanderthals had rational souls. I have read that archaeological evidence indicates that neanderthals had burial customs for their dead (a form of primitive religion, perhaps?).

G.K. Chesterton's Everlasting Man has a great passage about how anthropologists tell fairy tales about what "early man" believed from the non-verbal clues left behind.

If there was religion, then, of course, there was rationality. The two go hand-in-hand. The hard part is getting at the content of the minds of the primitive humans where there is no written record (the glorious art in the caves does not count as writing).

Of course, it's not really an issue with any practical import for us today.

Right.

Anyway, have you found that a lot of the theological discussion of evolution involves a sort of covert traducianism? Or, at least, a neglect of the huge metaphysical difference between an animal (however clever) and a being with a rational, immortal soul?

Yes. The materialists necessarily want to treat humans as nothing but animals that have evolved by accident--and as animals that can be bred or engineered to new standards of excellence (C.S.L., Abolition of Man).

Do you think it would be possible to know at some point, or will this event remain forever in the "mists" of prehistory?

We won't be able to answer that question until all the evidence is in. When will the anthropologists excavate the last pre-historic site? When will the biologists finish their genetic studies?

Bonnette

Dennis Bonnette retired in 2003 as Professor of Philosophy at Niagara University in Lewiston, New York, where he was Chairman of the Philosophy Department from 1992 to 2002. He is the author of two books, Aquinas' Proofs for God's Existence (Martinus-Nijhoff, 1972) and Origin of the Human Species (Sapientia Press, 2003; 2nd edition, 2007, with a new Foreword by biochemist Michael J. Behe). His website is DrBonnette.com.