Category Archives: The science of Original Sin

What about this vision of Original Sin as a reification of our own interpretations of the ‘what is real’. Once reified, a “serpent” inspires us to actions that produce results that differ from expectations (i.e. what is defined to be ‘real’). How do we deal with those results? Examples? And how does this picture resonate with traditional interpretations of these chapters of Genesis. This topic is addressed in chapters 11,12 and 13.

01/8/16

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.1CT-2

[Look at the virtual nested in the realm of actuality2.

‘The Progressive power person2c’ brings ‘easily identified lines of contrast2b’ into relation with ‘the potential of personal self-esteem2a’.

This is precisely why the conservative person of African descent must be dismissed by America’s Progressive so-called mainstream media. That person does not fit ‘the way that the sovereign brings people into organization along easily identified lines of contrast’.]

12/6/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.2 DP-1

[In God, all things are possible, which means that opportunities exist.

All we have to do is exercise our freedomconcrete.

Our consciencefree is always ready.

Here, ‘free’ means free from the dictates of a professor who insists that ‘free to choose’ means a woman’s right to abort that “thing” that will bond a woman to her husband and expect that husband to provide.

That “thing” is a human being.]

12/2/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.1CP

Summary of text [comment] pages 67 and 68

[Self-esteem arises from the realization that “I am an image of God”.

“Recognizing myself as an image of God” may be described as “my covenant with God”.

Compare this to “self-recognition based on mundane normal contexts (family, income, status, tribal affiliation, national citizenship)”. I participate within this spontaneous order in limited ways (due to these normal contexts “determining who I am”).

My covenant is to a mundane normal context, not to the attractor of the spontaneous order.

My covenant is to a mundane normal context, not to God.]

11/30/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.1CN

[Hmmm. Were the last few blogs a red herring?

Does my self-esteem reflect my fears as a limited creature in a cultural spontaneous order?

Or does my self-esteem express the nature of the self-reflective creature?

Or does my self-esteem arise when “I recognize myself” as “within a spontaneous order that realizes itself through an attractor that is contiguous with God’s design”?

Nature speaks to the wonder of God.

“I do not lack self-esteem” when “I recognize myself as an image of God”.]

11/26/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.1CL

[Our individual success depends on the dynamics of the spontaneous order. We are experiments. The outcome of each experiment is not predetermined.

From this point of view, our “lack of self-esteem” reflects “our emotional reactions to the tentative world of a social spontaneous order”. Life is scary. We are limited creatures. The challenges are abundant.

The cure for our fears does not rest in the spontaneous order. Nor does it reside, as Progressives will never tire in saying, in making the world “more fair” (that is, more lifeless). It becomes apparent when looking through the spontaneous order towards “the actuality that conditions the existence of the spontaneous order itself”.

I look through the spontaneous order toward the attractor. The attractor is contiguous with the unseen design.

Here is a parallel way of saying this. This parallel way leads to certainty:

I look through Jesus the Son of Man (who I know and image within my own unique actuality) to see Jesus the Christ (the attractor), who sits at the right hand of the Father (the unseen design, encompassing all the ways we engage in desire for God).

This is why, when one person dies, an entire world is lost. Each person is the most valuable of God’s creations.]

11/24/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.1CJ2

[Our dynamic spontaneous orders exist because we are different. Differences provide the potential. Order spontaneously forms.

Our limitations come from “the accidents of our own coming into actuality”, as well as “the accidents of our capabilities and the capabilities of others”.]