Thoughts on Evolution and the Sin in Eden: A New Christian Synthesis (1998) 24

I finish my thoughts on Zimmerman’s book by speculating on what “Baptism for remission of sins” might mean after An Archaeology of the Fall.

In a way, Augustine was correct.  Humans have fallen from their natural state, where words were grounded in referentiality.  Now, there is no solid earth beneath us.  We are standing in mud.  We are mud.

If a person is anima joined to caro through the spiritual principle of gravity – er, descent – then one can say we land on water.  Each of us land in a sea of symbolic orders, ever shifting, exclusive domains interpenetrating exclusive domains, each domain calling the person to swim in their waters.

Baptism gets us onto a boat.  Baptism is like learning to swim.  Baptism is like finding land.  These three metaphors constitute a “remission of Original Sin” because, without it, there is only disorientation.  In a world without Jesus the Christ, who knows which way is up?

All the universal religions tell – in their own way – which way is up.  What makes Jesus unique is that he – himself – is the way up.  The Christian tradition has always proclaimed this.  For that reason, Jesus is problematic to all other symbolic orders.  Jesus has his hand in the water, ready to pull you up.

Of course, if there are only symbolic orders, then everything is relative.  Not so. Symbolic orders inspire us to construct indexes and icons that build social constructions that are anything but relative.  That is why the Progressives have worked to empty the courts, the legislatures, the executive suites, the media and the universities of anyone who is not Progressive.  That is the only way to do what they were created to do:  Control the destructive automatons.

Do you think Progressivism is the way up?  Of course you do.  We all do. There are so many expressions, reasons, feelings, and intuitions for why this way is up.  But these interlocking symbols are all only words.  You will realize their meanings only when the social constructions are actualized.

Will Baptism become tangible then?   Will we then need a hand to save us from drowning?  Who knows?  Ask a fatherless child.

Of course, this is only speculation.  Others, greater than me, will follow.

This concludes my thoughts on Zimmerman’s book.  God bless.