What does it mean to be human? From the ASA LISTSERV:

 

From: "Howard J. Van Till" <hvantill@chartermi.net>

To:  ASA <asa@calvin.edu>

Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 09:20:58 -0400

Subject: Re: Evolution and Salvation

 

>From: Walter Hicks <wallyshoes@mindspring.com>

 

> I suspect that many resist the notion of evolution and an old earth partially because it is difficult to sort out just when "creatures" became mankind and to whom does salvation by Jesus Christ apply, historically? Evidently Abraham made the grade. Who else prior to him?. I suspect that many theologians on this list have tackled that question. Any suggestions?>

 

I cannot speak as a theologian, but....

 

Yes, we do encounter some conceptual difficulty in specifying a hard

boundary between not yet human and human along a continuous evolutionary

parent/offspring line. At what particular point would the uniquely human

qualities of God awareness, moral awareness, and moral responsibility become

present at an "adequate" level?  Some millions of years ago the creatures

present on Earth had no awareness of God (The Sacred), no awareness of the

moral difference between right and wrong, no sense of responsibility to do

the right and to shun the wrong. Now there are such creatures -- us.  Those

uniquely human qualities may have been there potentially millions of years

ago (to be actualized much later in time), but not yet actually.

Furthermore, many persons find it impossible to think of these human

qualities as something that could develop "naturally," that is, without some

form of divine intervention.

 

However, It seems to me that we encounter a similar difficulty in a

phenomenon much closer to our own experience -- our own development from a

fetus to an adult. Some years ago, as a fetus, each of us had no awareness

of God (The Sacred), no awareness of the moral difference between right and

wrong, no sense of responsibility to do the right and to shun the wrong.

Now, as adults, we have all of those qualities.  Those uniquely human

qualities may have been there potentially in our fetal stage (to be

actualized later in time), but not yet there actually. Uniquely human

capabilities developed within us gradually. Furthermore, it seems that we

are comfortable with the idea that we developed these capabilities naturally

as part of normal human development (without divine intervention, using the

developmental gifts of the created world).

 

Question: If we are comfortable with this lack of discontinuity in our own

gradual and natural developmental history from fetus to adult, why should we

be uncomfortable envisioning a similar lack of discontinuity in the history

of the species?

 

Howard Van Till