>
> -----Original Message----- From: James Guinee
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 5:15 PM
> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: rethinking sin
>
>
> Mark McMinn, a Christian psychologist, argues that sin - and living in a
> fallen world - is useful to the teaching of psychology.
>
> He notes that the average general psych textbook will probably not
> include the word "sin," and yet evidence for the consequences of sin are
> can be found throughout the pages:
>
> -in the chapter on the human nervous system you are likely to encounter
> descriptions of how serotonin deficits contribute to clinical depression,
> and how dopamine excesses are attributed to schizophrenia
>
<snip further examples>
> In sum, each page reminds us of the stained and tattered state of
> human nature. Things are not as they are supposed to be.
>
> Fair argument? Or not?
>
> If not, and sin cannot or does not explain the fallen, imperfect world and
> its systems, what does?
>
> How do you explain to yourself, to your students, the reasons, the etiology
> behind the dark side of our world?
Seems to me that you only need the concept of sin/fallen-ness if you're
already a Christian. If you believe that the world, life, etc. did not
come about as the intentional creation of a being, but simply through
chance and the forces of evolution, it makes sense that things wouldn't
work any better than they absolutely had to. Chance and evolution aren't
concerned with maximizing human happiness, or goodness.
If you do believe that the world was created or designed, then of course
you need something to account for why things don't work better. (Though
blaming the creations rather than the creator seems a bit odd to me. I
*do* swear at my computer when it doesn't work well, but I know the fault
is really Microsoft's.)
But really, why bother? We all know who on TIPS is a Christian and who
isn't, and we seem to have these religion v. science battles every six
months or so. Why troll for another one?
Robin
**********************
Robin Pearce Abrahams
Boston University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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