Genesis, and the origins of humanity.

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When Did Sin Begin?: Human Evolution and the Doctrine of Original Sin, Calvin University physics professor Loren Haarsma surveys the current state of this debate, outlining the prevailing schools of thought among evangelicals without taking a particular side. Jay Johnson, a former journalist and frequent writer on topics of science and faith, reviewed the book.

“Drawing from a dozen recent books on the subject,” writes Johnson, “Haarsma runs through the four main options:

  1. God selected Adam and Eve from an existing population to represent all of humanity. Since they represented everyone, the consequences of their failure immediately affected everyone.
  2. God selected Adam and Eve from an existing population to represent humanity, but after being expelled from the Garden, their sinfulness was spread to others by culture or genealogy.
  3. Adam and Eve aren’t literal individuals. Rather, Genesis 2–3 is a stylized retelling of many human events compressed into a single archetypal story. Although God occasionally revealed his will to individuals or groups, people persisted in disobedience.
  4. Adam and Eve are symbolic figures in an archetypal story. Over a long period of time, humans became morally accountable through general revelation (Rom. 1:18–20), yet they chose to sin.”

“Haarsma, the husband of BioLogos president Deborah Haarsma, has been involved in faith-and-science dialogues for decades, and his expertise shows throughout. The sort of ‘harmony’ Haarsma seeks isn’t a one-to-one correspondence between the details of Scripture and science. 

Instead, he advocates ‘a harmony reminiscent of J. S. Bach’s counterpoint,’ which employs two melodies played simultaneously. Each can be enjoyed independently, but ‘played together, they form a richer whole.’

“Before discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each view, Haarsma spends the first half of the book-reviewing the theological and scientific issues that come into play: scriptural interpretation, divine action, natural evils, and human evolution. 

The opening chapter covers principles of biblical interpretation, invoking John Calvin’s well-known principle of divine accommodation—how God, knowing our limitations, speaks to us in something resembling ‘baby talk’—to explain the ‘ancient science’ in the Bible. Haarsma concludes that science doesn’t dictate interpretation, but ‘scientific discoveries are one of several ways that the Holy Spirit has prompted the church to reinterpret specific passages.’”

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