“..Creator of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen.”

1. Creation and evolution

The Bible says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This is the doctrine of creation, according to which we acknowledge that all things exist by the will of God and by His will alone, and derive their existence from Him. This is what we express in the Creed when we say: “I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.”

* The creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and the theory of evolution:

When Genesis describes the creation process in its first chapter, it depicts the creatures as if each one or each species of them had been brought into existence directly by God in its present form. But such a view contradicts the theory of evolution that most contemporary scientists agree upon and which has become almost certain based on many proofs. Here a question arises for many: How can we reconcile divine revelation with the data of science?

To answer this pertinent question, we must remember, first of all, that the Bible is a book of faith, not a book of science. Its concern is to reveal to us the relationship of God with His creatures, and especially with man, not to provide us with a scientific description of the history of the universe. Therefore, when Genesis describes creation in its first chapter, divine revelation is poured into it in human molds, which are the traditions that were common in the place and time in which this chapter appeared (in the fifth or sixth century BC). These molds have no value in themselves. Rather, their value lies in the spiritual meanings that are revealed through them, meanings that summarize that all beings derive their existence and order from the one God. This is what the Greek Church Fathers understood fifteen centuries before the appearance of modern biblical criticism. They interpreted the account of creation in Genesis more symbolically than literally.

We conclude from the above that our belief in creation is not subject to the cultural mold in which the divine revelation of creation was poured in the Book of Genesis. And that we can express it in the intellectual molds that characterize our age, including the theory of evolution. This is what we will try to clarify, first briefly recalling the stages of evolution as described by modern science, then addressing what the reality of evolution requires in terms of a final explanation in the light of reason and faith.

* Stages of development:

Modern science has proven that evolution does not only include living organisms. Rather, it is inherent in the history of the universe as a whole. The universe to which we belong is an evolving universe. Its evolution began at the level of inanimate nature until it led to the emergence of life, which in turn evolved until it brought forth that thinking animal, man.

A - Material development: The theory most widely accepted among scientists today is that the universe, in its present state, began between ten and fifteen billion years ago. It was initially composed of clouds of hydrogen atoms (the simplest and lightest atoms) floating in space. From these clouds the planets were formed. In them, due to the enormous heat, nuclear reactions occurred that transformed hydrogen atoms into atoms heavier than helium, which in turn into atoms heavier than carbon, and so on. Thus, matter gradually condensed with the appearance of atoms that gathered a larger and larger number of particles in a system similar to the solar system in which electrons revolve around the nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, until, in the heart of the planets, they formed the ninety-two types of atoms found in nature.

When our Earth was formed about four and a half billion years ago and its temperature gradually decreased, atoms could interact to form denser groups, which are molecules. The atom is a small world, while the molecule collects those small worlds to include them in a new structure.

But the process of condensing matter did not stop there. About three billion years ago, molecules began to transform, most likely due to ultraviolet factors from the sun and electrical discharges during storms and the like. Structures were formed that were denser than ordinary molecules, namely organic molecules that combine ordinary molecules and assemble them into large, complexly arranged units, such as sugars, amino acids, protists, and others.

B - Life Leap: These organic molecules gathered in the hot waters of the seas. This gathering was a prelude to a very important event, the circumstances of which are still shrouded in mystery, which took place about two billion years ago and changed the face of the universe: the emergence of the first cell. The organized condensation movement, which we have seen drive matter since its inception, reached an extraordinary level here. The living cell combines many huge molecules of cytoplasm, fats, sugars, vitamins, and others, in a cohesive and concentrated unit in the most wonderful concentration, in which about a billion molecules are coordinated. But what is especially amazing is that this extreme complexity has led to the emergence of a new type of existence, radically different in kind from solids: life. The living cell has completely new features: it transforms into its own materials the materials it receives from outside, it constantly renews the elements of which it is composed while maintaining its structure, it grows from within, it repairs itself if it is damaged, it adapts to the environment, and it reproduces, producing new organisms similar to itself. This is the leap of life.

C - Evolution of life: From that world, small in size, enormous in its complexity and concentration, life set out to ascend a long ladder with man at its peak. In its ascension, life continued on the path that we saw matter take, namely the path of increasing complexity. After the first single-celled living organisms, there appeared organisms that were composed of multiple cells in a harmonious unit in which all the elements worked to serve the whole. Complexity increased significantly when groups of cells within a single organism began to specialize to perform a specific function, and systems were formed (such as the circulatory, digestive, and respiratory systems…) and worked in harmony and interconnection for the benefit of the body as a whole.

There had to be a system that would link these functions on the one hand, and between them and the outside world on the other hand. The nervous system emerged and gradually developed towards increasing intensification and concentration, which led to the brain growing as the main center of the nervous system, and to its gradual control over the other nervous centers. With the development of the nervous system in this manner, the ability of living organisms to adapt to their environment grew, instincts became more perfected, and intelligence emerged and its intensity increased until it reached its peak in the highest ranks of apes, such as the chimpanzee, for example, whose brain reached a remarkable degree of development.

This ascent in the ladder of living beings was accomplished, as Darwin showed and modern science has clarified, by means of changes that occurred from time to time in the hereditary characteristics carried by the reproductive cells (this is what is called “mutations”). New characteristics appear in the animal descended from a cell of this type. These characteristics may serve in the struggle for survival, so it lives and transmits its new characteristics by inheritance to its offspring, which then persists in existence and multiplies. Or they may hinder it in this struggle, so it and its offspring disappear, and its characteristics disappear with it (this is what is called “natural selection”). Thus, with the accumulation of “biological changes,” new species gradually emerged, arranged in this ascending line that we have previously summarized.

D - Leap of thought: The process of brain development, which has become the main axis of the increasing complexity that characterizes evolution, has reached its peak in man, whose brain consists of about fourteen billion cells (about four times that of a chimpanzee), interconnected with each other and with the cells of the lower nerve centers, in the form of an enormously complex electronic network. Thus, the necessary conditions were secured for a leap no less important than that achieved by life, namely the leap of thought. This leap, which took place in stages over about a million years, created a completely new type of existence, namely human existence, the existence of a being distinguished from all other living beings in that it alone is aware of itself and of the universe as distinct from itself, and therefore is no longer like an animal, a prisoner of its feelings and instinctive drives, but has become a being with thought and freedom, who perceives evolution and its place in it and takes upon himself the responsibility of following it with his consciousness and creative work.

* The development in his final explanation and its meaning:

Science proves the reality of evolution and explains the factors that explain its different stages. It has discovered many of these factors – some of which we have mentioned – and will undoubtedly succeed, thanks to the combined efforts of scientists, in shedding more light on the points that are still shrouded in mystery, making them more and more clear.

But, in addition to the questions that science must answer, there are questions of another kind, which do not fall within the scope of science because they are posed from a perspective different from its own. When science speaks of evolution, it describes an ascending line, and shows how the matter of the universe took this line. But it does not show, and it is not its business as science to show, why there was an ascending line? Thus, the door remains open to two fundamental questions, which are: What is the final explanation for evolution?? Does evolution have a justification and meaning??

A - Evolution is not explained by mere chance: Some people's answer to the first question is: This ascending sequence is due to chance alone. By chance the atoms of matter gathered together with increasing complexity, by chance the living cell was formed, and by chance the human brain was assembled. All of this is a series of coincidences, a succession of winning numbers in a cosmic lottery whose wheels are driven by blind luck.

But this philosophical view, which dates back to ancient Greek philosophers such as Democritus, does not hold up to what modern science has revealed to us about the complexity and coordination of a single living cell, or even a single organic molecule. Therefore, most scientists today have rejected it, even those who adhere to materialism. For example, we see the great Soviet biologist Oparin refuting the attempt to explain the emergence of a single living cell by chance, saying: “This assumption is similar to the position of a person who mixes the letters of a print representing twenty-eight letters of the alphabet and moves them, hoping that by chance they will come together to compose these and those poems that we know.”

If the appearance of a single cell by chance is impossible, as a science that is indebted to materialism asserts, then how can we explain, by the mere act of chance, the continuous progression of life towards higher and higher forms? If we consider this progression to be a succession of fortunate coincidences, then where does chance come from in its continuity and order? It is as if we were saying that changes occurred by chance in the text of the principles of geometry set forth by Euclid, during its copying by two successive copyists, one copying from the other, and they followed one another in a harmonious manner from one copy to another until they successively created all of humanity’s inventions in geometry and ultimately led to the emergence of Einstein’s theory. This is with the knowledge that a single cell is more complex than Einstein’s theory, because human science, with all its current might, has not yet reached the understanding of the secret of the composition of a single one of them.

B - Evolution is not explained by the action of “nature”: If the theory of chance does not hold up in the face of modern scientific data, despite Jacques Monod’s attempts to revive it in his book Chance and Necessity, what can be used to replace it? Many of those who today adhere to materialism, especially Marxists, say that evolution is explained by the nature of matter itself. In their view, matter, by its nature, had to become more and more organized and complex, thus passing through all stages of evolution.

But the question that this theory does not answer is: What is the secret of the order of matter? And what is the secret of its movement towards increasing order in a continuous, ongoing line? Where does matter get this order? Matter is a collection of particles and energies, it is multiplicity and plurality. How can this multiplicity be unified and organized, in an increasing, ascending manner? Shall we say that it organizes itself? But this assumes that matter is a self, a person, that rises above the multiplicity of its elements in order to unify and coordinate between them. This is what those who say that “matter” and “nature” are unconsciously implying. In doing so, they personify “matter” and “nature,” attributing to them a mythical entity, with a personal character.

Let us take an example to illustrate what we are talking about. We know that the body of every living being is formed from a first cell. Modern biology has studied the transformation that turns an oak tree into an oak tree and a single human cell into a human body composed of about sixty thousand trillion cells, diverse and distributed in amazingly coordinated systems and organs. Scientists have explained the many complex chemical reactions that gradually lead to this transformation, but they say that these reactions are directed, programmed, by a “directed design” inherent in the nucleus of the first cell, and specifically in DNA molecules. Thanks to this programming, the chemical reactions are coordinated to result in the formation of a living being that bears the characteristics that distinguish its species.

In comparison to this, we ask: If matter has taken, in its long history, that ascending path that led it from the first clouds of hydrogen to the human brain, then this was undoubtedly done under the influence of many physical factors and chemical reactions, which science has explained and will explain more and more. But this question remains: What is the secret of the regularity of these factors and reactions in an ascending line? What is the secret of the “programming” of matter in its continuous path towards more and more complex beings? The programming according to which the living being is formed and which is engraved in the nucleus of its first cell came to it by inheritance from a living being of its kind (or two beings) that existed before it. So where did the matter of the universe get its amazing programming? If matter is the only being, self-sufficient, then from where did it derive its guiding design? Do we say that it programmed itself? Then, as we said before, we attribute to that multitude of particles and energies a personal entity. We attribute to it a thought that is immeasurably superior to human thought, because it not only “invented” life, a life that human genius has not been able to imitate until now, but it also created human thought. Contrary to all logic, we attribute to it the ability to transform itself from less to more, transferring itself by itself not only from one system to a higher one, but also from one plane of existence to another plane of existence completely different from it, that is, from inanimate matter to living matter and then to thinking matter. In other words, we make of matter a divine person who continually creates itself. But such a deified matter is no longer the matter that physicists and chemists know and harness to the service of man. That brutal collection of particles and energies that science calls “matter.” It is a new idol erected in place of God.

C - A faith-based view of development: This brief critique of the materialistic doctrines of evolution paves the way for our faith-based view of it. The believer does not worship chance and matter to which he attributes the attributes of the Creator. Rather, he attributes the creative thought whose work is manifested in the evolution of matter to a being transcendent to matter, a personal being who alone can direct that multitude of blind particles and forces in the ascending line according to which they proceeded. A being who possesses life, all life. And therefore, he was able to breathe life into the universe. And he possesses thought, all thought. And therefore, he was able to ignite it on earth with the appearance of man. This faith-based position, although it is, specifically, beyond the data of reason and science, is nevertheless completely consistent, as is clear from the above, with the requirements of logic and with the scientific concept of matter.

But this action of God in matter must be understood for what it really is. It is not, as many believers and non-believers imagine, an action added to the laws of nature to complete its deficiency. This conception denies both God’s transcendence and His presence in the heart of the universe. Therefore, it is a mistake to imagine a design added from outside to the natural elements to direct them and straighten their course, as a driver directs his car. God works, not alongside the laws of the universe, but through them, because from Him and from Him alone they derive, at every moment, their existence and order. In this sense, creation is a continuous process, as the Lord indicated when He said: “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). Evolution is the tangible manifestation of the continuity of creation.

God, in nature, is both revealed and hidden. Science can search endlessly for an explanation of evolution. It will neither discover God nor encounter Him, because, through its own lens, it will discover only the natural laws by which God acts. But the more we become aware, through scientific discoveries, of the marvelous regularity that is manifested in the astonishing process of evolution, the more we are revealed, through them, to the presence and action of Him whose glory and splendor overwhelm beings.

This faith-based view is also what can reveal to us that evolution has a justification and a meaning. If evolution were the product of chance alone, the emergence of all beings, including man, would be an absurd appearance, by way of blind agreement, without justification or purpose. Likewise, if evolution were the product of brutal material laws alone, it would be a process without a goal, a blind destiny by which matter finds its best flower, human thought, and crushes it, in succession, by virtue of the “iron necessity” referred to by Engels. But is it reasonable that this amazing process that led the universe from the first hydrogen atoms to man, his thought and his civilization, is a process without a goal or justification? We believe that our faith-based theory of evolution is more in harmony with the requirements of logic, as it reveals to us that that which is the explanation of the final evolution also gives it its goal and purpose, and that purpose is to emerge from the body of the universe beings who can share in the life of God and the joy of eternity. This is what a famous contemporary philosopher, Henri Bergson, intuited when he said: “The universe is a machine for making gods.” This brings us to the subject of human creation.

Questions:

1. Read the first chapter of Genesis. What questions does this creation account raise for contemporary thought? Do you think this account is literally inspired? What inspired truths does it contain?
2. What is your information about development, its stages and factors?
3. Is the scientific perspective sufficient to explain evolution in a final, comprehensive way?
4. What do you think of chance as a final explanation for evolution?
5. Is it enough, in explaining evolution, to attribute it to the nature of matter?
6. What is the theistic view of evolution? Does it conflict with the scientific view?
7. What does evolution mean in this faith perspective?

extension:

1 - In his wonderful book “How to raise the issue of the existence of God today?” Claude Tremontant, Professor of the Philosophy of Science at the Sorbonne University, reviews the materialist doctrines in explaining evolution, and refutes them forcefully and clearly. Among what he says:

• If I say that matter organizes itself, I make matter the agent of an act of organizing. Matter, in this case, is not organized by another: it organizes itself.
• But let's first ask: What is matter? It is a multiplicity of elements, atoms, energy particles.
• To say that matter organizes itself, with its own potentialities, is a bold poetic metaphor. But what is behind this metaphor? Matter is not a person in order to be the subject of a verb conjugated with the subject pronoun Verbe réflèchi. It is not one of the persons (quelequ'um) in order to be able to organize itself. Matter is a multiplicity. How can it organize itself? In order for this sufficiency, this self-organization to be possible, matter is supposed to be a subject, to be able to rise above the multiplicity from which it is composed, in order to organize itself. In order for this multiplicity of elements to be integrated into a synthesis, a power is supposed to exist that is superior to this multiplicity of elements, something other than this multiplicity is supposed to exist…
• ...matter is not sufficient in itself to explain its own self-organization.

After the author mentions Marx’s view that beings in nature create themselves (selbsterzengung), he comments on this view by saying:

• This is precisely what needs to be proven. What needs to be proven is that the statement itself has a meaning. For if we attribute to matter the ability to organize itself into molecules, then into macromolecules, then into single-celled bodies, then into more and more complex multicellular bodies, this means that we attribute to matter an intelligence and a genius that surpasses all the intelligence of thinking humanity, since, to the best of our knowledge, we are still far from understanding how the organization of matter that constitutes living and thinking bodies has been, and is still being, at this very moment…
• But I ask myself again: what does the thought of matter mean? Matter is multiplicity, it is a collection. What then is the thought that a multitude of atoms and energy grains possess? In vain do I contemplate and study the atoms and particles of which modern physics speaks. I do not come to see anything that would allow me to attribute to them a thought capable of supervising their organization. In order for a collection of elements to be organized, there must be a single principle that transcends this multiplicity of elements and unites them into a unity composed in a concentrated organization. But I do not see, in the matter of which modern physics speaks, anything that would allow me to attribute to atoms a hidden personality and such powers.

Claude Tresmontant: Comment if this problem arises today?
Pages 222, 223, 225, 226, collection «Livre de Vie», Ed. du Seuil, Paris, 1971.

2 - One of the most famous contemporary Catholic theologians, the Dutch Father Schonenberg, explains the content of the doctrine of creation, saying in his book “God’s World in Becoming”:

• God not only created, but He continues to create without interruption. If He rested on the seventh day, His rest is also, according to Jesus’ word, a continuous work: “My Father is at work until now” (John 5:17). The first chapter of Genesis gives us a striking account of God’s work “in the beginning.” But other texts show God working without interruption. This is the case with Psalm 104.(1) Chapters 38 to 40 of the Book of Job. As long as the world endures, it is sustained by the word of his power. Every being and every work in the universe, as long as they exist, is caused by him. God is not a retired engineer, he is the one from whom and in whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). (pp. 207-208).
• … When God referred to his works in nature, in order to justify to Job the work of his providence, he insisted on the present works as much as on the work he had done “in the beginning.” We are not therefore bound to take this phrase from Genesis 1:1 in its exclusive sense. It means that God’s creative work is the foundation of all things, not that this work has ceased. (p. 44)
• Creation in fact establishes between God and creatures a vertical relationship that preserves all the horizontal relationships existing within the universe, or rather includes them and gives them existence. God creates a developing world, his creative work is not limited to the beginning of the world but extends to its full completion: God realizes at every moment this universe as a developing universe. (p. 45)
• God is always at work. It is precisely he who constantly gives the world his truth, a truth that is constantly growing. (p. 48)

Piet Schoonenberg: The world in love, Ed. du Centification, Paris, 1967

2 - Creation of man

The Bible tells us about the creation of man in the first and second chapters of Genesis. This text contains doctrinal truths wrapped in symbolic and poetic images. If we contemplate the text, we can highlight the following meanings:

Man's connection to material nature:

The Bible tells us that God created man from dust. This is what the word “Adam” refers to, and its meaning is taken from “Adama” which means earth. Man is therefore linked in his being to that material nature which is also God’s creation. Indeed, we see that the human body is composed of the same elements that make up material nature. The ten main chemicals that make up his body, the most important of which are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, are components of the material universe, because man emerged from this universe by the action of God. As for the manner of this emergence, the Bible expresses it in a symbolic poetic image. It says that God formed clay and breathed into it the breath of life. God is thus likened here to a potter who mixes and breathes, although we know from the Bible itself that God is a spirit who has no hands or mouth. Therefore, we cannot take this biblical text literally, but rather understand the doctrinal meaning behind these poetic images, which is that God is the reason for man’s emergence from the body of this universe. It is also the reason for the emergence of the universe itself into existence.

The Holy Bible does not describe to us how man emerged from the body of the universe in a scientific manner because it is not a book of science (for God gave man reason to build science with it), but rather a book of religious belief. But this belief does not conflict with the data of science. Science today believes that man is the product of a long evolution in which life emerged from inanimate matter despite the vast and enormous gap between them, then over the course of about two billion years it passed a long path surrounded by grave dangers, in which it rose despite enormous difficulties from the simplest forms to the most sublime in composition and perfection until it reached its peak in man. This scientific data does not conflict with our faith. In the ancient theory according to which man emerged directly from material nature, and in the modern theory according to which man emerges from the universe only through a long evolution, God remains in the view of the believer the cause of man’s existence. Nothing prevents God from using evolution as a means to bring man out of material nature. The believer sees in the wonderful evolution that modern science speaks of an aspect of God’s wisdom, the origin, guide, and goal of evolution.

The Bible tells us that God did not create man until after He had created all living and inanimate objects. It is as if the creation of man was the last act of creation and the entire earth was prepared for the existence of man. Modern evolutionary theory says that man is the pinnacle of evolution. Here modern science meets the biblical view of man as the crowning and summit of nature. The Bible explains this exalted status of man by saying that God created him in His image and likeness.

Man is in the image and likeness of God:

The Bible tells us: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). This means that God has given man a unique characteristic that He has not given to any other creature. It is that He created a resemblance between that creature and the Creator. He created in man a mind, will, freedom, creativity, and love, all of which are qualities similar to those that exist in him.

Thus it appears to us that this man is, on the one hand, a part of this nature from which he was taken, and on the other hand, he is immeasurably superior to this nature because he contains within himself the image of God, the Creator of inanimate and living nature: [And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.] [Genesis 1:26]. Man’s dominion over beings is therefore linked, as is evident from this text, to his being in the image of God the Creator. In other words, if man, who is part of nature, is able to comprehend its secrets and harness its powers to serve him, this is due to the image of God inherent in him. Man had to exercise his authority through work, which is, in a way, the completion of creation because it makes nature more orderly, more beautiful, and more productive: [And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.] [Genesis 2:15].

God's design in the union of man and woman:

The relationship between the sexes is depicted poetically in the Bible, which tells us that there was no one like Adam among the creatures: “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’” (Genesis 2:18). So He cast a deep sleep on him, took one of his ribs, and formed from it the first woman, who was called Eve (meaning the mother of life). He brought her to Adam, and Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:23). The book adds: [Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh] [Genesis 2:24]. From here the biblical view of the relationship between the sexes becomes clear, which can be summarized as follows:

A - The two genders are equal and complementary to each other: They are equal in nature, as Adam says that the woman is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. That is, she is of his nature. But they complement each other, as the Bible depicts this symbolically by saying that they are two parts of one body, indicating that one is not complete without the other. So the inclination of each sex towards the other as towards its complement is from the will of God.

B - The union of the sexes is achieved through marriage, which is a deep connection and a final bond: The Bible also depicts God’s design for the union of the sexes. It tells us that both man and woman are made perfect by their union together in marriage, in which they “become one flesh” (Matthew 19:6). The phrase “one flesh” means in biblical language “one human being.” This means, first, that marriage, according to God’s purposes, is a deep bond that unites two people, body and spirit, forming them into one being. It also means that the marital union is final and indissoluble, because “one flesh” cannot be divided later. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus taught about marriage, He quoted this Scripture and added to it: “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matthew 19:6).

Thus God, who created love between man and woman, “has placed an indissoluble bond between the inclination of the heart,” as the rite of the sacrament of marriage says. This “indissoluble bond” is presupposed by true love, because lust seeks to enjoy the other until it tires of him. Authentic love, on the other hand, longs for a final mutual gift. Lust seeks a fleeting enjoyment that embodies the other, while true love desires the union of two persons into one being. True love, consecrated in marriage according to God’s will, does not eliminate lust, but rather softens and refines it with tenderness and the inclination of the heart, and harnesses its power to build a solid union between the spouses, just as human industry uses the destructive force of raging water to generate electricity and benefit mankind.

Questions:

Read Genesis: Chapters 1 and 2.

1. What does the word of the book indicate that God created Adam from dust?
2. Does the modern theory of evolution clash with our belief that God is the cause of human existence?
3. The Bible tells us that God created man after creating all other living and inanimate objects. The theory of evolution says that man is the final stage of evolution. How, then, do these two views show us the place of man in creation?
4. How does the Bible explain this status?
5. What does it mean when the Bible says that God created man in His image and likeness?
6. Did God give man power over nature?
7. What is the relationship between the image of God in man and the authority he has been given over nature?
8. How does the Bible show the quality of relationships between the sexes?
   1. How does it appear that they are equal in nature? [See Genesis 2:23]
   2. How do they appear to complement each other?
   3. How does it appear that their union must be a deep connection and a final bond? [See Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:6]
   4. How does this ultimate connection and deep connection distinguish love from lust?
   5. Does true love eliminate lust or does it moderate and direct it?

3 - God's purposes towards man

The purpose of human creation:

The life of God is eternal and limitless joy. But “God is love” and therefore he wanted to create beings with whom he could establish a relationship of love and share in his life and joy. He thus created human beings to be his beloved, enjoying his blessings and contributing to his happiness. This is the glory of God, that man should live and be happy: “The glory of God is man’s life,” as Saint Jerome says (one of the Church Fathers who lived in the second century and was bishop of Lyons, where he was martyred).

God's design for man:

The Bible tells us that God placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden where they enjoyed delicious fruits. This symbolizes that God has prepared for man the ultimate happiness which is a participation in His happiness.

The source of this happiness is man’s union with God. This union is expressed in the Holy Bible by the intimacy it shows between God and Adam, as it tells us that God brought animals to Adam so that he could name them: “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” [Genesis 2:19]. And that He brought him a woman to be his companion: [And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made him a woman, and brought her to the man] [Genesis 2:22]. etc.

This union with God was likely to give man the following benefits:

A - Enjoying full mental powers From a bright mind, a strong will that yearns for good, pure intentions, and unselfish love.

B - Immortality: Man was not immortal by nature, but his union with God was bound to grant him immortality by sharing in the immortality of God Himself. Therefore the Bible says that God placed “the tree of life in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 2:9). So that if a man ate of it, he would live forever (Genesis 3:22). This symbolically means that immortality is a blessing that God bestowed upon man, and that this blessing was connected to man’s dwelling in the Garden of Eden, that is, in the protection of God, in union with God.

C - Sovereignty over nature: Nature was prepared to submit to man in view of the divine image inherent in him, so it does not rebel against him, nor harm him, nor cause him hardships and disasters. We see an effect of this in the lives of some holy monks to whom the wild animals were subject because the divine image had been renewed in their souls. This is what the Gospel shows us in the person of Jesus, who bore in his humanity the complete divine image, as the Evangelist Mark says: [And he was there in the wilderness forty days, and was with the wild beasts.] [Mark 1:13].

D - Man is the priest of the universe: In return for this submission of nature to man, man had to be the priest of the universe. For man is by nature a microcosm of the universe, in which the elements of matter, the functions of life and its instincts meet with the image of God that characterizes and elevates them. Thus, man is by nature a point of encounter between God and the universe, and therefore he had to be a link between them: God through him completes the work of creation in nature, as we have seen previously; and nature in turn praises God through him. For every glorification that man raises to God in word and deed, he raises it in the name of this universe, of which he is a microcosm. And nature had found in man a mind with which to praise its Creator. Thus, man had to manage creation in the name of God and to raise to God the praise of nature. This is the role that God has ordained for him as priest of the universe, because the priest is precisely that being who is the link between the Creator and the creature.

The role of human freedom:

This design, which divine love drew up for the happiness of man, God did not wish to impose on him. This is because God created man free in His image, and in this freedom is based the dignity of man. If God had imposed His design on man as He imposed instincts on animals and natural laws on matter, man would have been a delicate, wonderful, perfect machine and would not have been a man, that is, a being in the image of God, distinguished by that image from all of nature.

God respected human freedom because it is a condition of his dignity. And because true love forbids the freedom of the beloved, and God is absolute love before which all human love pales. Love is not imposed. Otherwise, it would no longer be love but slavery, and God did not want slaves but sons. Love is offered, and the being to whom it is offered accepts it or rejects it. Thus God offered His love to man and waited for his answer. Man had to respond with full choice to love with love or rejection.

This is the great adventure of love, that God has made himself somewhat bound by man, has made the fulfillment of his design dependent on man's freedom, has been content that the success or failure of this divine design should depend, to some extent, on man's attitude.

God’s divinity is revealed to us in this amazing loving respect for human freedom. In this amazing renunciation of His absolute power over man, His creation. That is why the famous Indian writer Tagore wrote: “I worship God because He leaves me the freedom to deny His existence.” That is, His divinity is revealed to me in this amazing respect for my freedom.

Man had to take a stand towards God. He had to say yes or no to God. Man was created in the likeness of God, but he had to achieve this likeness by constant effort and movement towards God. Just as a child realizes the image of the man in his development, it was up to him to either continually develop the image of God in him or to try to disable it and eliminate it from his being. This is the experience of freedom from which the tragedy of man arose.

Questions:

Read the second chapter of Genesis

1. Why did God create man?
2. What is the symbol of this garden in which God placed Adam, as the book narrates?
3. How is the intimacy of God and man shown in this second chapter of Genesis?
4. Don't you think that this familiarity was the source of human happiness? How so?
5. What does the Tree of Life refer to? (See with Chapter 2, No. 22 of Chapter 3).
6. What are the blessings and talents that God has prepared for man as a result of his union with Him?
7. What do we mean when we say that man was destined to be the priest of the universe?
8. Did God impose His purposes on man? Why did He respect his freedom?

extension:

Charles Péguy was a French writer who converted from atheism to the Christian faith and was killed in 1914 on one of the fronts of World War I, after leaving behind an immortal poetic legacy from which we quote the following passage in which the poet gives the floor to God, speaking about human freedom:

• “For I am free,” says God, “and I created man in my image and likeness,
  This is the secret, this is the value of all freedom.
  The freedom of this creature is a reflection in the world of the freedom of the Creator.
  That is why we attach special importance to it.
  A salvation that is not free, that does not come from a free man, has no value in my eyes, so what use is it?
  What does it mean?
  What significance would such a salvation have?
  My beatitude is slaves, my salvation is slaves, my beatitude is enslaved, how do you want to concern me? Does anyone like to be loved by slaves?
  If the issue is merely a matter of giving proof of my power, then my power does not need these slaves, it is known enough, it is known enough that I am all-powerful.
  My ability shines bright enough in every subject and every event.
  My power shines enough in the sands of the sea and the stars of the sky.
  No objection to it, it is known, it shines enough in the inanimate creation…
  But in my living creation, God says, I wanted better than that, I wanted more than that.
  Incomparably better than that. Incomparably more than that. Because I wanted that freedom.
  That same freedom created it.
  He who once knew himself to be freely loved, no longer finds submission tasteful.
  He who knows himself beloved by free people, no longer finds meaning in the prostrations of slaves.
  The submission of all slaves is not worth one beautiful look from a free man. Rather, the submission of all slaves disgusts my soul, and I would give everything for one beautiful look from a free man.
  For one beautiful obedience, one beautiful love, one beautiful devotion from a free man.
  For this freedom, for this gratuitousness, I sacrificed everything God says, for my inclination to be loved by free men.
  In order to have this freedom, this gratuitousness, I sacrificed everything,
  In order to create this freedom, this gratuitousness,
  In order to release this freedom and this gratuitousness.”
  {pp. 99-100 Charles Péguy: Le Mystère des Saints Innocents}

4- Fall

We said earlier that it was natural for man to participate in the dialogue that God began with him when He created him in His image and likeness. This dialogue was necessary so that the image of God would take root in man and make him an icon from which the divine presence would radiate, bestowing the warmth of love on creation. Therefore, this new creature needed to live continuously in the love of God so that he would learn from Him how to carry out his lofty mission, which is to be God’s representative on this earth, conveying His will in all areas of life, spreading in time and space the seed of Paradise that God’s hand had made.

The importance of man’s fellowship with God is clearly shown to us through an experience we live every day. We all know that a newborn resembles his parents but is not the same as them, or in other words, he is in their image but does not fully resemble them. The parents must embrace him, raise him and introduce him day after day to the secret of the human being until one day he too becomes like them, thinking, speaking, producing and working to build a better world for his brothers. As for the child, he must obey the loving teachings of the parents, since our humanity is not acquired from the beginning by reading and mental analysis but by fellowship with other people.

The truth of what we have mentioned is clearly shown in the following example: Little boys got lost in the depths of a forest and lived in the company of animals. After a while, we find these boys acquiring the habits of the animals with whom they live. They vote as they vote and walk like them, to the point that you can define them as animals in human clothing, while they are humans without humanity. This lost humanity is not regained by these little ones except after long association with humans and long and arduous training in a “human” atmosphere.

Thus, as far as the analogy between the affairs of creatures and divine things is successful, the holy Fathers of the Church taught us that man was created in the image of God, but that he had to be a disciple in the presence of God in order to imitate Him, since only daily association with the Almighty God is capable of making man a divine being. However, this means, as we said above, that man should obey the educative words of God so that he learns from Him that the greatest good is God Himself, as we read in the Psalms and the Prophets, and that the real evil is His absence from human affairs.

This profound truth is symbolically depicted in the Holy Bible – as was the custom in those ages of human history – when it says that God asked man not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s intention was to gradually introduce man into the mystery of divinity through daily training in the principles of paradise life. Like any other training, divine training requires constant companionship and presupposes obedience.

Man, however, preferred to dispense with God’s love and embrace. He wanted to usurp divinity, believing that the knowledge of good and evil is what makes him a god, but divinity secures for him the knowledge of good and evil. He wanted to get rid of what he believed was God’s burden upon him. Man did not understand that the secret of true life is in the divine word, as the Lord Jesus said: “Sanctify them through your truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17)… and “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

And it was a disaster. Man, by his own will, was cut off from the proximity of God and lost himself in an atmosphere that did not suit his origin. He became drawn to laws that were foreign to him. Just as a child lost in the jungle among the animals believes that the world in which he grew up is his original world, so man believed over time that his new atmosphere was the original one, so he got used to it and became a part of it. Just as an alcoholic believes that it is an essential element in his life, while it is an intruder that generates death and eats away at his body day after day, so man came to believe that sin is an essential element in his life. Previous generations grew up in this turbulent, poisoned atmosphere and inhaled its fragrance, then soon spread its poisons to those who followed them.

Our connection to the sin of the first man is not a genetic connection like the one related to the shape of the nose and the color of the hair, but a connection to the atmosphere in which man grows up, his being is sifted and his self is built. Since our upbringing in this atmosphere of sin, we have been sinners. This is expressed in the fact that death has become dominant in our lives day after day, and if we try to overcome it by distancing it from us and distancing ourselves from it, it confronts us in the garb of boredom and disease. This is what the Apostle Paul expressed when he said: “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The sin of the first man put humanity in a vicious circle. With the absence of God from our chosen atmosphere, death has power in our lives. The inability of man without God to get rid of this nightmare makes us despair and return to being more stained with sin, and like a bird that has no escape from its cage, it accustoms itself to living in it, convincing itself of the beauty of its iron bars. Like a weak, defeated person who first accepts under duress and then is convinced by the kindness of the slave... Thus man tries to convince himself of the sweetness of sin under the pressure of the inevitability of death that it gave birth to. He forces himself to forget until he forgets that the only problem is his will for God to be absent from his world.

Questions:

Read the third chapter of Genesis and the parable of the prodigal son [Luke 15:11-32].

1. How was the human experience the result of his freedom?
2. Who is the being that instilled this experience in man? And why?
3. How does it appear from the Bible that the serpent mentioned in Genesis 3 refers to this being? [See Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, John 8:44, Revelation 12:9].
4. What was the nature of the first man’s sin? How do you refute the popular opinion that the common people hold that this sin was the marriage of Adam and Eve? [See Genesis 1:27, 28]. Doesn’t the text of the Bible show the nature of this sin? [See Genesis 3:1-5].
5. Doesn't the story of the prodigal son shed light on the nature of this sin? Wasn't the prodigal son living in luxury and enjoying the love of his father, so why did he want to separate from him?

5 - Results of the fall

Man's rejection of God has led him to a state alien to his origin. By distancing himself from God his Father, man no longer distinguishes among other human beings his brothers, sons of the one Father, since brotherhood is defined in relation to sonship towards the one Father. Man's connection with nature around him has also been cracked, since he no longer sees it as a broadcaster of God's glory and a reporter of the works of his hands, but rather as a means to quench his selfish thirst. This is the tragedy of man that arose from God's absence from him. If we wish to summarise this tragedy in one word, we can say that it is the tragedy of disintegration. Man's unity with God, that is, his union with Him, was the basis for his unity with himself, his unity with others, and his unity with the universe. When man severed his unity with God, his unity with himself, his unity with others, and his unity with the universe were cracked, and disintegration prevailed in these three areas:

A - The unity of man with himself has cracked: When man was separated from God, his person was disintegrated, meaning that harmony was lost in his being:

• The passions rebelled against the mind instead of being subject to it and directed by it. Therefore, the human mind became darkened, as it often became subservient not to the pursuit of truth but to the service of desires. Thus, false opinions and beliefs spread among people, and man began to see things not as they are but as his passions portrayed them to him. He, a rational being, began to deify money, power, prestige and influence, and to worship people like himself, such as leaders and others, and he began to harness science itself for destruction.
• Instincts also rebelled against the will, whose function was originally to direct these instincts in accordance with the true good of man. These instincts began to draw man to them contrary to his basic needs (the drunkard, for example, seeks to satisfy his lust without giving any consideration to his health, dignity, future, or family life). The will weakened and became unable to resist evil except with difficulty and was only deterred by the effort of the unbridled desires.
• The relationship between man and his body also disintegrated, so the body became independent and began to try to impose its desires on man as if it were a stranger to him. This is what the Bible expressed when it said that Adam and Eve felt naked, so they covered their bodies with fig leaves (Genesis 3:7). This means that they began to feel their body as if it were an independent being within them demanding the satisfaction of its desires between them, which had previously been with the whole person in one movement towards God. Thus, desire became independent from love instead of being subject to it.
• Among the results of the disintegration of the human entity are the diseases to which man has become susceptible, which are a disorder in the human body system, and finally death, which is the dissolution of the human entity. God’s grace surrounded man and preserved him from diseases and death, but since he rejected this grace and was stripped of it, there was nothing left to preserve him from the dissolution to which his nature would lead if left alone. This is what the Holy Bible expressed when it said that Adam was removed from the tree of life that would make him immortal (Genesis 3:19). That is, he lost the grace of immortality by distancing himself from God, its source. In this sense, God said to Adam: “You shall return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

B - The unity between man and others has been cracked: But this disintegration that prevailed in the individual being of man extended to the relationship between man and man. For man, by separating himself from God, was also separated from his fellow man. God alone unites men deeply. Therefore, sin, by separating man from God, separating him from his neighbor. This disintegration began immediately after the fall when God asked Adam about his disobedience and he replied: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12). Thus, he placed the responsibility on his wife, separating his destiny from his destiny, while they were created “to be one flesh,” that is, one entity. Thus, through sin, division crept into humanity. Selfishness has come to separate even man from those closest to him, and to distort all forms of love with the will to dominate and possess others as if they were merely a thing and a pleasure without regard for their freedom, dignity, interest, or happiness. This has led to discord between brother and brother, between father and son, and between husband and wife. That is why the Holy Book tells us how the fall was followed by Cain killing his brother Abel. Hatreds exploded among people, they envied each other, they oppressed each other, they enslaved each other, and they clashed in civil and external wars.

C - The unity between man and nature has been cracked: Finally, one of the consequences of the fall was that this harmony that God had prepared between man and nature was nullified. This nature, which was prepared to submit to man, who bore within himself the image of the Creator, rebelled against him when the image of God in him was distorted. [Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life; and thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you] [Genesis 3:17, 18]. Thus, man was no longer safe from the inevitability of the laws of the universe, but rather became to a large extent a victim of these laws, which became a source of troubles, disasters and calamities for man, and animals began to harm him and germs began to destroy him.

Questions:

Read the third chapter of Genesis.

1. How does man’s separation from God appear [Genesis 3:8]?
2. Isn’t the separation of man from God like the separation of a branch from its tree? How so? And what are the expected results of such a separation?
3. Did man retain the gift of immortality after his fall? [Genesis 3:19, 22]. Why not?
4. How did the separation between man and his body appear after the fall? Look at Genesis 3:7. Try to understand the meaning of this verse.
5. Wasn’t it natural for sin to create a separation between man and man? Why? How does this appear in Genesis 3:12 and 4:8, 9? And how does it appear in the relationships of people with each other and even with those closest to them?
6. Wasn’t it natural for sin to create a rift in the unity that God had prepared between man and nature? Why? How does this rift appear in Genesis 3:17, 18? And what are its consequences for man?

6 - The image of God in man after sin

But the question in all this is: How does a person know that the state he is in now is not his original state? How can a person estimate the extent of his fall without knowing what he was like before the fall? To answer this question, we will return to the example we took as a starting point for this chapter. The boy who had lived among animals since childhood did not understand the catastrophe that had befallen him until he met his brothers in humanity and understood that his original connection was with humans and not with animals. This means that his true knowledge does not result from a comparison between his present state and a lost paradise born of his imagination, but rather it is the result of his encounter with people who carry for him in their being an image of that paradise, since the humanity he lost is a certain atmosphere and not words spoken or letters written.

Thus, we did not understand the meaning of sin until we got to know our elder brother, as the Apostle Paul calls him: “the firstborn among many brothers” [Romans 8:29]. Our encounter with this elder brother, Jesus Christ, who preserved the image of God in him, awakened us to the truth, reminding us that true humanity lies in our close connection with God. Thus, the passage of Jesus of Nazareth in our country nearly two thousand years ago imprinted on the minds and hearts of people the face of a man who resembles us but whom we do not resemble, since the atmosphere he breathed was not of this world, despite his presence in it.

There is something encouraging in all this, for despite our poisonous and deadly atmosphere we were able to get to know Jesus and to know that he ultimately carries in his person our authentic world. And if this is possible it is because his abyss called to our abyss, the image of God in him called to an image similar to us. This means that just as the boy lost in the jungle carries in his cells, despite his animality, the traits of the roots of humanity, so we, in our most miserable situations, still carry the image of God in our being, but we have rendered it inoperative, confining it to a corner of darkness. But just as God has shone light from the darkness, so his Son, in his encounter with us, has released the hidden image within us from the darkness to which we have forced it to its authentic place in our heart and mind.

But our encounter with Jesus also taught us something else of great importance: the full realization of the image of God in us - or in other words, our deification - lies in our constant humility, since God is already humble. This is what the Apostle Paul tells us in his famous words: “Let the same mind and heart be in you as in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness, and existing in appearance as human beings. And he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). This is the mystery of the Incarnation, in which we have a better encounter than the one we had on the day of creation.

Questions:

1. How can we say that sin distorted the image of God in man? This image appeared in man with his mind, his will, his inclination to goodness, his readiness to give, his immortality, and his sovereignty over the universe, so how could all of that be distorted in man?
2. Has the image of God been erased from man or has it remained in him? Doesn’t each of us experience in himself a duality between greatness and lowliness? (See Romans 7:18-20). How can we explain this duality in light of God’s teaching?
3. Did God’s love for man cease after his fall? How was this love manifested in Genesis 3:21? Man was left alone outside the garden because his freedom so desired, but was not God going to visit him there? What super-rational form did this visitation take?

(1) 103 According to the Orthodox Order