And so was Dante. Those of you who have read one of the good modern translations of “The Inferno” will know that the Pilgrim didn’t wander away from the road. The road curved away from him and he continued to go straight.
We Christians have continued to walk on straight in our religious language, our interpretation of Biblical passages which are not clearly historical, and in our acceptance of human speculations which don’t look so good in light of modern empirical knowledge.
Having nothing else to do since I haven’t been gainfully employed for years, I’ve taken up strange hobbies like writing novels which explore the disintegration of the human being over recent centuries and also the writing of eclectic and non-systematic works which explore such strange matters as the intersection of transfinite set theory and negative theology.
In several of my writings, I’ve spoken against the concept of ‘original sin’ but not because of the underlying idea. I’ve stated strongly the obvious truth that we human beings are in a radical state of sin. ‘Original sin’ would not be a bad term at all for that state except that it has been so strongly tied to a literalistic interpretation of the narratives in the book of Genesis, especially the story of Adam and Eve.
We now are told by reliable scientists that the creatures who were the ancestors of all human beings were apish nomads who lived in Nigeria about 70,000 years ago. That estimate may change but that won’t change my point at all. That point is that we should value empirical evidence from God’s Creation more than human speculations, especially when they are based upon a very questionable reading of an account which is clearly not presented as being factual or historical. Our ancestors were apes. In fact, the human race is a species of ape. This presents both a possibility and a need to re-interpret the human relationship to Creation and to God. We need a new understanding of our primordially sinful state, one which would likely find our sinfulness, like our morality in general, evolved along with other aspects of human nature. We need to admit that both empirical knowledge of God’s Creation and also very words and concepts have caused the path to curve while we were doggedly headed straight.