{"id":518,"date":"2016-11-06T00:23:33","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T00:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=518"},"modified":"2021-01-07T18:49:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T18:49:21","slug":"sin-original-and-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/sin-original-and-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin, Original and Otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s trouble everywhere, and that’s not news. It’s not new, at any rate.<\/p>\n

“Your princes are rebels and comrades of thieves; Each one of them loves a bribe and looks for gifts. The fatherless they defend not, and the widow’s plea does not reach them.”
\n(Isaiah 1:23<\/a>)<\/p>\n

“Yes, I know how many are your crimes, how grievous your sins: Oppressing the just, accepting bribes, repelling the needy at the gate!”
\n(Amos 5:12<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How come the world is such a mess, and has been at least since we started keeping records?<\/p>\n

Some of our problems have seemed obvious: not enough food to go around, or someone hogging the supply; outsiders taking what we want or need; and disease.<\/p>\n

But we’ve been pretty good, maybe effective is a better word, at making problems for ourselves.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Universities, Death, and Printing Presses<\/h4>\n

<\/a>About a millennium back, European scholastic guilds formed the first universities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the next few centuries folks like Hildegard of Bingen<\/a> and Albertus Magnus<\/a>, both Saints, were laying the foundations of today’s science. Designers worked the bugs out of Gothic architecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Great Famine of 1315-1317<\/a>; Black Death<\/a> of 1346-1353; and Hundred Years’ War<\/a>, 1337-1453; were major speed bumps in Europe’s history.<\/p>\n

Johannes Gutenberg developed an efficient printing press using movable type<\/a> around 1450 \u2014 about five centuries after Bi Sheng’s<\/a> invention.<\/p>\n

We might not know about Bi Sheng, if Shen Kuo<\/a> hadn’t mentioned him in “Dream Pool Essays<\/a>,” and that’s another topic.<\/p>\n

Anyway, efficient printing tech let folks in Europe share ideas faster and in more detail: upsetting quite a few applecarts in the process.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Thirty Years’ War<\/h4>\n

<\/a>I see the potential for a more egalitarian society and better-informed public as a good thing. Events like the Thirty Years’ War<\/a>, not so much.<\/p>\n

Printing presses didn’t cause the the Thirty Years’ War, but the new tech arguably made the Protestant Reformation<\/a> possible.<\/p>\n

That didn’t cause the war either. But northern political bosses arguably used the Reformation to gain increased independence from more powerful states in southern Europe.<\/p>\n

The Roman Catholic Church was due for an overhaul \u2014 my native culture generally calls it the Counter Reformation<\/a>, possibly because England ended up on the more-or-less-Protestant side. It’s also called the Catholic Reformation or Catholic Revival.<\/p>\n

We had another one recently, much less messy, called Vatican II<\/a>. Some folks are still upset by it, I’m not, and that’s yet another topic.<\/p>\n

The Thirty Years’ War started when the Peace of Augsburg<\/a> gave rulers of Germany’s 224 states a choice. They could be Lutheran or Catholic \u2014 and force their subjects to follow the ruler’s lead. The 1555 deal left Calvinists out of the power grab.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Forcing someone to “convert” is a very bad idea, and we shouldn’t do it, ever. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2104<\/a>–2109<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Anyway, Charlemagne’s<\/a> Holy Roman Empire<\/a> \u2014 we’re still cleaning up the mess he made at Verden<\/a> \u2014 was a collection of largely-independent states by then. Like the fellow said:<\/p>\n

“Ce corps qui s’appelait et qui s’appelle encore le saint empire romain n’\u00e9tait en aucune mani\u00e8re ni saint, ni romain, ni empire.”<\/p>\n

(“This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.”)
\n(Voltaire, via Wikiquote<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Holy Roman Empire’s new emperor, Ferdinand II<\/a>, tried forcing everyone in the empire to be Catholic in 1618 \u2014 again, that’s a very bad idea. This time it triggered a massive turf war with religious trimmings.<\/p>\n

Three decades and about 8,000,000 unnecessary deaths later, the war was over.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Enlightenment – – –<\/h4>\n

<\/a>Decades of fighting, famines, plagues<\/a>, and witch hunts<\/a> had killed more than two thirds of the people in parts of the northern Holy Roman Empire by 1648.<\/p>\n

Small wonder that some folks were reevaluating old assumptions about authority, belief, and business as usual.<\/p>\n

Depending on who you listen to, Aufkl\u00e4rung, “Enlightenment<\/a>,” started when applying math to observable phenomena was catching on in the 1620s<\/a>; or 1715<\/a>, when France’s Louis XIV died.<\/p>\n

I’ll grant that Louis XIV’s spin on the divine right of kings<\/a> made a difference1<\/a><\/sup> \u2014 and helped inspire the French Revolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fans of the Enlightenment didn’t coin the slogan “Sapere aude<\/a>,” “Dare to know.” That’s from Horace<\/a>: “Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet; sapere aude, incipe.” \u2014 “He who has begun is half done; dare to know; begin!”<\/p>\n

I think it fits the Enlightenment attitude, though: seeing reason as a good idea. Also pushing ideals like liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.<\/p>\n

For folks trying to recover from the Thirty Years’ War, those ideals must have seemed really good.<\/p>\n

<\/a>– – – and the Idea of Progress<\/h4>\n

<\/a>The French Revolution didn’t turn out quite as well as might have been hoped.<\/p>\n

The F\u00eate de la Raison, a celebration of the Cult of Reason<\/a>, was among the revolution’s more colorful innovations.<\/p>\n

“Festive girls in white Roman dress and tricolor sashes milled around a costumed Goddess of Reason who ‘impersonated Liberty’.” (Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Sounds like a toga party<\/a>, but that doesn’t make reason a bad idea.<\/p>\n

Even after the French Revolution, quite a few folks still assumed that since each of us is a rational being, folks would get along \u2014 once obstacles like authority, superstition, and potato blight<\/a> were removed.<\/p>\n

Then World Wars I and II<\/a> happened, and the Idea of Progress<\/a> lost appeal. I talked about that last week. (October 30, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n

About reason and the French Revolution \u2014 like I keep saying, thinking is not a sin. But worshiping our ability to reason, or anything other than God, is a bad idea. (Catechism, 2112<\/a>\u20132114<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I was going somewhere with this. Let me think.<\/p>\n

Universities, movable type, Thirty Years’ War, toga parties. Right.<\/p>\n

We’re rational creatures. Using our brains, asking questions and thinking about what we find, is what we’re supposed to do. (“Fides et Ratio<\/a>,” John Paul II (September 14, 1998); Catechism, 32<\/a>, 35<\/a>, 154<\/a>\u2013159<\/a>, 299<\/a>, 1730<\/a>)<\/p>\n

So how come we’ve got problems even when we’re well-fed and well-educated?2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

<\/a>Evil and Time Bandits<\/h4>\n

<\/a>This world is basically good, and so are we. (Genesis 1:1<\/a>–31<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Something went wrong, obviously, but it’s not a design flaw.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, one of literature and drama’s most lucid discussions of evil and the Catholic idea of original sin was in a film by the Monty Python folks:<\/p>\n

Kevin:<\/strong> “Yes, why does there have to be evil?”<\/p>\n

Supreme Being:<\/strong> “I think it has something to do with free will.”
\n(“Time Bandits (1981) via imdb.com<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like angels, that’s yet again another topic, we’re rational beings who can decide what we do. Unlike angels, we are also material beings: spiritual creatures with a body made from the stuff of this world. (Catechism, 311<\/a>, 325<\/a>–348<\/a>, 1704<\/a>, 1730<\/a>–1731<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/a>Having a body isn’t the problem.<\/p>\n

Believing that the physical world “…is evil, the product of a fall, and is thus to be rejected or left behind…” is not<\/strong> what the Catholic Church teaches. (Catechism, 285<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/a>Satan, like all angels, has no body.3<\/a><\/sup> That didn’t stop Satan and other angels from saying “no” to God. (Catechism, 385<\/a>–395<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Saying “no” is an option for any creature with free will. (Catechism, 330<\/a>, 1730<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Sin is saying “no” to God. It’s deciding that I’ll do something I know is bad for myself, or others, and doing it anyway; or deciding to not do something I should. Sin is an offense against reason, truth \u2014 and God. (Catechism, 1849<\/a>–1864<\/a>)<\/p>\n

It happens when I don’t love God and my neighbors as wholeheartedly as I should, or don’t see everybody as my neighbor. (Matthew 5:43<\/a>\u201344<\/a>, 7:12<\/a>, 22:36<\/a>\u201340<\/a>, Mark 12:28<\/a>\u201331<\/a>; Luke 10:25<\/a>\u201327<\/a>, 29<\/a>\u201337<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Since conscience is a “law of the mind,” my reason should<\/strong> control my emotions and impulses, and all of the above would be conformed to God’s will. (Catechism, 1778<\/a>, 1784<\/a>, 1790<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I don’t exercise that control as often as I’d like.<\/p>\n

<\/a>That’s partly because we’re all living with original sin: the consequences of a really bad decision. (Catechism, 386<\/a>–389<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I’m responsible for messes I make, and that’s still another topic. (Catechism, 1781<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>Our account of the fall in Genesis 3<\/a> describes a real event at the beginning of humanity’s long story: told in figurative language.<\/strong> (Catechism, 390<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Adam and Eve are not German, and I’ve said that before. (September 23, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Genesis 1:26<\/a>–27<\/a> says that we’re made “in the image of God.” We still are. As Psalms 8:6<\/a> says, we’re “little less than a god.” But “little less than a god” isn’t God. We’re pretty hot stuff, but we’re not omnipotent.<\/p>\n

In Genesis 3:5<\/a>, the serpent tells Eve that after eating the fruit “…you will be like gods…” \u2014 and we forgot that we already were<\/strong> made “in the image of God.”<\/p>\n

You know the rest. Eve listened to Satan.<\/p>\n

Adam, like a dummkopf, did the same \u2014 and then tried blaming his wife and God. (Genesis 3:12<\/a>)<\/p>\n

That did not end well.<\/p>\n

We’ve been living with the disastrous consequences of that bad decision ever since. (Catechism, 396<\/a>–412<\/a>)<\/p>\n

There’s something wrong with each of us. We’re born \u2014 figurative language here \u2014 wounded. We’re “…subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin….” (Catechism, 405<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Original sin isn’t something I’m personally responsible for. My job is trying to act as love matters, anyway. (Catechism, 407<\/a>–409<\/a>)<\/p>\n

More:<\/p>\n