Sin of Pride

In “God’s Two Books” (February 2010), Joel Hunter says: “Remind me again: Why are we afraid of the facts of evolution, instead of drawn to the picture God paints with them?” A clue to the answer can be found in Genesis 3:5, when the serpent tells Eve, “you will not die, for God knows that when you eat of [the forbidden fruit] you will be like God.” That is the temptation: We can’t stand our status as creatures, and we want to be like God. We are afraid of our close connection with the rest of the natural order because it is an affront to our pride. Stridently insisting that the opening chapters of Genesis represent history rather than theological reflection has a lot more to do with elevating the status of humans than with honoring the sanctity of God.