"If God does not exist, all things are permissible." --Fyodor Dostoevsky
This was a great debate a few years ago in the discipline of psychology, and even of sociology. What if it's neither (i.e., nature nor nurture)? They left out one important possibility or factor to insert into the equation as a constant and/or variable, a key player but ultimately sovereign, and a given: God. Don't rule God out! What if God says we are to blame? But we are the clay and God is the Potter and guides the details of our lives. Christianity is a type of psychology too and does offer real solutions, if taken seriously, to behavior issues, and offers counseling to help troubled individuals with unresolved personal problems and issues, or in some cases salvation, if they are lost.
Two people can react quite differently to the same stimuli or tragedy with divergent results: it's not what happens to you but in you that counts! The same sun melts the butter, hardens the clay and the same hammer that forges steel and breaks the glass. We all react according to our God-given nature and either become bitter or better for we are all mere clay in God's hands as our Potter. Our worldview affects greatly how we interpret our world and react to it; it's not a matter of faith versus reason, but which set of presuppositions we accept as fact. Everyone has faith, even the secular person can have faith in science as the answer to problems. God thus orchestrates our life to make us what we are.
No God means no sin as Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God." We do well to heed the admonition of psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger's book Whatever Became of Sin? This means we are responsible for our choices! But guilt (from this sin) is real and cannot be denied--it can dog us all our lives, but it can be good to feel bad and it's therapeutic, forcing self-examination and soul-searching, though there is psychological guilt that is imagined and cruel, and this must be dealt with to bring healing to the soul, i.e., there's ultimate meaning in all suffering. Note it was Freud who popularized the notion of a "guilt complex." Perhaps we feel guilty because we are guilty! We're fighting God! We all make choices! You simply cannot blame your genes for your bad behavior or weaknesses, they are sins--this is just inventing pretty names for them! You have no right to claim: I was born this way! It's a cop-out to blame the environment, family, upbringing, or society (the first sin was committed in the idyllic place known as the Garden of Eden), but we should never be in the blame game, period.
Sin is our fault and we are culpable! We shall be judged if we do not find the mercy of God. Sin is only a sign of the virus inherited from Adam and everyone has it. Yes, no one is perfect nor can they put themselves on a pedestal. We must assume individual responsibility and come clean. Sir Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, said we are "not pawns of our genes," and therefore we cannot play the blame game. Scientists do say that some people are more vulnerable than others and it's only stressors that trigger illnesses, but that is the case with all sin--some may be more vulnerable to committing rape or murder, but they are still going to be judged and are responsible.
Why? Because God's grace is sufficient and can change us from having hearts of stone to hearts of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26) and regenerate us into new creatures (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17). Christ is still in the resurrection business and changes lives! The biggest miracle that cannot be denied is how He transforms sinners into saints! We all have the opportunity to repent and believe in the gospel and if we turn our back on Christ and harden our hearts, it's our blame, not our genes nor our environment--there's no excuse, period! Yes, we are worse off, but not too bad to be saved! No one is too far gone. Some people just need to come to an end of themselves to realize their need for grace in their lives, and that they aren't in control as the master of their fate and captain of their soul. God can conquer anyone and is stronger than we are (cf. Jer. 20:7).
It's been postulated by John Locke, et al., that children are born with a tabula rasa (are blank slates), not prone to evil, but inherently or intrinsically good, merely spoiled or corrupted by the impure environment, which is to blame (favoring the nurture in the debate). This erroneous hypothesis arises from eliminating God from the equation and refusing to factor Him into consideration--it's a cop-out! Where you start determines where you'll end up--this is a recipe for psychological chaos (for cosmos without Logos, the expression of God, the logic of God is chaos) and makes all scientific endeavor futile. We must begin with God and explain our problem and not with the problem and explain away God!
What is the solution then? Only in genuine repentance and saving faith in Christ, acknowledging our guilt before a holy God, seeking reconciliation, as we are personally culpable before God, to deliver us from the power of sin over us--though we must live with the consequences they are neutralized and turned to our benefit and overall blessing. Remember, God will discipline the wayward child who persists in living a life of sin without repentance and will not countenance it. To just make excuses or shift the blame only compounds the problem and evades the issue. The missing link in the equation is that we're created in God's image and there's something about us that is like God, and we need to find out what it means to be human. All worldviews must contemplate what's wrong with man--some only learn by the school of hard knocks. Soli Deo Gloria!
Have Thine own way, Lord!
Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after will,
While I am waiting yielded and still.
--famous gospel hymn, public domain
This was a great debate a few years ago in the discipline of psychology, and even of sociology. What if it's neither (i.e., nature nor nurture)? They left out one important possibility or factor to insert into the equation as a constant and/or variable, a key player but ultimately sovereign, and a given: God. Don't rule God out! What if God says we are to blame? But we are the clay and God is the Potter and guides the details of our lives. Christianity is a type of psychology too and does offer real solutions, if taken seriously, to behavior issues, and offers counseling to help troubled individuals with unresolved personal problems and issues, or in some cases salvation, if they are lost.
Two people can react quite differently to the same stimuli or tragedy with divergent results: it's not what happens to you but in you that counts! The same sun melts the butter, hardens the clay and the same hammer that forges steel and breaks the glass. We all react according to our God-given nature and either become bitter or better for we are all mere clay in God's hands as our Potter. Our worldview affects greatly how we interpret our world and react to it; it's not a matter of faith versus reason, but which set of presuppositions we accept as fact. Everyone has faith, even the secular person can have faith in science as the answer to problems. God thus orchestrates our life to make us what we are.
No God means no sin as Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God." We do well to heed the admonition of psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger's book Whatever Became of Sin? This means we are responsible for our choices! But guilt (from this sin) is real and cannot be denied--it can dog us all our lives, but it can be good to feel bad and it's therapeutic, forcing self-examination and soul-searching, though there is psychological guilt that is imagined and cruel, and this must be dealt with to bring healing to the soul, i.e., there's ultimate meaning in all suffering. Note it was Freud who popularized the notion of a "guilt complex." Perhaps we feel guilty because we are guilty! We're fighting God! We all make choices! You simply cannot blame your genes for your bad behavior or weaknesses, they are sins--this is just inventing pretty names for them! You have no right to claim: I was born this way! It's a cop-out to blame the environment, family, upbringing, or society (the first sin was committed in the idyllic place known as the Garden of Eden), but we should never be in the blame game, period.
Sin is our fault and we are culpable! We shall be judged if we do not find the mercy of God. Sin is only a sign of the virus inherited from Adam and everyone has it. Yes, no one is perfect nor can they put themselves on a pedestal. We must assume individual responsibility and come clean. Sir Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, said we are "not pawns of our genes," and therefore we cannot play the blame game. Scientists do say that some people are more vulnerable than others and it's only stressors that trigger illnesses, but that is the case with all sin--some may be more vulnerable to committing rape or murder, but they are still going to be judged and are responsible.
Why? Because God's grace is sufficient and can change us from having hearts of stone to hearts of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26) and regenerate us into new creatures (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17). Christ is still in the resurrection business and changes lives! The biggest miracle that cannot be denied is how He transforms sinners into saints! We all have the opportunity to repent and believe in the gospel and if we turn our back on Christ and harden our hearts, it's our blame, not our genes nor our environment--there's no excuse, period! Yes, we are worse off, but not too bad to be saved! No one is too far gone. Some people just need to come to an end of themselves to realize their need for grace in their lives, and that they aren't in control as the master of their fate and captain of their soul. God can conquer anyone and is stronger than we are (cf. Jer. 20:7).
It's been postulated by John Locke, et al., that children are born with a tabula rasa (are blank slates), not prone to evil, but inherently or intrinsically good, merely spoiled or corrupted by the impure environment, which is to blame (favoring the nurture in the debate). This erroneous hypothesis arises from eliminating God from the equation and refusing to factor Him into consideration--it's a cop-out! Where you start determines where you'll end up--this is a recipe for psychological chaos (for cosmos without Logos, the expression of God, the logic of God is chaos) and makes all scientific endeavor futile. We must begin with God and explain our problem and not with the problem and explain away God!
What is the solution then? Only in genuine repentance and saving faith in Christ, acknowledging our guilt before a holy God, seeking reconciliation, as we are personally culpable before God, to deliver us from the power of sin over us--though we must live with the consequences they are neutralized and turned to our benefit and overall blessing. Remember, God will discipline the wayward child who persists in living a life of sin without repentance and will not countenance it. To just make excuses or shift the blame only compounds the problem and evades the issue. The missing link in the equation is that we're created in God's image and there's something about us that is like God, and we need to find out what it means to be human. All worldviews must contemplate what's wrong with man--some only learn by the school of hard knocks. Soli Deo Gloria!
Have Thine own way, Lord!
Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after will,
While I am waiting yielded and still.
--famous gospel hymn, public domain