Tim Keller on Original Sin, Atonement, and Evolution (Part 2) | The BioLogos Forum

I’m confused. Are you suggesting that both physical misery and the sinful propensity of humans are part of God’s plan for creation? What would be the theological motivation for that?

A lot of the time, physical misery among humanity is a direct result of sin and systemic societal injustice, not genetics.

For the record, I don’t believe the earth was a perfect, deathless, pain-free, place before human sin. I think the “curse” is descriptive not prescriptive, and it is an accurate depiction of the course nature and culture take when they are not “ruled” righteously. They are not ruled righteously because Adam and Eve failed, and so did every other human image bearer after them until Christ.

I don’t believe sin is genetic, because I don’t believe sin exists outside of the possibility of relating to God and submitting to his justice. If God never asked humans for obedience, there would be no sin and there would be no righteousness/justice/shalom either, as we see in the rest of the animal kingdom. I think God’s shalom was what humans were commissioned to bring to the earth/nature/human culture in its un-subdued, un-submitted state as God’s representatives, and they failed. It wasn’t that perfect shalom existed Adam and Eve ruined it. This world has always been only a foretaste and a preview of God’s new creation to come. It is the promised new creation that will be free from death, sin, and evil.