{"id":3556,"date":"2025-05-01T12:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T18:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/?p=3556"},"modified":"2025-05-01T13:37:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T19:37:32","slug":"are-we-rotten-to-the-core-or-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2025\/05\/are-we-rotten-to-the-core-or-saints\/","title":{"rendered":"Are We Rotten to the Core or Saints?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Are we saints in our own eyes?<\/h1>\n

The answer makes a lot of difference in our lives. People who think of themselves as \u201cbad,\u201d often get worse. People who think of themselves as \u201cgood,\u201d often become even better. In fact, a negative self-image is not only toxic, it also warps our image of others. So we have to ask, \u201cIs telling people they are \u201csinners,\u201d a worthwhile thing? I say there are better ways.<\/p>\n

Are there other considerations, such as the lack of wealth? Candidly, yes.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we need a reminder that even though we are saints in our own eyes, we still fall short of the glory of God. None of us are perfect. But we\u2019re forgiven and can move on without destructive guilt. Recognition of our shortcomings and guilt are two different things.<\/p>\n

Podcast show links with added content: Substack<\/a>, YouTube<\/a> video, Spotify<\/a>, and Apple<\/a> podcasts. These appear a day after blog-article posts.<\/p>\n

Isidor Straus, wealthy businessman, and John George \"Jack\" Phillips, wireless operator, on the Titanic, who gave up their lifeboat seats so others might live.
Isidor Straus, a wealthy businessman, and John George \u201cJack\u201d Phillips, a wireless operator on the Titanic, gave up their lifeboat seats so others might live. | Images courtesy of\u00a0 Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress<\/a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Examining human nature<\/h2>\n

The wreck of the Titanic, caused by striking an iceberg, gives us a peek into human nature.<\/p>\n

Jack Phillips<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, the Titanic\u2019s wireless operator, a man from a meager background in the UK, worked tirelessly sending SOS signals to nearby ships, even as the ship began to sink. He continued sending signals until the very end.<\/p>\n

Fr. Thomas Byles<\/em><\/strong>: A Catholic priest, refused a lifeboat to remain on the ship and provided spiritual comfort to others.<\/p>\n

Pastor John Harper<\/em><\/strong>: A Scottish Evangelical pastor, helped his six-year-old daughter into a lifeboat and then chose to stay on the ship to offer words of encouragement and give his life jacket to someone in need.<\/p>\n

Isidor Straus<\/em><\/strong>: A prominent businessman and co-owner of Macy\u2019s, famously stayed on the ship with his wife, refusing to board a lifeboat and allowing women and children to get on first.<\/p>\n

Rich and poor, religious and maybe not so, not one who was perfect, gave up their lives so that others would live. Did they view themselves as good or bad? Would it have made any difference? Well, on the Titanic, there were crew members who surreptitiously entered the wireless room to steal their flotation devices. How did these \u201cbad\u201d men view themselves?<\/p>\n

Human nature varies. Some are brave. Some do any cruel act for self-preservation. Most of us don\u2019t want that trial\u2014I sure don\u2019t. Can we view ourselves as good or bad depending on what we might do? Or does the way we view ourselves determine what we\u2019re willing to do to others?<\/p>\n

Accompanying song by Dorian:\u00a0song on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How does God view us?<\/h2>\n

Do we think God sees us as kicked out of God\u2019s good graces? Kicked out! Condemned? Or does God see us as worth Jesus\u2019 sacrifice for us. People worth fighting for. Rather than a binary choice, is there a middle ground where God favors us and wants us to overcome and do well, without guilt destroying us?<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 sacrifice says it all. We are the apple of God\u2019s eye. God wants us.<\/p>\n

The horror of some Christianity<\/h1>\n

Jesus freed us of this negative self-image and the idea that we are eternally condemned. We can be forgiven if we just ask. We also have to make it right with those we\u2019ve harmed.<\/p>\n

The idea of original sin<\/h2>\n

Much of current Christianity offers one central interpretation of the Adam and Eve story. \u201cWe\u2019re all doomed, I tell you, doomed I say! The original sins of Adam condemn us all. We\u2019re rotten to the core. Only sacrifice will save us!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bah, humbug, I tell you!<\/p>\n

Would it surprise you to know that Judaism, the preservers of the Adam and Eve story in their Hebrew Bible, doesn\u2019t regard Adam and Eve as sinful. It regards them as trying to help God. It regards them pragmatically as doing a good thing by acquiring knowledge.<\/p>\n

The Samaritans, who are keepers of the first five books of the Bible, see the Adam and Eve story as a foundational narrative for understanding human nature, the relationship between humanity and God, and the concept of sin and redemption.<\/p>\n

What is it really about? The Adam and Eve story in the Bible is about disobedience and fall from God\u2019s good graces into a world of suffering. At least that\u2019s what we focus on. Suffering grabs our attention. Yet the story is about eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the repercussions. God cursed the ground for their disobedience, not Adam and Eve, so that work would be difficult. Paradise lost, not people lost.<\/p>\n

What were the ancients trying to tell us? That people are bad? Disobedient? This was some reason for suffering.<\/p>\n

Cursing of the ground is the ancients telling us about the reality of work and suffering. In that comes the knowledge of good and evil.<\/p>\n

As stories go, eating the forbidden fruit was a major turning point from innocence and paradise to the theme of suffering because we are no longer innocent. The ancients were telling us that people are endlessly hungry for knowledge, and will experiment, disobey, and in all other ways use the inquisitive brain that God gave us to seek knowledge? God created us to be inquisitive, to want to learn and to grow. That\u2019s not a bad thing.<\/p>\n

The simple fact is, to learn about good and evil means walking a treacherous road full of bad actors, temptations, illusions, and other traps. We learn through experience. It entails suffering. But we choose this path again and again. We experiment. We explore. We even disobey. We fall. And we pick ourselves up and do it again.<\/p>\n

There are many parallel creation stories of an original paradise from antiquity. Worldwide Traditions of Primordial Paradise<\/a><\/em>. One parallel story in ancient history, the Pandora story of the famous Pandora\u2019s box unleashing evil on the world, is the result of her \u201cgift\u201d of insatiable curiosity. Eve, Pandora and Plato: How Greek Myth Shaped the First Christian Woman<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

This presents another interpretation of the story such that in the Garden, mankind had no free will, no independence, and no knowledge. It is only after they eat from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil that Adam and Eve are truly \u201cin God\u2019s image.\u201d<\/p>\n

The focus on sin<\/h1>\n

Did Christianity get the interpretation wrong, while Judaism got it right? Is there a middle ground?<\/p>\n

The focus on sin creeps into Christian theology like a serpent. Christ died to get rid of this focus and turn the focus on love. But we drag it back in.<\/p>\n

Why do we condemn ourselves?<\/h2>\n

Science explains that we are hardwired to look for danger. If it can harm us, we focus on it. We celebrate it in stories of scandal, murder, theft, etc. Danger holds an outsized place in our lives. It draws us in. If we see it in others, we condemn it before it can get to us.<\/p>\n

The destructive power of sin is brought back into our lives through this focus. We give it an oversized place. It occupies too large a place in our heads. It makes us afraid and suspicious of everyone. It is an obstacle to relationships.<\/p>\n

The less we know about each other, the more suspicious we are. When we get to know each other, suspicion falls away and we become friends.<\/p>\n

The idea that we are all condemned drives the idea that we are all bad people, and bad people can hurt us, and this drives us to stay apart from each other.<\/p>\n

Science doesn\u2019t understand good and evil<\/h1>\n

Science explores but doesn\u2019t understand. We know that most of us want to contribute in some way to society, not just take as much as we can without giving back. Around half of us donate to charity, and among the affluent it\u2019s 85%. In religious institutions, giving ranges from five to ten percent of individual income, reflecting how people are \u201cprospered.\u201d<\/p>\n

But science always looks for a selfish or self-oriented reason for this. Altruism, they claim, is driven by selfish desires. I guess this explains why people gave up their seats and went down with the Titanic? I don\u2019t buy it. We all have a spiritual connection, which is a little piece of God in us. And we have compassion for others that motivates us.<\/p>\n

Some blame selfishness on the popular concept of \u201cThe Lizard Brain.\u201d Psychotherapist Ana Lund, in her article, Goodbye Lizard Brain<\/a><\/em>, explains this is a major misconception. As a source of selfishness, it\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n

Additional resource: Healthy Selfishness and Pathological Altruism: Measuring Two Paradoxical Forms of Selfishness.<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

Psychologist Abigail Marsh, in her TED Talk, Why some people are more altruistic than others<\/a><\/em>, shows scientific evidence that psychopaths have a marginally smaller Amygdala (portion of brain), while those who are known for extreme altruism have a marginally larger one. Fascinating stuff.<\/p>\n

I fell out of my crib and landed on my head so many times my uncle said if I lived, I\u2019d be a genius. I guess it didn\u2019t damage my amygdala.<\/p>\n

More importantly, Abigail Marsh found that people who are extremely altruistic have a much smaller sense of their own importance. They are humble.<\/p>\n

Humble. Humility.<\/p>\n

Jesus was humble. How could someone who represents God be humble?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that we are good, bad, rich, poor, although there are influences from nature, nurture, and our experience. It\u2019s that we are to approach life with humility. We should not think we are more than we are. And we certainly don\u2019t think we are less than we are. The universe doesn\u2019t rotate around us, we aren\u2019t due anything from anyone. We should think of ourselves as humble.<\/p>\n

Use Jesus as the example. Jesus presented himself with humility. He is Son of God, yet he was the suffering servant who washed the feet of others, and gave his life for others so they could have a better life.<\/p>\n

Examining versus condemning<\/h2>\n

There is a major difference between monitoring our behavior and trying to do better, compared to being critical of ourselves.<\/p>\n

Look for the good in others and we\u2019ll find more good in ourselves because when we can overlook the downsides of others, we can overlook it without condemning ourselves.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t like looking at ourselves, even without judgment. The Greek philosopher Socrates was a major proponent of thoroughly examining our lives and what we believe. He gave us the Socratic Method<\/a> of critical thinking.<\/p>\n

Some hated him. For his efforts, they forced him to commit suicide. He said at his trial for impiety (lacking proper respect for the sacred) and corrupting youth. How did he corrupt them? By questioning and critical examination of Athenian leaders and traditions, exposing perceived contradictions in their reasoning, leading to a perceived erosion of respect for authority and established beliefs. He challenged the status quo. \u201cThe unexamined life is not worth living<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I guess you have to blame youth\u2019s lack of respect for authority and questioning beliefs on someone. LOL!<\/p>\n

What about Jesus? He said the leaders were snakes. If we criticize leaders, will we get blacklisted? It cost Socrates and Jesus their lives. Yet this is what youthful people do. They question. They examine. They critique.<\/p>\n

We should examine ourselves and critique. But not create guilt and condemn.<\/p>\n

What focusing on the negative does for you<\/h2>\n

Mental Health:<\/p>\n