Seminar Series: Human Origins at Calvin College (2010-2011)

Sponsors: Sponsored by the Office of the Provost; Co-sponsored by the Religion, Philosophy, and History Departments and the Science Division
About the Seminar: This seminar series is intended to promote discussion and exchange information about issues related to human origins. Expertise is drawn from many departments: Religion, philosophy, history, psychology, geology, biology, the physical sciences, and others – as well as Calvin Theological Seminary and several of our sister Christian colleges.
Time and place: Seminars are typically held several Wednesdays and Fridays, starting at 3:30 or 7:00 p.m. For exact time and room locations, see the schedule below. See Calvin's Visitor Resources for directions to campus and a campus map. Faculty, students, staff and off-campus visitors are welcome. If you would like to receive regular e-mail announcements for each week's seminar, or if you have other questions or comments, contact Loren Haarsma. These seminars will also be announced on the Christian Perspectives in Science web page.

Related Seminars

The Human Origins seminar series officially began in fall of 2010. However, some earlier seminars held at Calvin College and which are relevant to this topic are included on this web site:
2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-2010.

Schedule

Highlighted events are not part of the Human Origins seminar series, but should be of interest to many attendees of the series.

October 8, 2010

Abstract: This is the first of what we hope will be a series of seminars this year by various speakers on the topic of human origins. We will first summarize discoveries made in the last few decades in genetics and paleontology, and discuss what we can learn from these discoveries about how God created humans. Then we'll survey main points of Christian tradition on a number of important theological topics: humans as God's image-bearers, the human soul, original sin, and natural evil. We'll describe several proposed scenarios for human origins which seek to bring together what we learn both from scripture and from nature, and we'll analyze some of the pros and cons of those scenarios. The goal of this seminar is to map out the important issues, the areas of agreement, and the range of disagreements. Audience questions and suggestions will influence which particular issues we explore in greater depth in later seminars.
Recordings and related resources: presentation slides
audio recording
Abstract: Is evolution true? Most scientists consider this question settled. In this lecture we’ll address a somewhat different question, and a better one: How does evolution make sense of the living world? In other words, how does evolution explain the ways in which living things came to be the way they are? We will look at the many kinds of evidence and data that are explained by common ancestry so that we can understand why evolutionary theory has been so successful. We will look at points of concern for Christians and briefly discuss the ways in which Christians can respond to those worries. And there will be plenty of time for questions and answers. Come learn why evolutionary theory is such an excellent explanation.
Recordings and related resources: presentation slides
handout
audio recording

November 5, 2010

Abstract: This presentation will summarize the main points of an article recently published in the journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (vol. 62, no. 3 [September 2010]: 179–95) and then lead a discussion of it and of issues it raises. The article is framed by recent research in molecular biology, primatology, sociobiology, and phylogenetics––research which indicates that our species,Homo sapiens, did not descend from a single pair of individuals, and that early Homo sapiens did not start in paradisal physical or moral conditions. The body of the article is a study of Genesis 2–3 in its literary and cultural context, examining Adam and Eve as strictly literary figures, with attention both to the biblical text and ancient Near Eastern parallels. Along the way, it explains why most biblical scholars do not find the doctrines of the Fall and original sin in Genesis 2–3 itself but only in later Christian readings of these chapters. The article also examines briefly Paul’s appeal to Adam as a type of Christ. It concludes that the doctrines of the Fall and original sin may be reaffirmed with Adam and Eve as literary rather than historical figures, but invite reformulation given the evidence for an evolving creation.
Recordings and related resources: handout/notes
audio recording
Abstract: Biologists and anatomists have been intrigued by natural comparisons between apes and humans since the 1600's. In the middle 1700's, Carolus Linnaeus included humans, apes and monkeys in his mammalian order, Primates. These biological investigations set the stage for the fossil discoveries to come. Starting in the middle 1800's, strange and scary remains of human-like creatures began to be discovered, first in Europe, then Asia, then Africa. The oldest of these fossil hominids now date to 6 million years before the present; all of the earliest forms are African. Some remains are associated with tools of bone or stone or with body ornamentation. Many skeletal elements demonstrate malnutrition, bone breakage, or other signs of a hard life. The earliest of these fossil hominids have cranial capacities slightly larger than those of present-day great apes. Clear trends can be seen over time in stature & locomotion, dentition, and cranial capacity during the past 4 million years, with conditions resembling more and more those of modern humans through time. This amplifying record has seemed ominous to some—are there skeletons in our human family closet? Or, are these individuals no more embarrassing than the other horse thieves in all our lineages? This talk will narrate the history of these discoveries and hopefully explain something of their significance. Lots of photos, including many scary ones.
Recordings and related resources: presentation slides
handout/notes
audio recording
Abstract: The idea that the human race can be traced back to a single ancestor has been both deep and lasting. In our own day it surfaces in very different arenas, both religious and secular. Contemporary geneticists and palaeo-anthropologists, for example, using DNA research, have variously christened humanity’s common ancestor Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosome Adam. Representing a very different politics, religiously-motivated racial supremacists in the United States have been no less busy working out an Adamic chronology for particular racial groups with particularly pernicious propaganda. In this lecture I explore something of these recent obsessions before turning to an historical analysis of the role of the biblical Adam in theories about human origins over the past five centuries. In particular I focus on a wide range of thinkers who argued for the existence of human beings before the Adam of the Genesis narrative.; During the seventeenth century, the idea was largely abominated as heretical, but in years to come attracted increasing support as it enabled a range of exegetical and empirical problems to be resolved. It presented solutions to the question of the settlement of the New World, eased problems posed by the so-called pagan chronologies, and offered a biological solution to issues about acclimatization, hybridity, and racial divergence. Its use as a political resource was no less conspicuous as it was variously mobilized for both egalitarian and racist purposes. For these and other reasons, the idea of pre-adamic humanity attracted a growing range of committed defenders – often those with a conservative Christian heritage. In the aftermath of the Darwinian revolution, the idea was often adopted by evangelical scientists and theologians who found in the idea of pre-Adamic hominids, nearly but not quite human, a means of making peace with evolutionary anthropology. Over its remarkable history since the mid-seventeenth century, the idea of non-Adamic humanity has run the gamut from humanitarianism to racism, from heresy to orthodoxy. The passion to track Adam’s bloodline, one way or another, continues to fascinate the human race. If Paul Ricoeur is correct to say that Adam’s fall from grace is “the anthropological myth par excellence”, the mission to track Adam’s bloodline must surely rank as the archetypal quest of Western culture.
Recordings and related resources: presentation slides
audio recording
Abstract: This presentation aims to do three things. The first task is somewhat polemical, but the second and third goals are meant to be constructive (and maybe even irenic!). (1) What's not at issue: I will suggest a clarification of what's at stake in the current discussion by noting what this debate is not about. It is not about evolution vs. creationism. There isn't a simple dichotomy of pro-science versus anti-science views. As we jointly examine and critique the various proposed scenarios for human origins, those who resist the more "symbolic" interpretations of the Fall do take the scientific data seriously. This may be stating the obvious, but some articulations of the issues seem to require that these clarifications be made. (2) Going "meta": Drawing on Alasdair MacIntyre's account of tradition, I want to sketch an understanding of confessional theological reflection which emphasizes that wrestling with what is essential to a tradition is a defining feature of a tradition. In other words, I want to paint a picture of "tradition" and "orthodoxy" which makes room for genuine development and reform within a tradition. So defending "orthodoxy" cannot and should not be equated with mere repristination. However, it does entail that theological development and reform still discerns parameters and boundaries for what constitutes a faithful extension of the tradition. (3) Imagining the Fall: constructively, I want to loosen up our theological imagination by proposing a model that takes seriously evolutionary and genetic evidence for common ancestry, predation, etc. while also retaining a doctrine of a "historical" Fall. My goal in this section is to point out that proposals that take seriously evolutionary and genetic evidence need not entail rejecting a historical understanding of the Fall, though this will also require some reconfiguration of how the doctrines of the Fall and original sin are articulated. My only goal in this respect is to suggest that, with some faithful theological imagination, we could imagine some models that are not yet on the table.
Recordings and related resources: handout/notes
audio recording
Abstract: Evolutionary Psychology (EP) has had a significant impact on psychological theories and has a good deal to say about human nature and the reasons for our actions – both good and bad. But can EP shed light on biblical concepts of sin or righteousness? This presentation will review the basic ideas of EP, its implications for psychology and how it may – or may not – help us understand our basic sinful nature. The basic thesis for the presentation is that EP, while providing some valuable insights, fails to capture the full extent of our human nature, including our sinful tendencies.
Recordings and related resources: presentation slides
audio recording
Abstract: Before God and creation via evolution get too cozy, we need to remember that evolution is a chancy process. While natural selection itself is not a method of chance, what it selects from is a matter of chance—random mutations. Random mutations supply the fuel that operates the evolutionary machinery. Without mutations, individuals within a species would have exactly the same characteristics; none would be any better than another in terms of avoiding predators or coaxing mates. It’s only when mutations occur—making some individuals slightly faster or able to smell better or more attractive—that natural selection kicks in, lending its endorsement to the favorable trait. Without mutations, natural selection is empty. But, and here’s the God and creation problem, mutations are random. How can a random process be compatible with God’s intentions to create plants and animals, and then humans (in His image)? If the process was random, how could God have known what he was going to get? How could God have guided a process that is fueled by random events? I'll consider five models for how God might use random processes to accomplish God's purposes.
Recordings and related resources: presentation slides
audio recording
Abstract: In antiquity the intent of stories of human origin was not objective explanation of a process over time, but narrative portrayal of archetypical events that help the audience make sense out of their own existential human predicament. The truth of such narratives lay not in their pinpoint accuracy in the realms of biology or geology, but in their liturgical power enabling an audience to come face to face with the life forces threatening to overwhelm them. The presenter will examine ancient stories of origin and order as historical documents, both as sources for ancient socio-religious history and for their role in ancient history. First, various types of stories from ancient cultures, such as the Vedic Myth of Perusha, The Babylonian Descent of Ishtar into the Underworld, and The Canaanite Conflict between Baal and Yam, will be used to demonstrate the role of literary narrative in the representation of meaning for humans face-to-face with cosmic forces. Second, while the Genesis creation stories served a similar socio-religious purpose, they were adapted for that late in ancient history, at a point in the mid-first millennium BC when there was a broad cultural shift away from cosmo-theism to transcendental theism, not only in exilic/post-exilic proto-Judaism, but also among neighboring societies (in India, Persia and Greece, for example). The purpose of this presentation is to bring out the meaning of human-origin texts in their original historic context in order to make clear these do not lend themselves to the commonly held “concordist” presupposition that the ancient creation narratives contain scientifically verifiable information.
Recordings and related resources: handout/notes
audio recording
one-page summary of implications
Abstract: This presentation was be a follow-up to Bert deVries's presentation the previous week. It outlines how Genesis 1-3 was interpreted after it became to be regarded as sacred history. Ultimately, the problem with the current debate over human origins has less to do with the problem of human origins than with the question: How do we read these ancient texts? For centuries, the meaning of Genesis 1-3 was determined not so much by what these texts actually said, as by what they were supposed to say; they were thought to contain some hidden truth that was especially relevant for the religious community that held them as sacred, but this truth could only be uncovered through mystical and spiritual reading. For centuries this is just how these texts were read: against a religious framework that assigned a deeper, mystical or theological meaning to these texts. These are the biblical hermeneutics underlying Paul's letter to the Corinthians, as well as the Reformed Confessions. However, modern biblical criticism has challenged this hermeneutical model. While a modern critical reading may solve many of the apparent contradictions between these sacred texts and science, it does raise the question: Can we still regard these texts as authoritative and sacred, if we read them in this way? Or do they become "just" stories, no longer the Word of God?
Recordings and related resources: presentation slides
audio recording
Abstract: During the past one hundred fifty years, a great number of fossil hominid specimens have been unearthed, providing an outline of hominid history extending back five million years. Associated with these hominid fossils are artifacts. Christians and others who have attempted to assess the humanity of these long-dead individuals have focused on evidences of cognition such as cave art, evidences of care given to injured or ill individuals, or burial. However, many more types of evidences as to cognitive abilities in these creatures are available. Warren Brown has proposed that a cluster of interlinked cognitive capacities were elaborated over the past few million years of hominid history during an "evolutionary trajectory" which, in turn, undergird human "soulish behaviors." These include language, a theory of mind, episodic memory, top-down agency, future orientation, and emotional modulation. This article is an attempt to put traction on Brown's proposal, through detailed examination of the paleoanthropological record. The ability to teach, and thus symbolically and rapidly transmit culture, is suggested as an additional capacity which is part of this cognitive platform. Primary data (anatomy, artifacts) and reliable inferences (based on comparative studies) support a notion of a stage-wise erection of a cognitive platform for soulish behaviors. A few significant, less-understood gaps remain in the cognitive trajectory.
Recordings and related resources: presentation slides (1st half)
overhead slides (2nd half)
audio recording
Abstract: In conversations about origins, Augustine is sometimes painted as a fundamentalist in the way he read Scripture (he wasn't), as someone who corrupted the Hebrew worldview of the Bible with Hellenism (he didn't), and as the source of a distorted understanding of sin and salvation that needs to be overcome (it needn't). Given how central Augustine has been to the development of Christian thought in the west, especially (though by no means exclusively) to the development of the Reformed tradition, we should dig a little deeper and get a fuller understanding of what he actually says about human origins, about human freedom and responsibility, about the nature of sin, about the goodness of creation and the goodness of God.
Recordings and related resources: audio recording
Abstract: This lecture will attempt to do two things. First, it will raise questions about the methods being used in our current discussion over how to read the story of Adam and Eve. For instance, does the accumulation of 'parallels' or 'similarities' between different pieces of literature necessarily lead to solid conclusions about either the historicity or the intentions of the stories themselves? Second, we will briefly take another look at Genesis 1-3. The story of Adam and Eve has been interpreted in many ways over the centuries and in modern times. I believe we can find territory in our interpretations which avoids, on the one hand, reading in ways which simply reinforce traditional theological preconceptions, and on the other hand, reading in ways which presuppose some unacceptable rationalistic assumptions.
Recordings and related resources: text
audio recording
Abstract: "Evil" is a term which, in the Christian tradition at least, is properly a "theological" term. That is to say, "evil" names that which is not consonant with the nature and action of God and therefore must be understood in relation to how Christians understand and speak about God. Christian theology has traditionally made a distinction between the moral evil perpetrated by personal agents (i.e. "sin") and natural evil which occurs apart from personal agency and intention. In this presentation I will outline what is meant by "goodness," "supreme goodness, " "evil" and "sin" as theological categories. Augustine's wrestling with "the problem of evil" will provide some traction as I explore the content of these terms. Regarding our current discussion on human origins, I will sketch a description of human origins which may entail a closer linkage of moral and natural evil than is often given.
Recordings and related resources: handout/notes
audio recording

April 14, 2011

"Evolution Matters: Does Evolution Explain Religion?"

Michael Murray, Executive Vice President, Programs & Vice President, Philosophy & Theology, John Templeton Foundation

Co-sponsor

Calvin Philosophy Department: 2011 Jellema Lectures

April 14, 2011

"Evolution Matters: Death, Predation, Extinction, and ... a Loving Creator?"

Michael Murray, Executive Vice President, Programs & Vice President, Philosophy & Theology, John Templeton Foundation

Co-sponsor

Calvin Philosophy Department: 2011 Jellema Lectures

April 28, 2011

Abstract: One of the questions that has been raised in discussions about human origins concerns the implications of various views on origins for the way that we understand Christ's atoning work on the cross. This lecture aims to help us think about these issues in two ways. First, it will point us to the variety of themes and images found in the New Testament to speak about what is happening on the cross. Along the way, we will see how our confessional documents reflect this range of themes - and we will also see that theology can sometimes get unhelpfully carried away with one or two of them. Second, while the New Testament gives us a constellation of ways to help us to plumb the depths of the cross, all the various themes and images share some central assumptions about God’s relationship with us and ours with him. These shared assumptions will provide a touchstone for discerning how approaches to the issue of human origins relate to the atonement.
Recordings and related resources: text
audio recording
Abstract: This presentation explains the position of the CRC on human origins as modified by the Synod of 2010. (I was an advisor to Synod and advocated for its decision.) Synod 2010 removed the declaration of Synod 1991 that "the uniqueness of humans as image bearers of God rules out the espousal of all theorizing that posits the reality of evolutionary forebears of the human race." But it reaffirmed the other five declarations of 1991, including permissible approaches to Genesis and doctrinal conclusions that are required. Consequently, the CRC position is now open to espousal of evolutionary theories of human ancestors that are consistent with these hermeneutical and doctrinal positions. The presentation outlines some limits and possibilities of the CRC position in relation to current scientific, philosophical, theological, and exegetical views. There will be time for discussion.
Recordings and related resources: handout/notes
audio recording
2010 Agenda for Synod
2011 Acts of Synod
Recordings and related resources: excerpt from book Trinity and Truth
book review #1 (Buckley)
book review #2 (Reno)
Co-sponsors: Calvin College Religion Department
Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship

May 6, 2011

"Faith and Certainty"

Bruce Marshall, Professor of Historical Theology, Southern Methodist University

Seminar Series: Human Origins at Calvin College (2010-2011)

Related Seminars

Schedule

October 8, 2010

"Scientific and Theological Issues on Human Origins"

October 15, 2010

Follow-up discussion to "Scientific and Theological Issues on Human Origins"

October 20, 2010

"Evolution and Explanation"

November 5, 2010

"Reading Genesis 2-3 in an Age of Evolutionary Science"

October 15, 2010

Follow-up discussion to "Reading Genesis 2-3 in an Age of Evolutionary Science"

February 9, 2011

"Those Scary Fossils: History of Paleoanthropological Discoveries"

February 11, 2011

"Adam's Bloodline:Genesis, Race and Human Origins"

February 17, 2011

"Evolution and the Fall: Clarifying the Issues, Imagining the Possibilities"

February 18, 2011

"What can Evolutionary Psychology Tell Us about Sin?"

March 2, 2011

"God, Chance, and Purpose"

March 4, 2011

"A Historian's Approach to Ancient Stories of Human Origin and Cosmic Structure"

March 11, 2011

"Tell me: How long did Adam dwell in Paradise?" Traditions of reading sacred texts in the light of modern biblical criticism.

March 17, 2011

A discussion on the article, "Assessing Evidences for the Evolution of a Human Cognitive Platform for 'Soulish Behaviors'" by Ralph Stearley, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith v.61 n.3 p.152-174.

March 30, 2011

"What Augustine Still Has to Teach Us about Human Origins and God's Creating Work"

April 6, 2011

"What's Original about Original Sin? Reading Genesis 1-3 within the Christian Canon"

April 13, 2011

"What Social and Natural Scientists Need to Know about Evil"

April 14, 2011

"Evolution Matters: Does Evolution Explain Religion?"

Co-sponsor

April 14, 2011

"Evolution Matters: Death, Predation, Extinction, and ... a Loving Creator?"

Co-sponsor

April 28, 2011

"What about the cross?"

April 29, 2011

"The CRC and Human Origins Since Synod 2010"

May 6, 2011

"Trinity and Truth: Making Truth Claims in Theology"

May 6, 2011

"Faith and Certainty"