Thread: Flowers for Algernon.

I was just wondering about other christians opinion. Lets just say that the type of mental ablity enhancement was real and it worked, what would you, my fellow christians think about it? I believe there would be nothing really wrong about it, what do you think? All you non-christians can chime in to if you wish. I hope I'm not the only one to read this book.

I loved that book. But what's it got to do with religion? It's not like they killed a petri dish full of cells and thereby destroyed their souls or anything.

In the garden of eden the reason Adam and eve got thrown out of paradise was for eating from the tree of KNOWLEDGE, which god told them not to do. This made the human race aware of it's capacity to do evil and accordingly we have been sinners from that point on. Plus there is all that, "god made you the way he wanted you and if he wanted you to be diffrent from what you are he would have made you that way" stuff.

Not really, you know.

I see no reason why we, as humans living in a sinful world, should not attempt to better ourselves. Understand that God made us just as he wished, yes, and that we were corrupted through sin. The mental capacity we have now is far less than what we should have. The physical capabilities we have now are a shadow of what we could once do. Death and deterioration are described as enemies throughout Scripture, they are not natural.

Adam and Eve were removed from Eden not because they sinned, but to prevent them from eating from the Tree of Life and thus living forever in a sinful condition.

Adam and Eve already had all they needed, mentally, physically, spiritually, sociologically, etc. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil did not make them all-knowing, but it exposed them to the converse of good, evil. They had rebelled against God, who by nature, and the nature given to us, is benevolent. Thus, they experienced the opposite end of the spectrum.

BUT BETTERING OURSELVES GOES AGAINST GOD'S WILL! WE WERE CREATED JUST AS GOD WANTED US TO BE! WE SHOULDN'T CHANGE THAT!

Please understand the difference between personal appearance and harmful defects. God made you, yes, he assigned to you certain personal attributes. I, for example, have blonde hair, am about 5' 7'', and my left nostril is larger than my right. These are personal attributes God has granted me.

I am also bowlegged and slightly knock-kneed with incredibly tight hamstrings that prevent me from running as others do. I have a severe hearing loss in both ears and have no depth perception due to being born premature with crossed eyes that were not corrected in time. These are abnormal attributes due to the corruptive influence of sin on my body.

One should not agonize over personal attributes, but neither should one hesitate to correct the abnormalities in order to better themselves. Again, consider that God made you, and then sin corrupted you. It is not wrong to fight against the enemies of God's intended order: sin, suffering, death.

Note that Jesus Christ performed many miracles when He was with us. He "preached the good news of the kingdom, and healed every disease and sickness among the people." We have accounts of Christ healing a woman who suffered from internal bleeding for many, many years. His healing of a paralytic who could not walk. His healing of a man born blind, and accounts of Him raising people from the dead. He even healed people on the Sabbath, a day when, according to the custom, was not permitted for work.

Christ provides a model for His followers, for "a student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master." And He provided a very clear example through his teachings and his deeds: provide for the poor and alleviate the suffering of others.

If a man is born blind, would you say that God intended for him to be that way? Of course not! Since death exists in our world, does God intend for that to be the natural way of things? Of course not! Such things are brought about by sin. They are not intended, clearly shown through the account of Creation and the example of Christ.

There is no reason for a Christian not to better himself, physically, mentally, psychologically, etc.

Silvanus -

You claim that there exists something called 'sin' as do many other Christians.

Can somebody please give a convincing (yet brief) argument as to what is sin and what constitutes it?

If we take Christians in America (or all over for that matter, Im in Australia and not essentially christian) and say, a tribe in the middle of africa, you may tend to notice that the idea of sin is very different.

Does God just choose whichever he wants to believe? Assuming of course God is actually a consciouss entity?

Help me out here guys, the Christian argument in general is starting to become too easy to criticise.