"The Sin Nature of Theologians & The Primate Nature of Biologists... Are The Same"

"What can we know? What are we all? 

Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite, 

with the aspirations of angels and the instincts of beasts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"The Sin Nature of Theologians & The Primate

Nature of Biologists... Are The Same"

by Paul Rosenberg

"This is one of those things that needs to be said, even though it’s jarring and unlikely to change public discourse any time soon. Apologies where due.

What theologians call “man’s sinful nature” is just about the same thing as the primate chemistry we humans have inherited, however it was that it came to us. (I’ll leave the fights over ultimate origins to others.) Bear in mind, please, that what I’m calling “primate nature” is, in us, more like primate inclinations, and that we also have post-primate inclinations, or in theological terms godly inclinations. But there’s only so much we can cover in a single post, so I’ll pass over most of that today.

Let’s use the five “Thou shalt nots” of the Ten Commandments as a reference point for the sin nature. It’s not an ideal list, but it’s very well known and will serve our purpose well enough. And we’ll stay with the closest primates to us: chimps first and then baboons (which also happen to be the animals I’ve studied the closest).

Thou shalt not murder. Chimps very definitely murder, and brutally. But they murder mainly outside their immediate troops. In other words, they’re murderously xenophobic. Most of their murders could be considered a type of war, and they are endlessly in conflict with other bands of chimps living nearby. And so aggression in humans, and particularly aggression between groups, are very definitely chimp things.

But there’s even more to this story: Murder and war are mainly (though not exclusively) a male activity among chimps. Female chimps accomplish most of their aggressions indirectly, by forming nepotistic dominance hierarchies and putting down both underlings and competitors, coldly and cruelly (at least from our perspective). When killing is required, they generally influence males (usually related males) to get it done.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. The big goal for male primates is to become the top animal and to copulate with as many females as possible. This, rather obviously, translates to adultery. Mid-level males wait till the big bosses are gone, then copulate with females the bosses previously monopolized, and by this the females spread their influence. Females frequently trade sex for favors such as protection or quality food.

Thou shalt not steal. If and when they can, primates steal. The high-status animals can get away with it a great deal, as when boss males chase away lower-status animals who find a bush bearing ripe fruit. They’ll bark, slap and if necessary do worse to chase the pleb away and get the good food they found. And again, the females have their own version of this, with high-ranking females intimidating and punishing lower-ranking females. It’s a very soap-opera set of interactions.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. Misdirection and guile among animals is hard to identify, but I’ll go out on a limb and assert that this goes on plenty. Still, I can’t support it directly, leaving this one to stand as an open suggestion.

Thou shalt not covet. Low-status primates very certainly covet what the high-status animals have, but can’t get it. As a result (and yes, this has been measured), they suffer with markedly elevated incidents of high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, a suppressed immune system, reduced fertility and other stress-related maladies.

Also...Bear in mind that both primates and humans are hard-wired for the recognition of status, to which this suite of bad behaviors is tied very tightly.

Last Words: I like making these posts fairly brief, and so I’ll bring this to a close by noting two things: Everything above is substantiated by seemingly good research, and it clearly ties the sin nature of the theologians to primate nature. That an odd and even troubling concept, but it can be verified by anyone who wishes to undertake the necessary work.

As noted earlier, there’s also an upward side to this, and it leads us toward wonderful places and times. Despite the far-too-common condemnational aspect of theology, an upward and very promising theology is available. But I’ll go no further on that, save to point out that David, the great Psalmist, announced “You are gods,” and that Jesus repeated the statement without reservation."

- https://thefindings.substack.com/