An inquiry into the possible impact of current scientific research in human genetics on the Augustinian doctrine of original sin

Five fundamental tenets constitute the Augustinian doctrine of original sin. (1) God created Adam as literally and historically the first human being in whom was the entirety of human nature and from whom the entire race descended. (2) Adam was created with original holiness, which included the potential for biological immortality. (3) Adam sinned by disobeying the commandment of God. (4) God punished Adam by afflicting him with both spiritual and biological death. (5) Adam's altered human nature, guilty and condemned, is transmitted to every member of the human race by the process of natural generation.;These five fundamental tenets of the church embody three principal conceptions of biological human nature. (1) The first human was created with the potential for biological immortality. (2) The human race is a biological solidarity linked together in a biological progression emanating from one single pair. (3) The biological constituent of human nature (the physical or material body) influences the behavior of the psychical constituent of human nature (considered to be the soul).;Human genetic science provides scientific warrant for maintaining these biological tenets of the church doctrine of original sin. This scientific warrant places the doctrine of original sin on a scientific foundation for the first time in church history. Furthermore, human genetic science also provides a plausible explanation as to how God may have altered human nature in Adam and thereby imposed the death penalty on all mankind through the first man Adam.;The two following general hypotheses: (1) humans are a unique species that appeared on the earth only recently, and (2) humans have descended from one original pair, or a few human pairs, who resided in one geographical location. The two views only differ in certain specifics given below.;First, the two views differ with regards to the possible number of human pairs that first existed.;Second, the two views differ with respect to the estimated date at which the first human pair lived.;Third, concerning the question, “Are all humans biologically linked together into a human solidarity?” both scientists and the church agree.;Fourth, scientists and the church both agree that the original humans in the beginning resided at one geographical location. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).