Two views (continued, part 2)

The other view we were talking about was that “Human beings are inherently imperfect and need to evolve to perfection.”

Most of our current thinking revolves around this view.

An evolutionary theorists says that ‘we’ started as unicellular organisms, evolved into more perfect animals, further, as intelligent apes and finally as human beings who are the most perfect of all. We may continue to evolve into more perfect beings.

An anthropologist would tell us how we evolved from primitive, barbaric and perhaps nomadic tribals into more refined and more capable, cultured races with a well defined societal structure, following rigid norms for peaceful coexistence. 

A social scientists may explain how a basically ‘animal like’ creature namely human beings can be molded into more refined being by setting up appropriate rules and regulations. All of us are criminals by nature, but adopt a more ‘civil’ way of life for the fear of punishment. Stricter and stricter enforcement of laws is the only way to make us better human beings.

The clergy would term each of us a sinner and would urge us to repent and pray to become better human beings.

All these stem from the assumption that we are inherently imperfect and we need to ‘become’ perfect by refinement.

Now the question is which one of these two views is right? Are we inherently perfect and have become imperfect or that we are inherently imperfect and need to become perfect? 

Let us continue in the next post.