Is mankind kind, or cruel?

There is nothing I like more than a movie that portrays a true story of the nobility of man or woman, a teacher who helps her students rise out of the gutter, or one who  takes on the greed of a multinational corporation and wins. And who is not inspired by athletes who train and train and break this or that world record.  Surely there is something wonderful about man, but equally sure, is that there is something terrible about man. Look at Hitler or the Hutsi-Tutsi genocide, observe man's inhumanity to man.

Man is seems can rise to the highest of heights and sink to the lowest of lows. So is mankind kind or is he cruel? Surely the answer is yes, to use the mathematical 'or' which includes both. Is it A or B? Yes,  because it is both. He (or she – I would not want to leave you out ladies) is both wonderful and terrible, noble and debased, tender and terrifying.  But why is this? What is going on here?  Can your World view explain it? Mine can.

The Biblical Word view is that mankind (literally adam) is noble because he is made in the image of God. We are talking of the God of the Hebrew Christian Scriptures of course.  So God is love,  God is just, God is moral, has integrity, character, is Faithful, and Holy and Just.  Thus these things exist and are seen in mankind. Man was also created to have fellowship communion with the source of all nobility and love and integrity. So man is good and kind and noble and wonderful.  He is made in the image of God, but he is not God. Just as your image in the mirror is not you, like you certainly in many many ways, but even so not you. So you and I are made in the image of God, but we are not God. Hurray (it means I don't have to have all the answers, and I am not responsible for the whole world)!

There are of course many many aspects to our being made in the image of God. Part of this is that we are created a free  moral being, and so are free to make choices. And here is the rub. In order for us to be truly free to make choices, we must be given the possibility of making choices that are not in accord with the source.  We are free to choose to love or not. God did not make us robots saying “I love you God, I really do!”

Has Adam (mankind) made,  and do we make choices that are shall we say, are not in accord with the source as described above? Well you tell me.   And would paradise be paradise if those who inhabit it were making such choices (see Pulled over for speeding... 30th June)?  So yes man is wonderful and beautiful, but man is also fallen. According to the scriptures mankind has shown himself incapable of obeying even just one single rule. So then, because of our choices,  we have of necessity been cut off from the source of everything that is good.  So God (and we too) have a problem. We cannot inhabit paradise as we are, we need to be redeemed and changed, and reconnected with the source.  As just part of this, we need to learn to choose the good and reject the bad. In order for this to happen, it seems to be necessary that choices have consequences. So God curses the earth “for your sakes” as the King James translation of Genesis 3:17 puts it.  In different words “Because I love you, it is necessary that the earth be cursed”. I do not pretend to fully understand this, and I don't always like it, but I do know that it was my own pain that He used to bring me back to Himself. It does seem to work this way.

The question to ask then is “Does the Biblical World view reflect reality?” As I have said before and will say again “This book knows us, knows our problem”.  I know of no other World view that even comes close to explaining this fundamental reality. The Biblical world view knows our problem, and offers the solution. There is only one way, His way! If all else fails read the instructions!