The Garden of Eden and Entropy
A Catholic theology
of creation must include a consideration of the laws of thermodynamics
in relation to the nature of the created universe and the state of
innocence of our first parents. Rather than beginning with definitions
from modern physics, I suggest a reading of St. Thomas Aquinas without
any preconceived notions. This method will enable us to see whether the
laws of thermodynamics are really universal and so, of scientific
certitude, because if they are, then St. Thomas
will make some acknowledgement of them in his writings, perhaps not in
the words of present-day scientists, but certainly as presenting the
same ideas of perceived reality.
Some
preliminary considerations are necessary. We must understand clearly
the relation between the natural and the supernatural orders.
The
supernatural life of divine grace does not exist in itself but in
something else. It is therefore not a substance but an accident. Thus
the supernatural life pre¬supposes a created nature which receives it
and in which it operates. (Ott, p.102)
This
Catholic doctrine is essentially different from the modernist heresy
which teaches a “vital immanence” according to which everything of a
religious or spiritual nature develops out of the necessities of human
nature in a purely natural fashion. (Ott, p.102) The modernist thus
makes divine grace to be of the very substance of the soul as belonging
to it by some inherently natural right. On the contrary, divine grace is
an entirely gratuitous gift super-added to human nature and is
therefore subject to humble and grateful acceptance or to prideful
rejection on the part of a free will.
The
Catholic doctrine of grace is also radically different from that of
many if not most Protestants who simply have no clearly defined or
developed theology of divine grace and the soul or of which includes
Sacramental theology, virtue, sin, etc, etc.
According to St. Thomas,
as soon as God formed Adam's body from the earth and infused the
rational soul, He also raised him to the supernatural order of divine
grace. (Ott, p. 103 and ST, I, Q 95, a 1)
The
State of Original Justice or Innocence had its source in the
sanctifying grace that permeated Adam’s soul. This supernatural
endowment included in addition to the gift of sanctifying grace, certain
preternatural gifts which depended on grace alone and flowed directly
from it. These additional gifts were:
1)
The gift of rectitude or integrity, meaning freedom from irregular
desires in the physical order and a perfect control of the passions by
reason;
2) Bodily immortality or freedom from bodily death;
3) Bodily impassibility or freedom from suffering and bodily degeneracy, i.e., sickness;
4) The gift of science or knowledge of natural and supernatural truths infused by God.
This State of Original Justice was intended by God to be hereditary. (Ott, pp. 103-105)
We
know of only two human beings who by reason of their being absolutely
sinless possessed these gifts in their fullness and never lost them: Our
Divine Lord and His Immaculate Mother Mary.
We
know from Holy Scripture that the sentence of bodily death was not
carried out immediately upon Adam's fall from grace. Quite the contrary.
Adam and the Patriarchs -- and so, we may reasonably assume, everyone
else -- lived to extremely long ages. The same may justly be inferred
regarding the other gifts.