The courage required to effect the conquest of nature and to transcend one's self is a courage that might succumb to the temptation of self-pride. The mortal who can transcend self might yield to the temptation to deify his own self-consciousness. The mortal dilemma consists in the double fact that man is in bondage to nature while at the same time he possesses a unique liberty-freedom of spiritual choice and action. On material levels he is triumphant over nature and over all things temporal and finite. Such a paradox is inseparable from temptation, potential evil, decisional errors, and when self be comes proud and arrogant, sin may evolve.