Original sin
From RationalWiki
Original sin is the doctrine that humanity is cursed because Adam and Eve listened to Satan and not God in the Garden of Eden, and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Doctrine differs between different Christian sects, but in general, Fundamentalist and Evangelical sects believe that without baptism to cleanse the soul of original sin, a person cannot go to heaven. This has led to moral debate as to whether a just god would allow an unbaptized infant to be condemned to hell for having the arogance and temerity to die without being baptized. I mean, how dare they!
Contents |
[edit] The conspiracy
According to the Bible, in reference to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God had told Adam and Eve:
- Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
But Satan (appearing as a serpent) had said:
- Genesis 3:4-5
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Naturally they ate the fruit, and the surprising thing is that it was Satan who actually told the truth - because they did not die, but they did obtain knowledge of good and evil. It is unknown how long they resisted temptation, but it must have been less than 130 years, because Adam was 130 years when his son Seth was begotten.
[edit] The divine cursing
In a fit of spite at being found out, God became really upset and cursed everything and everyone involved in the whole conspiracy.
[edit] The snake
First he cursed all the world's snakes -- which was perhaps a bit unfair as the snake was only a tool of Satan, and it's a bit rough to curse all snakes for perpetuity because one of them was once possessed by Satan. Anyway, he said:
- Genesis 3:14-15
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
It should be noted that being made to 'crawl on your belly' isn't exactly a punishment for a snake. Snakes also don't eat dust, they make very good pets (pets are those animals humanity enjoys forming a bond with and caring for), and in some cultures were/are worshipped as gods. Some can kill humans with a single bite; others can crush the life out of us. So the only way the snake was really affected by the curse is that it couldn't speak anymore, but that was not even in the curse itself (Maybe we all speak like snakes before the Tower of Babel). Then again, if you've ever started a conversation with a creationist, you realize that this is probably a blessing. We'd go so far as to say that the serpent deliberately did all this just so it wouldn't have to live with Boring Adam, Boring Eve, or their boring children ever again.
[edit] The woman
Then he cursed all of the world's future unborn women and made them subordinate to men. Religious men everywhere salivated.
- Genesis 3:16
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
[edit] Adam
In some senses Adam (note not "The man") got away with things relatively easily as, unlike the woman and the serpent, he got no permanent biological punishment. Perhaps because he was successful in pinning the blame on the woman. Instead God cursed the ground itself:
[edit] The ground
- Genesis 3:17-19
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.This is the first mention of death, and suggests that mortality was created a punishment for Adam and Eve's sin.
[edit] Consequences
Original sin has been used as a reason to restrict womens' rights, especially on the issue of sex.
[edit] Oddities
- Humans are punished for sins committed before they were even born.
- It was the sin that made Adam and Eve aware of good and evil, so they couldn't know that what they were doing was a good or evil act until they had done it. (Why didn't he want them to know anyway?)
- There's an extremely dangerous and unprotected tree in "paradise", that an omnipotent, omniscient, perfect deity doesn't want touched, but this omnipotent, omniscient, perfect deity also created the beings that would touch the aforementioned tree.
- The really cool way the Eve reacted to the talking snake. Your average person would have some problems with a talking snake but Eve - not only is unfazed but is actually convinced by it.
- After committing Original Sin Adam and Eve hid from the sight of the Lord. Apparently God can’t see everything. [1]
- Genesis 3:8
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
- Genesis 3:8
- Original sin is directly contradicted by the Bible in the book of Ezekiel:
- Ezekiel 18:20
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
- Ezekiel 18:20
