Quote Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good
[Overt thread hijack]

Man has Original Sin. In the Bible, it comes from Genesis, when Adam & Eve sin in the garden. Now, if Genesis can't be taken literally, when does Original Sin come into play? The first homo sapien? Did our first acsestors just develop Original Sin one day?
The best summation of Original Sin I ever heard went something like this: Remember Woody Allen's line about "Sex is only dirty if you do it right?" That's an aspect of it. The yearning for debasement, the appeal of ugliness and pain, that's a part of it too. There's a part of human nature that abhors perfection and goodness. That's why we are capable of spurning God's love.

Anyway, that's one way of looking at it. Another way would be to look at what exactly Adam and Eve did wrong. They grabbed onto knowledge. They raised themselves up from the animal state to a slightly different place. So by that reading, the evolution of a complex brain is our original sin. We've grabbed hold of comprehension and reason, but without the grace and goodness that ought to go with it.

I'm sure one can read it in any number of ways. If you're a real stick in the mud, you could even read it literally. Although I've always been puzzled by people who do that. God is very specific abotu how we're supposed to stone to death people who collect wood on the Sabbath. But you never hear the televangelists advising us to do so. Why not? I would like to stone a person to death for collecting sticks on the wrong day. Sounds like wholesome fun.