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Christian theology on Original Sin[1] varies widely, perhaps more widely than you are aware. The commonly accepted view in the Catholic West (as opposed to the

Christian theology on Original Sin[1] varies widely, perhaps more widely than you are aware. The commonly accepted view in the Catholic West (as opposed to the Catholic/Orthodox East or the Protestant West) is that Original Sin is the privation of sanctifying grace[2] in consequence of the sin of Adam. In other words, it's not an inherited genetic disturbance; rather, at the moment you were conceived you were lacking in a spiritual quality which God did not gift to you in view of the disobedience of the first parents of the human race. In any case, this could quickly get far afield from the bounds of an HN-ish discussion, but I did want you to be conscious of the fact that your notion of Original Sin may be unnecessarily limited to what amounts to a caricature. [1] http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Original_Sin http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Original_Sin [2] http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Grace#II._SANCTIFYING_GRACE http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Grace#II._SANCTIFYIN...

splat 13y ago
Apologies for contributing to this going even further afield of the bounds of HN-ish discussion, but I can't help but point out the relevance of one of the big points from the Council of Trent. The Church argued in favor of the idea that original sin is passed on through "propagation, not imitation." [1] That is, original sin is passed on from generation to generation rather like a disease, instead of from children simply imitating their parents. But although this "disease model" of sin can sometimes be a useful theological model, as you say, it is most emphatically not a genetic disturbance or a true disease in the medical sense of the word. [1] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p7.htm http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2...

splat 13y ago

Apologies for contributing to this going even further afield of the bounds of HN-ish discussion, but I can't help but point out the relevance of one of the big points from the Council of Trent. The Church argued in favor of the idea that original sin is passed on through "propagation, not imitation." [1] That is, original sin is passed on from generation to generation rather like a disease, instead of from children simply imitating their parents. But although this "disease model" of sin can sometimes be a useful theological model, as you say, it is most emphatically not a genetic disturbance or a true disease in the medical sense of the word. [1] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p7.htm http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2...