Original sin
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Also it should be noted that being made to 'crawl on your belly' isn't exactly a punishment for a snake. | Also it should be noted that being made to 'crawl on your belly' isn't exactly a punishment for a snake. | ||
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=== '''The woman''' === | === '''The woman''' === | ||
Revision as of 09:54, 30 November 2008
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 temerity to die without being baptized.
Contents |
The conspiracy
According to the Bible, in reference to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God had told Adam and Eve:
- "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
But Satan (appearing as a serpent) had said:
- "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.
The divine cursing
In in a fit of spite at being found out, God became really upset and cursed everything and everyone involved in the whole conspiracy.
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: (New International version from now on.)
Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life." And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.
Also it should be noted that being made to 'crawl on your belly' isn't exactly a punishment for a snake.
And I don't know of any snakes that eat dust.
The woman
Then he cursed all of the world's future unborn women and made them subordinate to men. Religious men everywhere salivated.
To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
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:
The ground
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Consequences
Original sin has been used as a reason to restrict womens' rights, especially on the issue of sex.
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. (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.
- After committing Original Sin Adam and Eve hid from the sight of the Lord. (Genesis 3-8) [1] Apparently God can’t see everything.