Augustine

Apparently the problem of reconciling Genesis 1 and 2 is not a recent struggle. Reading Augustine's attempts at integrating the two creations really gives me a feeling of timelessness when it comes to this story, as I feel like he could have been sitting in our class pitching his ideas when we discussed contradictions of the stories, and completely fit in. His ideas about a "spiritual creation" are very interesting and fit well when trying to reconcile the differences in the stories.

He goes on to comment about circumastances of Adam and Eve's sin and their punishments. Characterizing the fall of man is probably one of the most important things when considering the notion of original sin. Augustine takes the sin beyond the simple act of dibobeying god's word. He asserts that Adam and Eve's sin also comes from not being able to admit their wrongdoing. It is the innate human sense of pride, to shift blame from oneself, that is their born quality of sin. What reason did Adam and Eve have to know morality or right and wrong. They were told not to do something and they did it. If they were created without any sense of human pride they would have confessed to their wrongdoing. It is, then, the pride that even the first humans were born with that constitues original sin.

It is also interesting to note, if looking at the issue of pride, that it seems to be a unifying force for the man and woman. Countless interpretations speak of the woman as the origin on sin (even later in Augustine's writing), and the man as this "innocent bystander." Augustine's mention of pride seems to put Adam and Eve on the same level for a nanosecond, and recognize them both as possessing a negative human trait.

In my eyes, these implications are huge. Original sin pretty much assumes that something went wrong with creation. God attempted to make humankind in his image, but somehow incorporated a fatal flaw in all of us. Original sin seems like a confession that our creation is somehow not 100% godlike.

Spong takes an interesting stab at original sin by very bluntly opposing the creation story as fact in favor of evolution. Therefore, the original humans could not have literally passed this sin onto all of humanity. According to Spong, all human nature at least has the potential to be intrinsically good, as it is not doomed by original sin. Jesus throughout time assumes a role of savior to perpetuate the notion of original sin. Spong takes a popular view that sin is used by christianity as a form of guilt to increase its power and reach. On a personal note, i feel that humanity in its essence is the state of nonperfection. Our definition as human is an embodiment of our ability to recognize our own shortcomings and sins. To me it is not as important to define that we are born with "original sin," but to note that we are born with the capacity to recognize sin.