Original Sin came up as a topic of discussion in the Christianity and Birth Control thread. I'm posting the pertinent posts here. Elipidio opened the topic up with:

"Only in the mind of Augustine of Hippo, a horny hot blooded young man, who indulged in passion could come the unthinkable: Sex is evil once he decided to quit.

That mentality has permeated Catholic thinking to the point infants are baptized to erase the sin of sex, better known as original sin.

-Elpidio"

-- Andy S ("ask3332004@yahoo.com"), August 05, 2004

Answers

To which I replied:

"Elpidio, That mentality has permeated Catholic thinking to the point infants are baptized to erase the sin of sex, better known as original sin.

Catholic teaching on original sin has nothing to do with "the sin of sex". There is no such thing as the sin of sex as far as I know.

-- Andy S ("ask3332004@yahoo.com"), August 04, 2004. "

-- Andy S ("ask3332004@yahoo.com"), August 05, 2004.

Elpidio's next post was:

"Well, Andy,... We know genes are transmitted.

As far as sin goes,....

the parents will pay for their own sins, so says Yahweh in Ezekiel. They cannot be transmitted.

Jesus cannot cure that one. Only the disobedience to God Yahweh he could remediate. Once we accept Jesus as the Christ, then we accept he is showing us the way to the father, Yahweh.

I know this one is though. Yet, Jesus gave an example in John where they asked Jesus who sinned for that man to be born that way.

We know Jesus answer.

The Catholic Church has moved the sacraments. Confirmation, known as consecration in the Bible use to come first. Baptism use to come later. Usually adults were baptized in the biginning.

I treat these as observances: The bread and wine have taken the place of the Jewish passover. Penitence the place of Yom Kippur.

These are as commands: Having children:be fruitful and multipy (even priests were included on this).

Marriage: whatever God has united,....

The Christian Yahwist

The Man of Yahweh

-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonval@yahoo.com), August 04, 2004. "

-- Andy S ("ask3332004@yahoo.com"), August 05, 2004.

Alright, now that we have a clean thread, here's my reply Elpidio.

Just to be clear, original sin in Catholic teaching is not the same as personal sin (such as, consciously rejecting God and doing evil by our own free choice). To be more precise,

"Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence". Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle." - Catechism, para 405

My understanding is that original sin is not a "sin" as we typically think of it. I believe you're post refer to sin, as in personal sin (doing evil).

What is your concept of Adam and Eve's "original sin" and how it affects the rest of humanity? Are there any similarities to what I posted from the Catholic catechism?

-- Andy S ("ask3332004@yahoo.com"), August 05, 2004.

On second thought Elpidio, we should probably scratch this thread and move any further discussion of original sin to the one that's open already at Original Sin. Sorry about that, I just noticed the topic already under discussion.

-- Andy S ("ask3332004@yahoo.com"), August 05, 2004.