The next stage though is whether the Fall is necessary? IOW are people inatley sinful, rather than just tainted with sin. Subtle difference, but still part of hardline Christianity.
Basically it boils down to:
Do we sin because it is now part of humanity?
or
Do we sin because it is virtually impossible not to?
I would verge towards the latter, however, if there is a possibility that we cannot sin, there is also the possibility that we can choose to do the right thing without help from God.
Yes, I can see how that would be an important theological question. However, I don’t see how it is necessarily solved by the A&E story. Is the propensity to sin hereditary? If so, how?
Of course, this has all been hashed out by theologians much more knowledgeable on the topic than I, so I will just leave it with the first type of questions that popped into my very amateur theologian head.
As far as I can see, sin cannot be hereditary because it has no for to pass on. Furthermore, the idea that humanity must sin implies either a failing in God’s creative ability, or a corruption that was beyond his ability to fix other than with forgiveness. Which ever, it looks bad on God. And, if the corruption was due to the power of man, it makes humanity more powerful than God. (from a cetain perspective, i know at least one person here fails to see it)
There then becomes all the sideways problems of religions who claim that the right behaviour (choosing not to sin) is all that God wants, rather than beleif in His forgivenss.
And that leads to the classics such as the Epicurean trilemma, Theodicy, etc. Well trodden ground that I really have no current interest in pursuing. I’ll leave it to the theologians.
I do tend to favor pragmatic and practical positions. In that vein, it is simply observable that humans sin. I don’t think it really needs to be pushed farther than that. A little mystery isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Absolutely. However, no amount of doing good will lead to forgiveness, at least from my understanding of Christian theology. As an analogy, no defense attorney will try to argue that their client should be found not guilty of murder because he helped old ladies cross the street.