I have suspected that the reason why the idea of original sin was created was actually that christianity was inventing the reason for its own existence. We need it for salvation.
Without Jesus (and, by extension, the church), we are all lost. We are all guilty.
It’s really quite remarkably clever if you think about it.
From a historical perspective, the doctrine of original sin
does arise from a debate that made the claim that Jesus is not necessary for salvation. (Augustine was attempting to refute the claims of Pelagius, who asserted that people can, essentially, ‘save themselves’ by merely deciding to live sin-free lives.)
However, although the doctrine of original sin might have the
appearance of being rather convenient, clever, and self-serving, I think that we can argue on Biblical grounds that this is what is implied in the inspired Scriptural texts.
After all, Adam and Eve
did possess something prior to their sin “in the garden”, and they
did lose it when they were ejected from the garden, never to return. Then, their children, too, inherited the effects of their fall. (After all, Cain and Abel didn’t get to live in the garden and take their chances with the tree, did they?)
So, I think it’s fair to say that the dynamic of the narratives in the first few chapters of Genesis paint a picture of the human race having inherited the consequences of the first sin. (Note that you’ll find figurative narrative among these chapters, so I’m
not making the case that we must believe these narratives as if they were literal historical fact. Nevertheless, even in their figurative constructs, a picture
is being painted.)
