Why Did Adam Sin?

[CommonWeal]

I was writing last night and stumbled on a question. According to the Church, man’s nature was perfect before the Fall. He was free from concupiscence, that is, his sensitive appetite was perfectly subject to reason. If that is true, then his deliberate sin could not have been the product of concupiscence. What, then, is the cause of Adam’s sin?

The Catechism states: “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of.”

I’m not sure I understand this or find it satisfactory. Can anyone offer any guidance? Does St. Thomas Aquinas answer this question?

Sincerely,
Common

 

[Leegal]

I was writing last night and stumbled on a question. According to the Church, man’s nature was perfect before the Fall. He was free from concupiscence, that is, his sensitive appetite was perfectly subject to reason. If that is true, then his deliberate sin could not have been the product of concupiscence. What, then, is the cause of Adam’s sin?

The Catechism states: “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of.”

I’m not sure I understand this or find it satisfactory. Can anyone offer any guidance? Does St. Thomas Aquinas answer this question?

Sincerely,
Common

Concupiscence is one by product of Adam’s sin.

It was disobediance that caused Adam to sin, and that disobediance came from envy.

St. Thomas thus explains this moral unity of our will with the will of Adam.

“An individual can be considered either as an individual or as part of a whole, a member of a society . . . . Considered in the second way an act can be his although he has not done it himself, nor has it been done by his free will but by the rest of the society or by its head, the nation being considered as doing what the prince does. For a society is considered as a single man of whom the individuals are the different members (St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 12). Thus the multitude of men who receive their human nature from Adam is to be considered as a single community or rather as a single body . . . . If the man, whose privation of original justice is due to Adam, is considered as a private person, this privation is not his ‘fault’, for a fault is essentially voluntary. If, however, we consider him as a member of the family of Adam, as if all men were only one man, then his privation partakes of the nature of sin on account of its voluntary origin, which is the actual sin of Adam” (De Malo, iv, 1)."

 

[Buck_Crosswhite]

It was the woman’s fault. It’s always the women’s fault.

 

[Carlan]

Concupiscence is one by product of Adam’s sin.

It was disobedience that caused Adam to sin, and that disobedience came from envy. ."

Yes, he was told by God, that everything in the garden was for their pleasure with the exception, eating of the ‘Tree of Knowledge’. The evil one tempted , he gave into temptation and ate of the tree, disobedience.Peace, Carlan

 

[CommonWeal]

Concupiscence is one by product of Adam’s sin.

It was disobediance that caused Adam to sin, and that disobediance came from envy.

St. Thomas thus explains this moral unity of our will with the will of Adam.

“An individual can be considered either as an individual or as part of a whole, a member of a society . . . . Considered in the second way an act can be his although he has not done it himself, nor has it been done by his free will but by the rest of the society or by its head, the nation being considered as doing what the prince does. For a society is considered as a single man of whom the individuals are the different members (St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 12). Thus the multitude of men who receive their human nature from Adam is to be considered as a single community or rather as a single body . . . . If the man, whose privation of original justice is due to Adam, is considered as a private person, this privation is not his ‘fault’, for a fault is essentially voluntary. If, however, we consider him as a member of the family of Adam, as if all men were only one man, then his privation partakes of the nature of sin on account of its voluntary origin, which is the actual sin of Adam” (De Malo, iv, 1)."

Adam was tempted by the devil. That much is true. God does not cause man to sin; neither does the Devil. The cause is within the will alone. Adam made a choice, and that choice requires a formal object, according to St. Thomas. You say that it was Envy, which is sorrow for another’s good. The text you quoted does not address the question, so I’m still at a loss. Any other ideas?

 

[Bernadette173]

Here is the simplist answer I can give you. It is from the NAB

" In the focus on God’s ‘plan’ and its developing plot for the patriarch’s of the Pentatuech. God creates the world for all peoples to praise the devine goodness of God, but humanity fails the devine hopes. So God choosesa single family or people that will prove faithful, and teach all other nations.These in turn must learn the lesson of God’s goodness through hardship, and then deliverence., and become obedient and formed as truly God’s holy people. Then God will lead them to the Promised Land, which they will keep only if they are obedient and loyal.

Genesis is a narrative in that it describes Go’d goodness to His people, and that there will be hardship, sin and disobedience, but also forgiveness of sin and a re establishment of man and how we as God’s people will be delivered from sin and evil, by sustaining hope and faith in God and His promise to us.

And that is the meaning of Genesis and the creation of Adam and Eve as I best can describe it.

God Bless You,
Bernadette173.

 

[Leegal]

Adam was tempted by the devil. That much is true. God does not cause man to sin; neither does the Devil. The cause is within the will alone. Adam made a choice, and that choice requires a formal object, according to St. Thomas. You say that it was Envy, which is sorrow for another’s good. The text you quoted does not address the question, so I’m still at a loss. Any other ideas?

Adam made a choice to place himself above God.

 

[LumenGent]

According to Scott Hahn, Adam feared for his life because Satan who wasn’t in the form of a serpent, but in a frightening sea monster or dragon, posed a real threat to him and he therefore disobeyed God in an attempt to stay “alive”. I find his theory confusing as it contradicts the state that Adam and Eve were in accounting to the preternatural gifts, especially that of integrity.

 

[Barbkw]

Adam’s answer to God was so teenager childish, “It was the woman, whom You GAVE Me.”

No introspection, no remorse, no contrition, no belief that his actions had consequences.

No responsiblity for his lack of commitment to tend and protect the garden and to respect one simple Commandment.

And then he transfers the blame to Eve and to God.

 

[A_G]

Did Adam and Eve have free will? Some people say “yes”, and others feel “no.”

What we do know is that Adam and Eve were given the ability to sin, or not to sin. They were tempted, fell into temptation, and disobeyed God.

 

[Pitcharan]

I was writing last night and stumbled on a question. According to the Church, man’s nature was perfect before the Fall. He was free from concupiscence, that is, his sensitive appetite was perfectly subject to reason. If that is true, then his deliberate sin could not have been the product of concupiscence. What, then, is the cause of Adam’s sin?

The Catechism states: “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of.”

I’m not sure I understand this or find it satisfactory. Can anyone offer any guidance? Does St. Thomas Aquinas answer this question?

Sincerely,
Common

God made humans in His own image and likeness and showered them with all kinds of bounties. Adam and Eve apparently lacked nothing and even enjoyed a father- child relationship with God; how then did they fall into sin? A careful reading of Genesis 3 reveals complete absence of this one thing — gratitude. For all the love and loving bounties received from God, had there been any sense of gratitude in Adam and Eve, then they would have got Grace and held fast to God’s command and would have rejected Satan’s apparently attractive offer. The saving Grace would have enabled seeing through Satan’s deception; but sadly that was not to be.

They ungratefully failed to provide any place for God in their hearts, rendering themselves vulnerable and paving the way for Satan to inject pride. They became spiritually blind because of their pride and stooped so low to do these detestable deeds:
• Eve took Satan’s advice to become like God.
• Adam followed suit and later went on to literally blame God by responding: "The woman You put here with me ….”.

We may deduce from the above that disobedience is the original sin and the cause is pride which entered humans because of ingratitude. When we fail to respond with gratitude for all of God’s bounties, we are only inviting Satan to afflict us with pride which will render us spiritually blind and slaves to all kind of sinful natures.

Remember the Israelites in the Desert of Sin, who were ungrateful for the innumerable bounties received — freedom from cruel slavery, water-manna-quails in the desert. It is because of their ingratitude that they had no abiding Grace to fulfil God’s Law and stumbled.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom 1:21)

 

[Earnest_Bunbury]

Dr. Scott Hahn has a good theory as to the nature and state of the fall.

Scott Hahn relates that Adam was to keep and dress the Garden (Gen. 2:15) which means he was to keep it from harm, to guard it from the enemy as it seems that the angels were created prior to man and the Devil fell prior to man also. Adam was to battle the serpent but instead gave in to him. The serpent could have had the ability to kill Adam even in paradise and that was the impetus for eating the fruit that was forbidden. He states that Adam chose not to give up the life he had and thus chose not to trust God but to trust himself. It is by this act that man was to “surely die”, not immediately but by losing the divine life God had given him. Both Adam and Eve reverted back to a lower level of nature, human nature minus the divine perfecting spirit they had prior to sinning, a corrupted sinful nature due to it being the result of a sinful action on man’s (both male and female) part. So it is according to Dr. Hahn that Adam sinned rather than lose the life he had and by this act, he chose to trust himself rather than obey.

 

[RCIA4]

Adam sinned because of Eve who in turn sinned because of the serpant… This gives a good reason for all men to rebel with the slogan “Give us back our ribs!”

 

[sinnseanair]

Everyone is born with free will, including Adam. The real problem here is that for hundreds of years, Eve was blamed. Eve was the weak one. Why, because she was a woman, made from the rib of a man. We see it today in Islam. Women are still subjectated. Mary Magdalene was made to be a prostitute instead of a apostle of Our Lord by the early church. Even Paul in his writings relegates women to a lesser role. There are those that decry that Satan is female. I say this as a man who was married for 44 years before my beautiful wife passed on. I have 3 very capable daughters, (to prove that God has a sense of humor, he gives all us outdoor type men daughters).

I still see it today. Men’s fear of women. That’s what it is. I don’t know what the learned doctors would call it, but most men must continue to prove their virility daily.

So, in our teachings, Adam receives the apple from Eve. It has to be that way for men to survive.

To my thinking, Adam just made a fatal mistake. It had nothing to do with Eve, who also made the same equal mistake. While we were made in the image of God, we cannot be God. We must trust and obey his teachings. We cannot blame someone else for our mistakes as Adam did. We see far too much of that today. We, man and woman, are responsible for our actions and inactions. God gave us reason, thought, imagination, and we learn from our elders how to be responsible humans.

Woman has no less role in life than man, in fact it is far greater, for they bear us, birth us, and suckle us. We are, as my grandfather told me several times, like two horses pulling the same plow. We do not necessarily pull the same exact way, but without both us pulling equally, the plow will not work.

This is the final argument against homosexuality, and in my grandfather’s thinking, why mules cannot reproduce. They may love each other as man and woman, but nothing can come of that love.

God in infinite wisdom gave each a companion. Each have special skills. Only together can they continue God’s plan for all of us. It is the same with animals, different for a few species who can change sex to produce more, but with humans made in God’s image it is always the same.

There may be someday when God changes plans. But, personally, I kind of like the present plan.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

I was writing last night and stumbled on a question. According to the Church, man’s nature was perfect before the Fall. He was free from concupiscence, that is, his sensitive appetite was perfectly subject to reason. If that is true, then his deliberate sin could not have been the product of concupiscence. What, then, is the cause of Adam’s sin?

The Catechism states: “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of.”

I’m not sure I understand this or find it satisfactory. Can anyone offer any guidance? Does St. Thomas Aquinas answer this question?

Sincerely,
Common

We do not know.

 

[bmullins]

As an above poster indicated, I too think Scott Hahn’s explanation seems to explain many of the subtleties of the Hebrew language that we miss without studying it in the original writing.

 

[Bernward]

Adam & Eve : A Personal Perspective
Once the Lord knew this earth had matured and settled to form an idyllic dwelling place, it was chosen as a pasture of refuge for His own kind - strong in Spirit and refined in Soul. A ‘Soul’ being an inner place of coexistence with the Lord – a shared communication space belonging to the Lord.
Using the Will of the Lord, His Children came from another place, to settle in the Garden of Eden, a fertile area of land abundant with all forms of life – a land of plenty. Amongst the surrounding life forms there had evolved a strain of ‘natives’ similar to His Children, but less spiritually mature: driven by instinct and the laws of earthly nature – competition and the survival of the fittest to ensure the development of the species – and the ways of the Lord were unknown to them.
The Lord knew that the natives were influenced by many earthly forces previously unknown to His Children, and warned against interbreeding with them as the resulting offspring would be torn between opposing inner forces of the spiritual and the earthly kinds, constricting the nurture and spiritual nourishment of the souls of His Children – the essence of the term ‘Sin’, and ‘the forbidden fruit’.
For the offspring of the blend that followed, His Children became aware of themselves within the nature of competition and were at odds with their spiritual nature. They could not overcome the ‘Sinful’ effect of nature’s earthly forces constricting the maintenance and development of their souls, and their inner place of communication with the Lord was corrupted and no longer served them as it had their forebears, and their source of wisdom diminished.
Despite the widespread effect of the mingling, many descendants of His Children maintained the remnants of their souls in an on-going struggle to maintain a shared presence with the Lord. As the population grew, and gathered in numbers, leaders were chosen by the Lord to help restore the spiritual balance in those that were able to hear His word. Prophets were recognised, and scriptures were written as a record.
Moses was given the ten commandments as a guide to bring control over the excesses of the earthly forces, but after 1,500 years, and a history of earthly forces domination, Jesus was sent as a true likeness of God, much stronger than any previous of His Children, and His task was to re-sow the field and gather a new harvest. To restore the spiritual balance through the message of eternal life, so that His Children could yet be saved - to demonstrate the power of the Almighty God, the Father of all spiritual souls, as a force beyond all earthly forces. Mary was chosen as a genuinely pure handmaid, an exemplar of spiritual strength and motherhood. He will soon return to gather in the harvest, and the chaff will be burned.

 

[Ian_Ward]

Because he gave into his carnal urges. Because the power of Sin was to great for him to overcome. Because when you put candy in-front of a Baby they will take it, because rules are meant to be broken because if you tell someone “Don’t do that” they do what you just told them not do.

Those two by their action condemned us to death forever, but who is to say that anyone else would have acted differently?

 

[fred_conty]

Adam was tempted by the devil. That much is true. God does not cause man to sin; neither does the Devil. The cause is within the will alone. Adam made a choice, and that choice requires a formal object, according to St. Thomas. You say that it was Envy, which is sorrow for another’s good. The text you quoted does not address the question, so I’m still at a loss. Any other ideas?

I will answer your question if you can answer mine first. Why did the angels sin?