Why were the descendants of Adam and Eve punished for the sins of their parents? (Quick Question follow-up question)

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Vico said:
The original question was:

God is all just, so God punished Adam and Eve for disobedience by removing them from the garden of Eden. But why did God punish all of their descendants by not allowing them to start their lives in the garden? It is not just to punish a child for the sins of a parent. A child has no control of the actions of a parent since we all have free will and since a parent can perform actions before its child even exists.

Adam and Eve received gifts beyond nature: preternatural and supernatural. So the question is really about why did God not give all of their descendants the preternatural and supernatural gifts. Well, they were gifts not something that was due.

Some Church fathers have given the opinion that the unbaptized infants will have a natual state of peace in the next world, even though not the Beatific Vision (which means heaven), having died with original sin, but never electing the faith.
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Do innocent people suffer simply because God is not obligated to give them life without suffering?
 
Supercomputer said:
Do innocent people suffer simply because God is not obligated to give them life without suffering?
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H.H. Pope Benedict XVI wrote this in Salvifici Doloris, from 1984:
13. But in order to perceive the true answer to the “why” af suffering, we must look to the revelation of divine love, the ultimate source of the meaning of everything that exists. Love is also the richest source of the meaning of suffering, which always remains a mystery: we are conscious of the insufficiency and inadequacy of our explanations. Christ causes us to enter into the mystery and to discover the “why” of suffering, as far as we are capable of grasping the sublimity of divine love.

In order to discover the profound meaning of suffering, following the revealed word of God, we must open ourselves wide to the human subject in his manifold potentiality. We must above all accept the light of Revelation not only insofar as it expresses the transcendent order of justice but also insofar as it illuminates this order with Love, as the definitive source of everything that exists. Love is: also the fullest source of the answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. This answer has been given by God to man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1984/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris.html
 
grannymh said:
How does that question relate to Adam, his descendants, and Original Sin? :o
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It would only relate if the answer was yes. In that case, God would only be able to motivate us by letting us suffer.
 
Vico said:
H.H. Pope Benedict XVI wrote this in Salvifici Doloris, from 1984:
13. But in order to perceive the true answer to the “why” af suffering, we must look to the revelation of divine love, the ultimate source of the meaning of everything that exists. Love is also the richest source of the meaning of suffering, which always remains a mystery: we are conscious of the insufficiency and inadequacy of our explanations. Christ causes us to enter into the mystery and to discover the “why” of suffering, as far as we are capable of grasping the sublimity of divine love.

In order to discover the profound meaning of suffering, following the revealed word of God, we must open ourselves wide to the human subject in his manifold potentiality. We must above all accept the light of Revelation not only insofar as it expresses the transcendent order of justice but also insofar as it illuminates this order with Love, as the definitive source of everything that exists. Love is: also the fullest source of the answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. This answer has been given by God to man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1984/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris.html
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I never knew that the the Pope had said that suffering is a mystery for which we have no sufficient or adequate explanation. It seems that our only option is to have faith in the Lord and trust that if we were capable of understanding the reasons behind suffering, we would come to agree with the decisions that he has made regarding it.

Thank you very much for your replies everyone.
 
Supercomputer said:
I never knew that the the Pope had said that suffering is a mystery for which we have no sufficient or adequate explanation. It seems that our only option is to have faith in the Lord and trust that if we were capable of understanding the reasons behind suffering, we would come to agree with the decisions that he has made regarding it.

Thank you very much for your replies everyone.
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By the way, I posted that Pope Benedict XVI wrote Salvifici Doloris, but it was St. Pope John Paul II.

I believe that since we are made in the image and likeness of God, then to become Christlike, we must suffer as Christ did, for love. So Christ gives us a new commandment, John 13
34 A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.
 
Supercomputer said:
The fate is to suffer.
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The Catholic Church teaches that the ultimate fate presented to each human being is joy eternal in the presence of the Beatific Vision.(Genesis 1: 26-27) The Catholic Church also teaches that each human being has intellective freedom of choice which in real life means that each human being, including Adam, has the possibility of choosing between good and evil, between the State of Sanctifying Grace and the State of Mortal Sin. None of us has the power to change the wounded human nature which Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants. The descendants of Adam and Eve are not donkeys.
 
Supercomputer said:
Does any mortal human have the capacity to predict what people would have done with their free will if Adam and Eve had not sinned?
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I would have fallen, and I predict faster than they did. I hope you or others would have been able to abstain from sin, but I suspect many people feel as I do.
 
Supercomputer said:
God is a much different being, he is immortal, omniscient and omnipotent. He can always help everyone.
Yet the fact remains that he allows innocent people to suffer. Could anyone please give me some ideas about why this is the case?

Thanks
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The first error in the opening post is the false assumption that God is somehow a nasty immortal, etc. being. That is not Catholic moral theology. The second error is the false assumption that humans have the same nature as birds, buffalo, bats, bears, and busy beavers.
 
Supercomputer said:
God is a much different being, he is immortal, omniscient and omnipotent. He can always help everyone.
Yet the fact remains that he allows innocent people to suffer. Could anyone please give me some ideas about why this is the case?

Thanks
Click to expand...
The first error in the opening post is the false assumption that God is somehow a nasty immortal, etc. being. That is not Catholic moral theology. The second error is the false assumption that humans have the same nature as birds, buffalo, bats, bears, and busy beavers.
 
Supercomputer said:
Greetings everyone,

I would like to have a more convincing answer to this question. Here is the link:
www.catholic.com/quickquestions/why-were-the-descendants-of-adam-and-eve-punished-for-the-sins-of-their-parents

The analogy given to answer the question does not make the reasons for innocent suffering clear to me. There are some major differences between the analogy and the real world situation. Consequently, the analogy seems to be properly resolved in the end, but the real world situation still remains puzzling.

In the analogy, God is represented and/or replaced by a human benefactor who has two heirs, a grandfather and his grandson. All we really know about the benefactor is that he died, leaving his finite wealth behind. There may not have been anything the he could have done better in his life to make things better for his heirs. Naturally, he can not be blamed for their condition.

God is a much different being, he is immortal, omniscient and omnipotent. He can always help everyone.
Yet the fact remains that he allows innocent people to suffer. Could anyone please give me some ideas about why this is the case?

Thanks
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Because we are part of nature. Just as flowers decay and die and little birds fall out of the nest we must recognize that God created life and we are part of it.
 
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