Original Sin
Submitted by GCFboi on January 08 2001 00:45:12
In reply to More about Mary submitted by Sheesh! on January 07 2001 13:10:11
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In response to the question of What is original sin? here are my thoughts. These are my own personal thoughts on the matter. I have never studied this question academically, so I don't know what the "standard" theological arguements may be. This is just the way that I have understood it for myself. I don't claim to be a theologian, but I have read the Bible a lot and prayed for understanding of such questions as this. The sinfulness of the taking of the forbidden fruit does not lie in the fact that it gave them knowledge as such, but rather that it gave them a specific type of knowledge, and that they acquired it by a deliberate act of disobedience. It was the fruit of the knowledge of GOOD AND EVIL. Not the knowledge of, say, physics or biology, but the knowledge of the difference between good and evil. I think it should be especially easy for boylovers to understand that the danger in possessing such knowledge lies not in the fact that the knowledge itself is wrong to have, but rather in that it can be misapplied and misused by one person or group to hurt another person or group. If I know (or merely THINK I know) that some other person's actions are "evil", and my own are "good", I can be easily tempted to become self-righteous and judgmental against that person. Or if my own actions are "evil", and the other's are "good", then I can be filled with shame, and envy and resentment toward that person. (This is exactly what happened between Cain and Abel). Just as society has decided that heterosexuality is "good", and boylove is "evil", and on that basis has persecuted us, whenever distinctions are drawn between what is "good" and what is "evil", it becomes all too tempting for us to apply these categories not just to actions themselves, but to the people who carry them out. Thus we begin to label some people as good and others as evil. The reason why God did not want Adam and Eve to have the knowledge of good and evil, is because only God is truly fair enough to accurately judge what is good and what is evil. People can try to do that, but their own prejudices and feelings can make their judgments tainted to some degree. And instead of merely having discernment between right and wrong, it is far too easy for people to extend their judgments onto the core of a person, and condemn the person outright as hopelessly evil. This leads to injustice and separations and divisions among people, when one group decides that it is "good", and the other is "evil". This is exactly what is going on when boylovers are falsely lumped together with child molesters. People have taken the knowledge that child molestation is evil, and corrupted it. They have not been able to possess the knowledge that child molestation is evil, without letting their emotions carry them into the mistaken conclusion that healthy boylove is also evil (when it is actually good). And even when people's judgments are accurate and true, the biblical concept of forgiveness makes it clear that evil behaviors are supposed to be forgiven, and that people who are considered "evil" are NOT supposed to be hated, but rather loved and that we ought to try to help them. So I believe that the prohibition against eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is precisely a prohibition against judgmentalism and self-righteousness, the same as in Matt. 7:1 or James 2:1-4. It is not wrong to KNOW what is good and what is evil, but is is wrong to use that knowledge as a justification to condem others. And people are naturally tempted to misuse knowledge this way. The Bible makes it clear the God is the only true judge, and that God desires to reserve judgment for himself. There are several passages in the new testament that speak about the dangers of knowledge that is possessed without love. Knowledge without love becomes a source of legalism and false pride. Too much focus on knowledge for it's own sake, can squash mercy, forgiveness, and love right out of the picture. See, for example, 1 Cor. 8:1-3, 13:1-3, and Romans 14. The essence of what it means to be HOLY is to love God with all of one's being, and to love one's neighbor as oneself. To be HOLY is to be like God, who loves perfectly in all ways, including by FORGIVING and showing MERCY, DISCIPLINING, and BEING HUMBLE, among many other things. True love is a subtle, but powerful thing, that cannot be captured by mere knowledge alone. Knowledge itself is not sufficient to produce righteousness. "The world did not know God through wisdom..." (1 Cor. 1:21) The essence of SIN is to be separated from God and from one's neighbor. Sin is anything that destroys holiness and love, or prevents them from happening. Sin separates people from God and from each other. One of the basic facts about sin is that it destroys relationships. And one of the best ways that people have of destroying relationships is by passing judgment on one another, by dividing people up according to what is considered "good" and what is considered "evil". God created the human race to be one loving community. We are all in this together. In the end, all of us who are saved will be together in heaven. That includes not only Christian boylovers, for example, but also Christian child-advocates, who, at the present time, may hate boylovers. But somehow between now and when the kingdom comes, these types of hatreds will have to be eliminated. I think if you look at it this way you can see why the MISUSE of the knowledge of good and evil really IS the original sin. And they were misusing it, because they took the fruit against God's explicit command not to. What it really comes down to for me, is that I believe that God is more interested in getting us to a point of being able to truly forgive and love one another, rather than in satisfying our desire to be "right". God is not interested in our need to be self-righteous. He is interested in creating a world that is truly loving, where people are treated with justice and equality. The very concepts of "good" and "evil" postulate an inherent inequality between the two states. That is why there is no room for "evil" in heaven. It must be separated, and placed elsewhere (i.e., in hell), so that in heaven there will be no need for the distinctions of "good" and "evil". Everything will be "good" in heaven, just as it would have remained so in the Garden of Eden, had not the original sin been committed. |
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