Original Sin Debunked.

Psychology Behind The Original Sin.

I came across some news this morning about the drying up of the Euphrates River, one of the boundaries of the Garden of Eden.

Yes, it was a prophecy in the Bible and yes, the world is just on the brink of its end, but this is nothing to worry about if you are a true Christian and it is not the topic of discussion in this article.

What was it, really?

What is though, is what happened in the Garden of Eden, especially what caused the exile of the first man and woman out of the garden. And more importantly, what their action brought upon us and how much exactly we are to pay for the sins of our first mother and first mother.

THE ACT.

So, the devil lied to Eve who persuaded Adam into taking a bite from the apple of the tree of life. It could have been because of his naivete or the excitement of having a woman of his own to talk to in the garden after being hit by loneliness for so long, but Adam conceded and ate the apple. 

Eating the apple could not have been a sin had God not asked Adam to do it. But he did it anyway and the rest is history.

What was this sin?

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Adam and Eve did not sin by eating from the tree. But by disobeying God’s orders. Is it not known that God does not like being disobeyed? 

[1st Samuel15:22(NIV)-“But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry” ].

In the New Testament, Jesus also pointed out God’s wishes,

[John 14:15:-“If you love me, keep my commands.” ]

So, really, could eating some fruit from a tree cause such a reaction as an exile from God? From a God who created Adam and Eve and took care of them as He had done? Giving them power and dominion over all the land and the animals?

Since God is just and pure, I do not think so. Not with all that Omniscience working for Him. So, what then was this sin? What angered God so much that He had to kick these two out from their heaven on earth?

REBELLION against God.

That, it has been concluded is the actual original sin.

So, let’s break this down a little bit.

Adam and Eve left Eden, populated the world, God annihilated the world a few times then promised never to do it again during the times of Noah, and so here we are today, several millennia later. Billions of people are alive while some die every day, and we all have one thing in common. We all sin. And we can’t help it. And it takes effort to quit sin. We are always attracted to darkness. The level of selfishness or bravery innately within us results in us either chasing the darkness or shying away from it. But the desire for it is and will always be there. Ever hidden and for the unafraid, ever-present.

Where does this rebellious nature, our desire for darkness come from?

Eden, yes. But I meant psychologically. Where does our inherent rebellious nature psychologically come from?

Why psychologically? Because our minds are not as simple as that of other animals. A beast, say a dog can have the worst years of strife and hardship since birth, but should it get a good owner at the prime of its life, it will be stubborn at first but after re-wiring its mind and accepting to be a member of the ‘pack’, it will remain loyal and faithful to the owner till the day that it dies. Completely forgetting its past hurt. Most mammals in nature ( save for a few like cats) operate this way especially if they are pack animals. They will join the pack, identify as pack animals, accept its social roles and work swimmingly with the pack, completely oblivious of its past. 

Human minds are not this simple.

I will coin this today by saying…a human mind is feline. Because just like cats, we are rebellious to our owner/creator. We want our freedom to do our own thing but hope to get to heaven despite living in sin(acting against the owner from which our lives have been borrowed). We like cats are full of SELF-INTEREST. The seed of original sin.

Think about it…

Take, for example, the case of Adam and Eve.

The devil was smart, and he knew that there was no way that Adam, even with his naivete, would be manipulated into eating the fruit from the tree of life because he had received orders from God directly. He, therefore, chose Eve because God did not speak to her directly and because Adam had a soft spot for her so he would be easily manipulated by her. The serpent lied to the woman with half-truths (a remarkable ability of the devil by the way. I’ll have to do an article on how he lies to this day in the future). Appealed to her self-interest (being like God and knowing right from wrong). Then he disappeared letting the planted seed of thought grow in Eve’s mind (classic devil trick).

Eve’s imagination of being like the God that had created the world that she knew, created covetousness within her. If she could covet, that means she wanted to have what God had (self-interest). This gave her the motivation to do the deed. The deed was a rebellious act against God (disobeying direct orders from God). Granted, hers was clearly from a point of sincere naivete seeing as she was just created and had been walking around for like 5 minutes, but you get the point.

In a society where we want a piece of something for ourselves, be it material things or immaterial (like happiness, freedom, or mental success), self-interest is very tough to avoid, and pride in whichever form (intellectual pride, religious pride, pride of beauty (vanity), pride of wealth, pride of power, etc) is difficult to recognize in our selves since with all honesty, we don’t even realize that they have been running our lives for so long. Scratch underneath the sin of every informed individual ( emphasis on informed since, despite popular belief, genuine ignorance and sincere foolishness are pretty rare but possible) and you will find pride. I will do an article to elaborate more on pride, but so I don’t keep ranting further…Let’s focus on self-interest.

Because we covet, we have pride. Otherwise, why would you not be proud if you thought yourself entitled to someone else’s blessings? Due to this, we steal, kill and lie to get what we want. 

When does it kick in? This self-interest. This original sin?

For some, it has always been there.

In Robert Greene’s book, “The Laws of Human Nature.” It was established through his research that certain studies had shown that children who had a regular propensity to take toys from other children had a higher chance of developing envy as they grew up since their sense of entitlement and selfishness had started from the moment, they could move their arms. It was also found out that children that had no issue giving other kids their toys were naturally caring and if the conditions are right as the child grows, will develop into genuine and altruistic individuals. This gives us a lot to think about. According to Robert Greene’s book however, very few of the latter children are born. Majority of the children born are of the doll taking variety. Not doll giving. Could explain the “Origin” in original sin.

 The answer is in every unconscious human interaction. Everyone wants what’s best for themselves, even if it might come at the expense of someone else. People use people to get what they want. That’s the whole point of the common phrase “It’s a man-eat-man world” because, we all have self-interest. 

Seriously though, where besides business, does self-interest dwell most?

-It is observed in children who want loose reigns in their parental disciplining and are “tired” of their parents and their rules.

-It is observed in women who desire bad boys because they will do sinful acts that excite their deepest passions with men that are only interested in pleasure. Even when they foresee problems with this kind of man. They will stay.

-It is observed in the employees that gives the bare minimum at work and expects a fat paycheck.

-It is observed when addictions and internal sexual corruption are considered usual and not sin.

It is observed in all interactions young and old.

Do the 7 deadly sins have anything to do with Self-Interest?

well, YES!

All sin comes from self-interest. Some sins are just purely an act of self-interest themselves, while others are a byproduct of the threat to one’s self-interest.

A small dissection…

 Sins that are by themselves self-interest.

–Sloth– Living in the comfortable, no intention whatsoever to exert any effort to do something meaningful because ” you don’t feel like it”.

-Gluttony– Feeding for the party of one. Could be visual or physical, but only your satisfaction gets to be met.

–Lust-You do not think about loving the person you lust over, you think of the body that you want to possess for yourself at that particular moment. It’s all about you (being with them), but not you actually being with them.

–Pride– Feeling superior to others. Therefore, in every interaction, you should always get something more from others since you are more important than them.

–Greed– You do not care about anyone else meal plan but your own. You have no qualms about using power and influence to take from society everything that they got. From the respect, they give you to the treasures in their possession.

The sins that come as a by-product of acts against self-interest.

–Envy-Your sense of entitlement (Pride) does not allow you to be happy when you see others having a good time or others possessing what you have. You resent them for their underserved winnings and you feel that all winnings should be yours.

–Wrath-A threat to your self-interest will cause this reaction in those with low emotional intelligence. Either a dent to one’s ego( pride), title, self-image (envy), or possession.

SELF-INTEREST AND CHRISTIANITY.

Self-interest has no place in Christianity since it asks us to forbid it within ourselves. This is one of the primary reasons why it is so hard to be a Christian.

That is the point of love, abandoning self-interest and embracing Self Sacrifice.

Self-Sacrifice for who?

Jesus said so Himself in the New Testament.

[Matthew 22:37-Jesus replied: “’ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’]

[John 13:34- A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.]

To emphasize the sacrificial aspect of love, we have the below verse straight from the Bible explaining what exactly true love should look like. 

[1st Corinthians 13:4-5-Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.]

In a nutshell, we are to selflessly love God and selflessly love others. We are to be as generous with our love for God and others as God is with His to us. Doing so will be getting rid of our original sin.

He has promised that if we forsake our lives for Him, He will always take care of our needs (He will provide what is required according to the Grace and Mercy He has bestowed upon you from the witnessing of the works of your hands and how you live your life. But don’t think for a second that being a Christian will be easy because of this blessing. To he who much is give, much is expected).

[Mathew 6:33-Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything that we desire will be added unto us].

An indication of how God’s love works. It is synergetic. It does not deplete as it always returns with a bounty.

It is all sacrificial. By showing our love and loyalty to God, He has promised that He will show love and loyalty to us ie, by avoiding sin, God has promised blessings both material and immaterial. And by showing love to others, we avoid committing hurt or bringing ill will upon them hence fulfilling the commandment of Jesus.

SELF-INTEREST VS SELF-SACRIFICE.

This is where the issue of sin comes in.

When all you think of is yourself and what makes you feel good, you will never love, leave alone like others (unless they satisfy your selfish needs), help others, give to others wholeheartedly ( unless there was something in there for yourself), or sacrifice something for the sake of someone else happiness. Including God.

Looking at the world like this will confuse you on how love should be expressed because you have recognized the love of self as doing things that make you feel good, you will think that loving others will be making others feel good as well. Which is not the Biblical version of the love of the Bible.

When looking at the world through the lens of self-interest alone, it is you against the world always. And that is not love. If it is not love, therefore, it is sin. The original sin that dwells within us. Because we love what makes us feel good instead of what IS good.

There are a few theories for why abandoning self-interest is hard:

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO SELF SACRIFICE IN THE WORLD TODAY?

• Because it is the original sin. We are born to think of our own survival and not of others. Because of this, it is easy to harm someone else for our benefit in this world.
• We are afraid of giving up the “good feelings” we get from all the sins that we have been asked by God to avoid. The sexual acts, addictions, the ego boost you get from enforced power, all these things feel good because they entertain one’s interest. Self-sacrifice does not.
• This world is hard and full of distractions. It is hard to harken to the voice of the Lord and to do His works because even staying in the Spirit of God is hard down here. So many things to do, bills to pay, and people to take care of, and life still keeps getting harder and harder. It is no excuse but it’s no wonder God does not come as a priority when one is thinking of the next meal.
• Because of the negative association that self-sacrificial love has been given in today’s time. In a world where there is confusion about the basic things and everything and everyone is transitioning from one thing to whatever else, love in itself has been confused in meaning. Let’s say “self-love” for example. It is good to protect one from all kinds of abuse and misuse, but this phrase has encouraged the promotion of self-interest and good feelings to oneself, hence blocking love to others.
• Because it forces you to look at the world from God’s eyes and not your eyes. Basically, getting out of the matrix of this world. This transition alone is tough for most people to endure as the fear of discovering the unknown that has always been in their faces will create paranoia in them. It is only through the eyes of love that you can truly see a person for who they truly are and not the mirage they want you to see. But it carries with it the pain of living life seeing the true realities of life and not being comforted by oblivion.
• Because it is hard to keep fighting your demons and you find it easier to just keep living with them. If you loved others, you would be forced to always conquer your demons so that you may not lead others to sin.
• Because being Christian is a daily self-imposed prison of discipline and discipline is hard to do in a world so slothful.
• Because your faith is weak and having faith in itself is scary. Think about it, believing in a God that never speaks or shows Himself, but in His special way directs your path so long as you do what He asks of you, and you accept to work diligently towards the opportunities He provides for you. Living like that is crazy and seemingly chaotic to someone who does not leave his life to chance.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT SO FAR…

The beginning of sin is self-interest. It is Feeling without thinking and acting with what we know will feel good rather than doing what we know is right.

The right to sin comes from Pride and with it comes Rebellion (disobedience).

To reject self-interest is to accept self-sacrifice.

Love without self-sacrifice is non-existent. It is not love. It is manipulation.

 Side note:

It is good to note that loving oneself and self-interest are two completely different things. If you love yourself, you will respect yourself. You will take care of yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. But self-interest has no boundaries on what your body needs even the sinful desires of man, such as lust.

BOTTOM LINE.

Remember the Gospel.

God loves us, but He is not crazy about us.
We are wallowing in our own sin for which we have no savior.
We should always repent and believe in the sacrifice of our God, Jesus Christ who was sent by God the
father to die for our sins, so we might get to have eternal life. [JOHN 3:16]