TheSeabass
Well-Known Member
When you extend an argument to the rediculous, "Sin is something inherited through genes of DNA," or, "Sin is a substance transmitted as bacteria," and then attack the rediculousness (of your own making) this approach to argument is known as a straw man logical fallacy.
Now it is easy to gain rhetorical points by deploying these types of fallacies given that A: Your audience is unfamiliar with scripture (which doesn't seem like a good assumption), and B: Your audience is unfamiliar with logic and logical fallacy, (which again doesn't seem like a good assumption).
Now original sin was a concept discussed since the beginning of the epistles. We can argue as to its truth-value but let's not misrepresent the claims of scripture with straw men.
It's not a straw man but simply stating the facts that sin is not some thing that is "transferred" from one person to another as original sin is somehow passively "transfers" from Adam to others thru the conception or birth process. If a transgression does not occur then sin does not exist. Since the fetus has not transgressed therefore no sin occurs therefore it is impossible for the fetus to be a sinner in any way making original sin impossible.
This "transfer" idea is similar to the false idea that some hold to that Christ's righteousness is "transferred" to the sinner while the sinner sits and does nothing but have some mental acknowledgement of facts (faith only). This is their attempt to find away to get around the work of obeying the will of God to be saved. Righteousness is no more 'transferred' from on to another than unrighteousness/sin is 'transferred' from one to another.
Uber Genius said:Psalm 51:5 states that we all come into the world as sinners: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Ephesians 2:2says that all people who are not in Christ are “sons of disobedience.” Ephesians 2:3 also establishes this, saying that we are all “by nature children of wrath.” If we are all “by nature children of wrath,” it can only be because we are all by nature sinners — for God does not direct His wrath towards those who are not guilty. God did not create the human race sinful, but upright. But we fell into sin and became sinful due to the sin of Adam.
Scripture speaks of humans as unrighteous from infancy
There are also verses which declare that we are all unrighteous from the time that we are born. Proverbs 22:15 says “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.” Genesis 8:21 declares, “. . . the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Jonathan Edwards, in his classic work The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended, remarks that on this verse: “The word translated youth, signifies the whole of the former part of the age of man, which commences from the beginning of life. The word in its derivation, has reference to the birth or beginning of existence . . . so that the word here translated youth, comprehends not only what we in English most commonly call the time of youth, but also childhood and infancy.”
A lot more work has to be done by you and others to demonstrated that dozens of passages in both Old and New Testaments were exegeted improperly. And church fathers both ante and post-nicene, were mistaken. Catholicism and Protestantism in the main have missed the meaning as well. I am willing to engage the evidence but mountains have to be moved here.
Psa 51:5 I dealt with already David did not say he was "born a sinner" but was born in sin My mother could have given birth to me while on a trip to China. Therefore I would have been "born in China" but that would not make me Chinese nor more than being born in sin makes one a sinner. Being born in China I would have been surrounded by Chinese culture, language, people yet it still does not make me Chinese. Likewise, the world is full of sin and iniquity yet being born surrounded by that sin does not make me a sinner no more than being born in China would make me Chinese.
Acts 2:8 "And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?"
The Apostles had just spoken in about 15 different dialects and the people say what was recorded above in verse 8. If you had been there you would say how you heard the Apostles speak in the English language wherein you were born. Yet this does not mean you were born speaking English. You were born into an environment where English was spoken and in time you learned to speak it yourself. Likewise we are all born into an environment full of sin and iniquity and in time, as we mature intellectually, we learn right from wrong and then CHOOSE TO SIN thereby we become sinners B CHOICE not passively forced upon us at birth.
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