oriecat

How do liberal christians who do not believe in the literal historicity of Adam & Eve explain the need for Jesus to die for our sins? If there was no Adam & Eve to bring about The Fall, then where does the taint of sin come from and why would Jesus be needed to save us?

winstonjen

Check out this thread .

I hope it helps!

abe smith

Apart from all that adam&Eve&OriginalSin baloney, "the Cheuch" *admits* that the Incarnation/Redemption and AllThat were NOT NECESSARY; because even *IF* all that Original Sin/ Adam & Eve stuff WERE so, "God" could have dealt with it in (a number of) other ways, according to "His" pleasure. ("He" could have admitted "His" expectations were unrealistic. "He" could've wiped the slate clean & started-over.....)

Shall we assume therefore that the (alleged) Crucifixion and
All-That satisfied some personal need of "God's" to "suffer" , to see suffering?

You can see some of the qys & paradoxes involved in all-that ,
er, alleged material. Ask Gemma Therese what she has to say about this.

Yellum Notnef

I chased around our resident self-proclaimed bible expert for days and still haven`t received and answer about where the sin came from without A&E.

Good luck trying to get Christians to explain this little conundrum.

notMichaelJackson

How many damn times is this going to be asked? We sin because we disobey God, not because of the actions of our ancestors (but since most of you don't believe in God anyway I don't know why any of you would care what I or any other liberal Christian believes). The lack of a historical Adam and Eve does not mean that there is no sin. Here is a thread from Christian Forums about the matter:

http://www.christianforums.com/threads/32730.html

notMichaelJackson

Reverend Lenny Flank has a great article on Churches and evolution, which can be read here: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...7/churches.htm Note that the two largest churches in the world, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, accept evolution, so it is not just these renegade "liberal Christians" who are doing so. http://www.cin.org/jp2evolu.html

Also, the famous Talk Origins website, which atheists love to cite, supports the idea of "theistic evolution." http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-god.html

beyelzu

Actually, without original sin, surely some people can make it through life without sinning, therefore jesus did not die for teir sins.

On the other hand since, I havent put anyone to death for working on the sabbath, maybe I have sinned.

atheist_in_foxhole

Why did your allegedly perfect "god" create a universe with sin in the first place? Why should we be punished for "his" incompetence? Isn't that like an inventor building a flawed invention and then blaming the invention instead of himself? And if your "god" wants us to obey his rules, why doesn't he just show himself? Believe me, I would definitely follow a god's rules if he/she/it appeared before me (unless they were crazy rules like "prove that you love me by killing your family"). But until then I will regard the bible and your god as nothing more than primitive superstition concocted by goat herders who were going insane in the mid-east heat.

wildernesse

Technically, yes--because we all have the option not to sin then there could be people who live sinless lives. Our humanity being what it is makes this very difficult.

Obviously as a Christian, I believe that Jesus was a human who made it through his life without sinning.

Most people make the mistake of comparing apples to oranges--making Christians who don't believe in Original Sin responsible for their theology according to Original Sin. If my theology says there is no Adam & Eve or Original Sin, then why should I justify my beliefs be based on these things?

I find it interesting that even my conservative church that I was brought up in does not ascribe to Original Sin, in fact I would say that the majority of Protestants don't. Otherwise you get yucky things like babies/retarded people in a literal hell--and most people aren't really into that. These people do still believe that Adam & Eve are historical people, but they see that all have sinned and since any sin is a separation from God, there is a personal separation even without a heritable one. This is where you get a distinction between Original Sin and "sin nature"--sin nature being the fact that our humanity has free will and we are just as apt, if not more so, to make selfish and sinful decisions as not.

I think this is a good question in the OP though--one that lots of people have.

--tibac

oriecat

Thanks for your thoughtful answer, tibac.

New question - if sin was not brought about because of Adam, then what does this refer to?

Romans 5:12

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

So who was it then, if it wasn't Adam?