Original Sin & Other Adventures

Norman Greenbaum – Spirit in the Sky

Today’s Quote: “The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don’t have it.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Defined by the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Original sin may be taken to mean: (1) the sin that Adam committed; (2) a consequence of this first sin, the hereditary stain with which we are born on account of our origin or descent from Adam.

From the earliest times the latter sense of the word was more common, as may be seen by St. Augustine’s statement: “the deliberate sin of the first man is the cause of original sin” (De nupt. et concup., II, xxvi, 43). It is the hereditary stain that is dealt with here. As to the sin of Adam we have not to examine the circumstances in which it was committed nor make the exegesis [critical explanation or analysis] of the third chapter of Genesis.

Adam’s sin in the Garden Of Eden was disobedience. God told them not to eat from that tree and they did. “For as by the disobedience of one man many [i.e., all men] were made sinners” (Romans, 5:19)

“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25) Adam and Eve were living in a state of blissful ignorance. They were blissful because they had no knowledge. Their nudity was not shameful because they didn’t know any better, just like a child that streaks through the house naked.

Then the serpent deceived Eve and they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” (Genesis 3:7) They heard God in the garden and they hid themselves because they were afraid of God seeing them naked; they felt shame.

Genesis doesn’t say how much fruit was taken from the tree or how much they ate.It’s probably safe to say they didn’t eat all of the fruit on the tree; that would have given them all the knowledge of good and evil. It’s more likely they had only taken a few bites when they made the realization that they were naked and they should cover themselves. Having only eaten a small amount of the fruit, they only acquired a small amount of knowledge. As they say, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Adam and Eve immediately made a moral judgment based on their limited knowledge — “We’re naked and it’s a bad thing.” It wasn’t even a logical judgment. There was no one to see their nakedness except God. And God sees you when you’re naked anyway.

It’s a practice that continues to this very day. Maybe that’s our punishment for original sin — to never have enough information and, subsequently, to never get it quite right.

So much for today’s theology lesson.

---

I took half a day off and we spent the better part of the morning at Wright-Patt. We figured we’d go to the personnel office bright and early to renew her ID card, which expires at the end of the month. Well, the nice sergeant informed us and a slightly irate Lt Col that they didn’t open until 9 because they do training first thing in the morning. He said this information was posted “everywhere” and if we’d checked their web site, we would have known this. I tried to verify this later only to find that you can’t access their web site from outside a .mil domain. So much for that customer satisfaction coup. We did get in during their “normal” business hours and she’s legal on base for four more years.

Since we couldn’t take care of our business right away, we ventured over to the hospital to give them some of my blood to run some tests to see if I have any latent mutant powers. I think they wanted to get three vials but they only got slightly less than two. For some reason, I stopped bleeding during the second vial. That’s never happened before. At least I can take comfort in knowing I’m not a hemophiliac. I’m not hemophobic either. Them hemos are okay, really they are.