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[Duck Duck Goose]

How do Christians justify damning all of humanity simply because Adam and Eve ate of the tree? I get it that we can be saved by God and that sort of thing, but our default state before god is still 'damned'.

[jimwalton]

Adam and Eve were archetypes (that's different than allegories or metaphors) of humanity: They represented all of us. It's a misunderstanding to think that God punished all of humanity because two people sinned. Those two people were merely the first to sin, and showed us that humans are not only prone to sin, but that sin behavior comes to us quite easily. It's our nature to break stuff—moods, promises, relationships we care about, and our own well-being and other people's. It's a Biblical teaching that humans need to be saved from what they naturally are: people who do things that are wrong (sin). Adam and Eve show us the truth of that: given the choice, they chose sin. Then Cain shows us the same thing. Then everybody else in the Bible (except Jesus). Then you and me. God punishes you and me not for Adam's sin but for our own. Romans 5.12 says sin entered the world through Adam, but death as the punishment for sin comes to all of us not because of Adam, but "because all sinned." With Adam, sin in the world started. You're not punished for his sin, but your own. James 1.14-15 say that you're not guilty because of Adam's sin, but because of your own.

[Sugar Baby]

> but that sin behavior comes to us quite easily.

This is a trait that God gave us knowingly. So shouldn't it be a good thing.

I say this because free will is not the cause of evil (ex. Jesus), therefore it has to be something else within humans that lead us to evil. god clearly created us with a nature to "easily sin," so why exactly is this a bad thing? This does not seem to fit with the idea of a benevolent God.

[jimwalton]

Well, let me try to explain it this way. God, by definition, is uncreated. Therefore, anything created, but definition, is not God, and is less than God. Humans, therefore, even in the best of all possible worlds, are less than perfect, and therefore susceptible to mistakes, problems, inadequacies, etc. God didn't GIVE us the trait of sin; our less-than-perfection is a necessary part of existence, since we are not God (not uncreated). That doesn't make sin a good thing, or even desirable. Sin is actually undesirable. From the second chapter of the Bible (Gen. 2), we find God taking steps to help us navigate around the problem of sin. He was dedicated to our success, rather than what you have said: he designed us with a flaw, presumably setting us up for failure. Instead, he designed us as good as possible, and acted proactively to spare us any problem that sin might cause. I hope you can see the different.

I agree with you that free will is not the cause of evil, but free will improperly used and in the wrong direction is the cause of evil. God knew that sin would be easy for us, so he made the solution fairly easy: For Adam and Eve, you can eat from ANY tree, just not this ONE of the hundreds (or thousands) available. Can that be so hard? And in our era, we just have to accept the free gift of salvation that God offers in Christ. We don't have to earn it or deserve it, we don't have to be rich, powerful, or geniuses, but only open our hands to receive. While sin comes easy to us, so does the solution. This is what fits perfectly with the idea of a benevolent God.