Original "Sin"

Are you familiar with Lord's Prayer: ... Lead us not into temptation ... Would God do such a thing? Some of my friends think so and they repeat the prayer daily. Others, though still Christian, disagree. Temptation. Suffering... It's rather dreadful to think as such. Isn't it? Dreadful thinking... What's that? We all heard the term "wishful thinking." We all do it. But, how about dreadful thinking? Well, we do that all the time, too. But we don't admit it and speak about it like we talk about wishful thinking. Why not? It is the other side of the coin. But, when it comes to thinking, it's never a fair coin!

Sometimes, we do the wishful thinking, dream up a good dream, but also make it real. But we don't do that nearly as much as we do dreadful thinking. You don't believe that? Examples abound! The weather will rain out our picnic. Bad things happen to me. They don't care. I will never find a soul mate. I will fail on that job. My kids won't love me when they find out my past mistakes. I will not be able to retire. And will run out of money when I do. So on and on...

Similarly, we are led to believe that we all suffer from the original sin. We are led to believe that we are bad. We are told that only a good god can forgive us, but only if we truly believe. But, the good book says, god is angry and vengeful. So, we gotta repent. Change our ways. Be dutiful. Maybe, if we really try for the rest of our lives, we might make it into heaven. But, don't get your hopes up... As I said, kind of dreadful thinking. Happened a lot in the past. It's still is. 

That understanding of the phrase "the original sin" is wrong in two fundamental ways. First, sin simply means missing the mark. It is an error. Some make big mistakes and others smaller ones. But, there is no threshold such that heaven and hell are separated. Instead, it is as Socrates put it: we all do wrong when we don't know any better. That's it. Evil. Explained. Banal. Happens. The question is what to do about it? Deter, catch and punish... There is a whole theory of it..

Second, the word "original" means simply the starting point of it all. Not that it is your bad nature and you are doomed for good. Instead, it simply means that all other errors are derived from it, generated from it. When we do that original mistake -- the core error -- many other forms of errors follow it. Suffering ensues. And as Buddha said: the world is full of sorrow.

Isn't this good news? Of course. It is the best news ever, even though it is more than 3000 years old! It is in the old testament, and in the oldest book of it called Genesis, simply another word for origin.

So, what is this error, the progenitor of, the father and the mother to all other errors? It is simply this: We believe that we know what is good for us and what is bad for us. We don't question it. We are convinced. We try to steer our boat accordingly.

And, sometimes, we do know. Playing with fire not good. Finger over flame not good. Pull it out. Toddler running free on the sidewalk, or the reckless driver running the red light? Definitely, not good. The incumbent? Not good, or good, depending on whom you ask. Fresh air is good. Abortion? Good or bad. The border wall. Sending support to Ukrainians. Balancing the budget. Taming inflation. ...

When we do know, it's all good. We take care of business, family, country and the world. But, when we go wrong, and call bad to what is good, or judge to be good what is bad, we suffer. Many around us suffer.