From a scientific and evolutionary perspective, I feel that original sin originates from what was once natural to us became evil and sinful through knowledge and higher consciousness. We were once animals where everything was just nature. Probably the easiest example of this would be around sex.
Many male animals just go up to and have sex with (rape) any of their fellow species. We all see this is natural to them and no way indicative of them being evil or immoral. We were once animals that thought this same way. But our minds started evolving and our knowledge also started growing. Females minds evolved as well with these rape experiences going from a nuisance to traumatic.
We eventually got to a point where we had the knowledge to take all things into consideration and view rape as a sin. We were starting to have the knowledge of good and evil. That didn’t mean that it just automatically became unnatural for every male to want to sleep with anyone they wanted to. It was still hardwired into us.
That is the essence of original sin. The overlap from what was originally natural and not immoral or evil for us and then through heightened consciousness and knowledge of what is good and evil became evil and immoral for us. We still have a lot of that evolutionary overlap in us, that original sin. It applies to many different areas. Violence for one and I am sure you can use your imagination to think of many others.
Now, what fights original sin? From a scientific perspective, I would argue feelings like guilt, shame, fear, embarrassment, and things along those lines (also empathy, love, understanding, etc. of our fellow beings). It is these feelings that convict us of our sin and teach us to alter our minds and course. So, what we would really want as a society is a system of beliefs that perfect this conviction and mold us into good people.
The perfect set of beliefs once truly believed would pretty much act like an exorcism of our mind, fighting this original sin. It would convict us, mold our minds, fight back this sin nature, and work to try and ultimately get rid of it. This is actually very scientific and psychological. It’s how our mind works. The neuroplasticity of the mind and altering mental paths.
I actually think feelings like embarrassment, guilt, fear, shame, etc work in our subconscious as well. I think it is a process that keeps happening even after we push the sin nature back from a conscious level. It is part of that neuroplasticity and changing our thoughts. It’s all part of that exorcism of the mind brought about by a perfect convicting belief system.
The thing is though, I personally believe that a large part of the perfect convicting belief system is one that involves God and the Holy Spirit. In this way I feel that science and theology are inseparable. It also involves knowledge of knowing what is evil through knowledge and understanding our fellow humans and their emotions, feelings, and experiences. What hurts them, what causes them suffering.
But today, I am just making the argument that there is science behind original sin and that having the right beliefs is what fights it and creates a process of exorcism of the mind.
I hope this all makes sense in some way. I went down this rabbit hole after a very powerful dream I had last night. The timing of the dream felt perfect for my understanding of all of this.
theeclecticschizophrenic.com 