Augustine Original Sin

Many Christians are often asked and struggle with the question of “Why was all of humanity punished when Adam and Eve sinned? Why would God do that if he was truly good?” These questions are posed mainly from the prospect of the bible, using the bible to answer the question. Yet the philosopher St. Augustine used the questions that were given and thought long and hard, eventually coming up with the theory that because we all descend from Adam (biologically) then we are in the umbrella of committing the first official, original sin. In contrast he doesn’t only use the original text from Genesis to back up his ideals. He uses verses from the New Testament to back up his ideas about original sin. Augustine believed sin was passed from Adam, through

Plato believed that we are punished because we have free will. It talks about how every human has free will, so we are all forced to deal with suffering and pain. This idea of every human getting suffering and pain is what Augustine latched onto and made central in his writings. Plato said every human has to deal with suffering because of his free will, Augustine says every human has to deal with sin because we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. Augustine’s influence on the church is significant but recently from more of a past historical standpoint rather than a current theological standpoint. This is because of his outdated thoughts of sexual activity and the way he theorized good vs. evil as something physical vs. spiritual. During Augustine’s lifetime and shortly afterward his ideas were widely accepted and thought of as part of the church’s main doctrine. It was a fear technique most likely, to get people into church and to stop committing sexual sins before marriage. The theory did cause an increase in the attendance and growth of the church as a legitimate religion. People were in church, listening to the gospel and the teachings and doing what the church wanted. It lead it the church’s high control of people’s lives and even some governments. This is mainly because people in that time period thought that having sex before marriage was a real legitimate deadly sin and was even punishable by law