MEDITATION: Just a tiny, earth-shattering change

One of the more popular pieces of theology in the world is that you and I and everybody else are sunk because, a long, long time ago, two people we never met messed up. Here is the translation it is based on: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world and by sin death: and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned …” (Romans 5:12)

You call the idea based on this verse the doctrine of original sin. It works as follows. You filch another kid’s milk money or coerce someone into voting your way or lie to your wife over and over again because of what happens in Genesis 3: The tempter tempts, the two brand-new humans bite, the whole thing gets fouled from the get-go. Bless the children of Adam. None of us has a hope of doing any better.