The mark missed
Guess I'll just dive right in with my 2 cents worth. (2cents, right. Length escapes me. Sorry. How 'bout $3.50 worth?) The idea of missing the mark implies an A for effort, and a well I tried shrug. It mirrors the idea that sin is simple ignorance, and we don't know any better. That'd be fine if your evilest deed was being too nice and white lieing your loved one a bit of esteem. But we've all done worse than that. Probably alot worse. The Oops option nearly strips morality of any urgency, personal responibility or consequences that are indeed Your Doing. It all just takes practice. But how does one get the chance to practice doing the right thing? Either we wait like a fireman, ironically hoping for a disaster, or we play the Phoenix and make some ashes of our own to grow from. It tends to justify a very cavalier attitude about our capacity to destroy eachother.
I've come to believe "Sin" is the word for our actions that cause unnecessary harm. Simple. God didn't choose them arbitrarily, They are a small list of instructions on how to help one another get through this Life part, in the very Best manner. Not the easiest. The difficulty is that my choosing the easiest, may only hurt YOU, while I seemingly get all sorts of benefits.
Original sin hinged on Pride, the unavoidable risk of recognizing MEness, or Youness, the inherent choice of sentience and freewill that God knew would darken our future. Ambition was the required flaw, and if Adam, or Eve hadn't disobeyed, Abel or Cain would have, or their kids, or if not theirs, You would have... We all did. On the day you knew in that heart of hearts, that to DO this or that bad thing tempting you, was Wrong, Real Wrong, the more so because you wouldn't get caught kinda Wrong, you Knew, and then did it anyway. And knowing full well its not practice, or knowledge you need, you'll do it again. That God will put up with it Again, and probably forgive you Again, I suppose is some of that original Grace discussed earlier. God's vallium to keep Him from strangleing us. Adam didn't do any thing we might have done ourselves.
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