Quote:
Originally Posted by LikeAWillow
I appreciate your thoughts, but I can only offer a question in response: if original sin is allegorical, why did Jesus die to erase it?
That's the question that the Catholic.com response, my own belief that it's an impossible line, and the entire Nicene Creed hinge on.
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Because it's not original sin that's allegorical, it's the stories told in order to help early man understand it which are. Original sin is a concept (i.m.o.) which essentially means, "Man thinks he knows better than God but he doesn't, he doesn't have all the facts. ALL people have this fault, which inevitably - sooner or later - will lead to their destruction. This was true from the first man all the way to people of today." (I'm sure even hard-core evolutionists would agree that SOMEWHERE in there, there was a "first man" and "first woman.")
I really do feel that ALL of the leadership, up to and including the Pope, would agree that understanding that is MUCH more important than the details, because as you said, it's a VERY important concept in the whole theology.
Man is, by definition, imperfect. According to Christianity,
that's why Jesus was sent. And so i.m.o. nothing falls apart logically whether or not Adam and Eve really existed. It's the take-home message which is important and that *is* Catholic Dogma.
Just to "qualify" what's hopefully obvious, all of this is of course my own personal opinion and perspective on it. I'm sure there's plenty who would claim something totally different. But "that's my story and I'm stickin' TO it!" lol!
In my opinion, what's much more central and important to Catholic teaching is a simple willingness to take "a leap of faith." In a way it's the same story over and over - for example Jesus in the boat during the storm - even with him right there WITH them, and after all they had already seen, they were freaking out. He was like, "Sigh! - - Okay, let's try it AGAIN!!! Have faith!" and then he calmed the waters. The take-home message, every single time, is "Man doesn't have the whole picture -
so take a leap of faith and trust God."