Whoops, I wrote this post twice. Sorry, I'm really tired.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dore
I offer this question: why are we sinful? What makes our natural thought processes wrong? Why is our everyday life so terrible? It seems arbitrary to make human nature "sinful" when all that does is add fuel to stereotypical thinking such as hiding emotions and being above instinct. There is a reason why we have instincts and there is a reason why we feel these emotions, so why should it be considered wrong? Why, just because I am conscious and can consider these things are they somehow evil? Why ignore some instincts like basic sexual instincts but not others, like eating?
The whole concept of sin is arbitrary and in my opinion only was created to control people's morality. By making human nature "evil" you now have a society of people trying as hard as they can to be prim and proper while oh by the way it's sinful to not give money to your church haha now you can't afford food.
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Note that the following response is not to prove the Bible, but to state what it says.
My point was not to say that Christianity is speaking of repressing emotions and tendencies, but that that is what many people think it is. These "sins" that we do are what lead us away from God. But Christianity isn't about trying not to do these things. In fact, sin isn't even really certain "things" that we do. By sinful nature, I mean the desire we have for ourselves, putting our own needs above others, just the selfish way in which we live. Although people may do certain things for other people, when put in a pressure situation, like receiving a promotion, a person would be much more joyful if they got the promotion. The point is that our nature is to do things that benefit ourselves in some way: as humans we are contrary to doing things like afrobean said (er, quoted Jesus), loving our neighbor as ourselves. We want to love ourselves.
Galatians 5:17 says
"For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want".
Our sinful or selfish nature is conflicting with God (the Spirit being the Holy Spirit).
So since our nature (note that this is my view and I am not trying to force you to believe it) is conflicting with God's nature, we cannot conquer it without his help. So Christianity is about having a relationship with Christ and God, and through God I may be free from my sinful nature, so it's not me trying to be free from my nature to get to God.
Please, again I would like to mention that I am not trying to force you to believe this, but that it is what the bible says and what I believe. Sorry if I sound at all dogmatic.
Hold on, I'm going to make a response to afrobean, (actually, that name is pretty sweet. How did you come to think of it?) probably in an edit, but I have to do some stuff first.