Original Sin

Well I'm currently starting my second semester of law school and I can already feel the urge to ignore my own blog mounting. I think I'll try to promise myself that I will post at least once a week.

In just one semester of law school you encounter quite a lot of original sin. What I mean is that you encounter the inherent wretchedness of mankind. Loving the law means you appreciate the natural limitations of human beings. We need laws because we are so imperfect and so awful to one another. Yet, we are also great. The greatness of humanity can be seen in the mere fact that we create laws to combat our own wretchedness, but even more profoundly it is seen in our art, creativity, heroism, etc. We are simultaneous wretched and great. We are a strange mix of good and evil. Everyone of us.

Many skeptics sneer at the doctrine of Original Sin, which I find quite odd because it is probably the most empirically verifiable claim of Christianity: everyone deep down knows that we have a moral standard and that literally no one lives up to it. When was the last time you lied, sneered, jeered, backstabbed, ignored, or dismissed another human being? You probably won't have to think very far back. Even the saints knew they were sinners.

For my part, even as an atheist, I readily accepted the basic claim of original sin. It seems obvious to me that human nature is corrupted. All you need to do is turn on the news to see this.

One of my first "aha!" moments in becoming Catholic came when I realized that Christ is the only real answer to Original Sin. Christ is the only way we can reconcile our inherent wretchedness and our inherent greatness. I realized that human beings cannot erase sin on their own. Again, no human being lives up to his own moral standard (he may believe he does, but he is always wrong. It is usually an illusion created by pride). No amount of moral teaching can stop us from sinning. We need outside help. This is one of the many ways in which Christianity is totally unique. For Christ is not just a moral teacher, (although He is also the perfect moral teacher) He is the perfect priest. His death on the Cross and His Resurrection are miracles. Miracles which free us from sin, which we cannot accomplish on our own. This claim of Christianity, and especially the Catholic emphasis on this priestly function, makes Christianity different than any other religion that has ever existed. It is totally and beautifully unique.