The gentic inheritance of sin - if it is true what are the consequences?

The following is a copy of this message: In this message Faith introduces a concept I have never heard of before (maybe I just don't get out enough ), namely that the mechanism for the biblical inheritance of sin is the standard genetic inheritance mechanism that we get things like the colour of our eyes and hair from.In other words - at least as far as I can tell - Faith is saying that the inherited sin we get from Adam is actually present in our DNA.For the purpose of this thread I'm just going to accept this at face value - maybe we can discuss the scientific and/or Biblical support or lack thereof later or in another thread (because I'm sure there's lots to say about it!).The reason I'm accepting the concept is that it raises the most astonishing possibility if you follow it through to a very possible conclusion and I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion.If our inherited sin is phsically contained in our DNA then I cannot see why we should not expect to identify the gene or genes that code for this sin (for want of a better phrase) at some time in the future, if for no other reason that eventually - and it may be a long way in the future - we will have worked out what every gene in our genome does.Although it is currently beyond our technical capabilities I would further expect that at some point in the (not too?) distant future we will be able to perform genetic manipulation to remove or turn off these sin genes. After all, ultimately they are just DNA like any other gene if they are in our genome.Just to make sure nobody missed it - we could use genetic engineering to remove sin from humanity - at least the inherited variety.This would mean babies born with this genetic modification would be, to quote Faith: Now I don't actually believe in Faith's concept of sin being inherited at the genetic level, but if for the purpose of this thread it is accepted as being true then is there any reason why the scenario I have constructed isn't valid? What other consequences might there be?

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Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

I think probably this is a semantic problem mostly. I believe that sin has *consequences* at the genetic level, and that is what is inherited -- infirmities of one sort or another, and the inexorable tendency toward death. Sin itself is no doubt inherited some other way, but it is I believe pretty specifically inherited, people inheriting specific sin propensities of various ancestors as well as the consequences thereof. It's all tied together in the inheritance package somehow though.In the case of Jesus, He inherited no sin or any possibility of death because His physical body was made from scratch just as Adam's was, and He had no human ancestry from which to inherit anything in the way of sin spiritually either. I'm sure there's more to it but this gets into the realm of the mysterious.Even if one could identify the results of sin in the genome (hey it's got to be 98% of the genome by now), and could correct those effects, maybe we could be given a longer life span, but you'd never eradicate sin itself and that would keep operating to undo all the corrections you could make in the physical makeup.{Edit: It isn't like there would be "a gene or genes" for inherited sin. The idea is that sin, or more accurately, its effects, would be inherited as damage to all kinds of genes. It seems to me there would have to be some logic to which ones and what kind of damage, but I doubt we would ever be able to figure it out.}Edited by Faith, : noted in textEdited by Faith, : No reason given.

So, If we created in a lab (similar to a clone) a human being from scratch (difficult but animal genes have no sin) we could be free of sin that way.So a being that looked and thought of itself as human (but not quite on a genetic level) would be free of all the problems bought about by sin because it would not be a full son or daughter of Adam.

Great idea mate.We could uses our science to boot the xian god out of the equation.

In order to build such a human being, you'd have to know what the genome looked like in Adam or in Jesus Christ and this you do not know. And although animals have no sin, because God cursed the entire creation for our sake, they too have become subject to genetic deterioration.

Once again I must marvel at how well the Bible recognizes the heart of the unbeliever:

It is an interesting area. Jesus born without the spiritual genes of fallen Adam - okay. But it would seem that in order to be tempted by Satan, temptation had to be possible. And for temptation to be possible it needs to be able to attach itself to something. Jesus rejected the temptation and obeyed the law - but where do you suppose the latching mechanism was. I see temptation as resting in a sort of limbo area within us until we decide to pick it up and go with it - thus transferring it into the realm of sinAs someone said of temptation recently: you can't stop a crow flying over your head - but you can stop him nesting in your hair

Hmmm. What I meant was that we could tinker with animal genes to replicate our own without the faults (death).If sin is not part of the genes per se but our genes are affected by sin in some supernatural way (resulting in Death) the resulting humaniform animal (with all the good points of a true human but in no way connected with Adam or Eve) would be free of sin.We could repopulate the world with humanity's children into a world from of sin.

Seems to me temptation would be possible for Jesus just as it was for Adam. Same exact situation. If Jesus was given a perfect genome just as Adam was, although Adam was tempted and fell, Jesus could certainly be tempted too, and not fall. Was this because He is God as well as man?

If your god had not invented sin we would not have this problem.The way I see it, trying to save humanitiy's children from sin and free from celestial tyranny is an aim every parent should endevour to achieve.By parent I mean the current generation. By children I mean the humaniform animals I propose create that are free from celestial tyranny.No sin? In to heaven you go.Hurrah!

Given that we have very little information about Jesus it is perfectly possible that He did sin.But, even in the Gospels it is relatively easy to find Jesus telling lies, for example:John 14:13-14And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it. A quite blatant and easily demonstrable lie.There are many other example of Jesus telling untruths, but I suppose one sin is evidence enough.Brian.

let's not forget the infamous end-of-the-world prophecy on the mount of Olives and how it would happen in this generation (Mar 13:30, Mat 24:34).No wonder the early Christians expected him to come back in their lifetime.

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"In life, you have to face that some days you'll be the pigeon and some days you'll be the statue."

Hey mangy, I don't think genetic engineering is the key, especially if we accept Faith's clarification that it's the effects, rather than "sin genes" that are inherited. Obviously, based on her explanation, sin is related to telomere shortening - the cellular effect that ultimately leads to senescence and cell death. Nanotechnology, rather than genetic engineering, may be the ticket. If we figure out a way to rebuild our telomeres (without igniting a cancer explosion through simply reactivating TERT or hTR telomerases), we'll have the same effect as if we had "eaten of the tree of life" before getting booted out of the bar. No death = no sin. Life is good!

This is an astounding statement from several perspectives. First it says that God is nothing but flesh and blood, just another critter that can pass on genes.Second it implies that the strange idea of Original Sin is not passed down through women, but only men, that it is only the sins of the fathers that is at issue.Somehow that seems to imply that fadder sins don't get passed to daughter but only sons.So I'm curious.If God is just another bit of gene contributing protoplasm, how is he any different than any other guy screwing a virgin?If there really is some Original sin, why is it not equally from Adam and Eve, and passed down by both mother and father?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion