As someone once said about another doctrinal opinion, "what follows, are not necessarily my beliefs, but my thoughts". However, I feel that these are reasonable ways to explain something of what scripture says very little.

Judgment is reserved for those who practice iniquity; perhaps this judgment is not simply God remembering our sins, though this is certainly true. Perhaps it is an actual physical consequence to our sin. As if sin triggers a physical reaction. For instance doctors have long known, if your parent was an alcoholic, then you have a greater propensity to alcoholism. In other words, there is an actual physical change that takes place because of behavior, and it then is subsequently passed down to offspring.

Perhaps all sin shares this same trait. Popular science tells us behavior can be somewhat programmed from our genetic heritage. But it may also be, the opposite as well, ‘behavior can influence genetics’. After all, this is the basis for understanding instinct: Out of necessity a wolf gorges itself on it’s kill. This trait is subsequently passed to it’s distant offspring, domestic dogs. How is this accomplished? Certainly not through word of mouth. It must be genetics. So it would follow, not only does genetics influence behavior, but behavior also influences genetics. What follows is some discussion, unrelated to this topic; but to show there is some science in this view:

"Current advances in genetic research suggest that the old dichotomy between "genes" and "environment" is dead. "Genes" and "environment" don't act as independent influences on development. Many environmental influences initiate changes in gene expression. For example, in rats, effective maternal care changes the expression of genes in the brain that respond to stress hormones. Likewise, many genes require changes in the social environment in order to exert their influence. Human and animal studies suggest that effective parental care may thwart the expression of adverse genes on aggressive behavior in youngsters." Dr. So and So

And another Dr. So and So: "My premise is that human behavior can influence genetic inheritance. Restricted mate selection due to belief systems or ethnic conflict can produce or enhance genetic differences between groups of people living in the same geographic area.

Done with quotes. Bye the way, this can explain why ‘it is’ possible that someone can be born with more of an inclination to homosexuality. This, of course, does not excuse the sin, or allow for it. Like any sin, if resisted, it can be overcome.

If behavior modifies the brain, this is reason behind forbidding, what some think are relative, inconsequential sin. Disregarding personal consequences, it can be argued that modification of the brain, can chemically or genetically be passed from one generation to the next.

"Their eyes were opened, and they saw they were naked". It’s interesting to think that the simple act of eating a bite of fruit can have such dreadful consequences. A clue to the severity of the act is in God’s warning before the sin: ‘The day you eat thereof, you shall surely die". In actual fact, physical death was not the immediate consequence to that first sin. Our problem is, when we think of the simple of act of eating a bite of fruit, we think of it in the context of our own sinful and polluted state. What we need to do is see this act in the light, and contrast, that sin was to absolute purity. We might imagine a brand new baby, totally void of an immune system, ingesting a piece of fruit that has laid for some time in the gutter. What a shock to it’s system, and unless something is done, there would be certain death. But we’re not talking about a simple bacteria, we’re talking about something much more sinister invading the body, soul, and spirit of Adam and Eve; so invasive that it cannot be cleansed until they actually died.

What is ‘the sin nature’? It is clear, something happened when the fruit was eaten. God said, "the ‘day’ you eat thereof, you shall surely die". As I have said, physical death was delayed for hundreds of years. Yet, in the truest sense, death really happened at the first bite. This because, at that initial disobedience, man made a sovereign choice to ignore God, thus cutting themselves off from the life of God. And as a plant that needs the sun, and is removed from it, all will eventually die who cut themselves off from God’s life.

This initial transgression, and result of a ‘sin nature’, is often seen as something gained. It should rather be compared to someone who is suddenly absent a spiritual immune system. The sin nature, rather than a ‘force’, which causes us to do terrible things, is more like a weakness, leaving us vulnerable to death. Spiritual integrity, the frame work for all that is good, was lost when we lost God. So, the sin nature, is not so much what we gained, when we sinned in Adam, it is what we ‘lost’, when we sinned in Adam.

So, we have here two things that describe our inherited propensity to sin: First, behavior changes our genetics, and can be passed to offspring. Secondly, we lost the life of God in Adam. When losing that life, Adam had no Life to pass to his offspring. Thus they were fully human, more animal than God like; and susceptible to every contagion o f sin.

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