what does it tell me, ramseytheii? i don't presume to know all catholic doctrine - how do you know what it tells me regarding salvation. is it something bad? is God bad. is the bible bad? am i bad for believing the bible. why would the forum knock out the words. you don't like that babies won't die? remember, i'm not catholic and i don't believe in the concept of 'original sin.' i believe that sin is not passed from person to person - but ideas are. perhaps catholic ones (but, lest i get myself into much trouble) i will say that most ideas are passed from family to family and generation to generation.
Original sin isn't a Vatican ("Catholic") doctrine, it's in the Bible. I know you're picky with what you believe from the Old Testament, but in this case it appears in both. Paul wrote that one's man sin led to condemnation for all; and since Satan is not a man, he is obviously talking about Adam. He also wrote that man is inherently sinful. This is not a Catholic doctrine written in the 1300s, nor is it a proclamation from the Old Testament that Christians can feel safe to disregard, this is the Acts of the Apostles. People will go to enormous lengths to convince themselves first, and others secondly, that such things don't exist, but they are there in black and white.
I won't say whether you are bad or not for believing in the Bible. But I know many people who aren't bad who don't believe a single word in the Bible. Unless that makes them bad!
but, what were adam and eve taught? if they were originally born into sin - how were they in the garden of paradise until they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. i'd say that their choice affected the world in terms of death - but that sin was already lurking there because satan influenced their decision. he literally went about to deceive them. if he hadn't done that - what would have happened? would they have continued to fear God? probably.
The original sin is obviously being expelled from the Garden. This is the sin of the fathers that is "visited upon the children," as it says in Exodus. Because of their expulsion, according to the Bible, all are born into sin, and need to be redeemed by proclaiming Jesus to be their personal savior. My argument about the unborn children hinges on a premise: are they considered living beings, separate from the mother, or not? If they are, they too carry the sin from the expulsion of Eden, and death before baptism will condemn them to hell. If they are not, that opens up a new argument entirely.
so, that is why the serpent was cursed FIRST. he was literally responsible for a deception. for telling the first man and woman that 'you will never die.' that means that they had inherent life within them and didn't need a savior. in other words - there is no sin and you will not die. but, if sin 'entered the world' - then - it was THERE for others to sin. but was abraham counted as a sinner? no. why was he considered a saint? i think because he did not listen to deception. was he baptized? i don't think so. but, if he is a saint - how can he be listed in the parable of lazarus where he is comforted in the bosom of abraham? (i think that is in the NT parable). and why the parable about taking care of poor people - if we are inherently sinful anyways. we may as well all go around killing each other. especially vulnerable children at four months of gestation (this is my interpretation of the other thread on abortion - of which you know i am joking here).
There were no others, there was only Adam and Eve. The angel Satan is not a person, and obviously has everlasting life according to the Scriptures, so cannot sin. It was them that ate of the forbidden fruit, and brought condemnation to all, as we can also find in the Psalms, "I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
Your last questoins strike me as defensive. I am sorry you find the idea of inherent sin unpleasant. I am surprised you never heard about it in church. I used to think it was absurd and could be disregarded, until I realized it is actually in the Bible, all over the place. Nobody can make up your mind for you, but anyone who takes the Bible as the end-all, must reckon with this. I believe firmly the evidence is stacked in favor of original sin.
as i see it - it wasn't 'original' sin - because satan had previously sinned when he left the abode that God had for him and took 1/3 of the angels.
Sin is something only humans can commit. Since Satan is obviously immortal, there is no sin he can commit. The Scriptures never say that angels were made in God's image, as they do of humans.
Walter Ramsey