How can babies be born "sinners?"?

Question

Do babies have homosexual relations or kill people while in utero? Obviously not, so how can they be born with sin? It's not as though there's sin carried over from past lives, since Christianity does not believe in reincarnation.

Christianity does not make sense at all. I'm glad to be Neo-Pagan leaning toward Buddhism.

Answer 1

I'm a Christian, Mormon to be specific, and we do not believe children under 8 are capable of sin. We do believe that at/around (not necessarily on their birthday) that people are capable of understanding between right and wrong enough to be responsible for their actions. Not that 8 year olds are fully grown/mature, but that they have lived long enough to know that there are certain things they should and shouldn't do.

Answer 2

Babies are not born as "sinners", they are not born as homosexuals, or as killer or thieves.

Now people believe that we are sinners because of Adams transgression, eating from the tree of life (good and evil), now their are those that also believe that the death of Jesus Christ cleared away that sin.
so in these latter days most believe that we are not born as sinners.

Now the people that do believe this think either from how we were born (out of wedlock for example), then your born as a sinner, or if by some other belief it's really what you believe in and what you hold on to.

The main thing to know in this life is you are what you make of yourself.

Answer 3

I appreciate your confusion on this topic, because I think most Christians, when asked, wouldn't be able to give a coherent answer to this question.

Here's my take:

Christian doctrine teaches us that all people are born with "original sin." Without going into the details of what original sin is and who came up with the doctrine (although you might want to read St. Augustine of Hippo if you're really interested), think of original sin as a genetic predisposition to do that which we know to be wrong. Thinking about original sin in this way, it is impossible to deny its existence in every living person, for all manifest their sinful tendencies within the first couple of years of their lives. It is, as a professor of mine liked to say, "the only empirically observable doctrine of the Christian faith."

I hope this makes sense of what, I'll agree, is a confusing teaching of the church. No matter what your religious perspective - neo-Pagan, Buddhist, Muslim, whatever - I think we all can appreciate the central truth of the original sin doctrine: we all make mistakes and can't seem to help ourselves.

Answer 4

Here we go with the Catholic Church again. Babies are said to be born with the "original sin" which has to be cast out by the first of many stupid requirements to be a "good" Catholic - Baptism. Christ took all our sins with him when he died on the cross and then, allegedly, sent little babies back with the MARK on them until a priest could put water on their foreheads.
Don't mind me. My brother couldn't be my son's Godfather because he married the love of his life in a little church in Norwich, Vermont three weeks before the Baptism. We scheduled the Baptism so he would be back from his honeymoon in time. WELL - because he wan't mariried IN THE CHURCH - he was no longer a "CATHOLIC IN GOOD STANDING" and could NOT be my son's Godfather. I raised a bit of a ruckus - only brother, only son, etc. (A bit is putting it mildly - didn't work - remember, we're dealing with THE CHURCH here.)
When the certificate came from the Parish (I knew the Secretary) the line for Godfather was left blank. How fortunate that the Parish Secretary used an IBM Selectric - a machine I had access to. The line is no longer BLANK!!

Answer 5

Well, you cannot say that babies are born enlightened either.
It is a long shot for Christianity to say that all new born have sins that need forgiveness, but the message is clear and true, if you don't rise a child properly (or at all) you cannot expect anything good to come from them "naturally".
At birth, we humans are selfish, ignorant, brutal creatures, and it takes a lot of training to become thinking, rational, kind people, some don't achieve it at all.
"Original Sin" is just as good as the "delusion of self" to explain this in my humble opinion.

Answer 6

We are born with a sinful nature. Children don't have to be taught to be naughty do they? The sinful nature produces sin. Sin is having a bad attitude, lying, cheating etc. Sin is sin to God! Sin is living our own way, and not God's way.

Here are some verses from God's Word, the Bible

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have eternal life.

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Answer 7

Christianity teaches Original Sin, which it a STATE OF EXISTENCE. All humans are born into Original Sin, taking on the NATURE of humanity. We are one body, so we all carry the disease. Until they learn what right from wrong is, a child cannot really sin.

Sorry it's so complicated for you. It's pretty simple for me, I understood it at age 7.

Answer 8

Adam's sin effectively made him and all his offspring slaves to Satan, sin, and death.

Anyone who understands slavery knows that the offspring of a slave becomes the property of the slave holder, too.

So, all of Adam's descendants are born enslaved to Satan, alienated from God, and liable to die.

If this situation isn't remedied by baptism before one's earthly existence comes to an end, it becomes permanent.

Baptism serves to reject Satan, to profess faith in Jesus Christ, to wash away original sin, and to recieve the grace of sanctification which makes heaven possible.

We have no certain guidance on what actually becomes of Infants who die without baptism. All we can do is entrust them to God's mercy.

Answer 9

Roman Catholics believe that all people are born with "original sin" - that is the sin our first parents commited when they were in the Garden of Eden. Of course, the easiest way to remove the stain of original sin is to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and follow his teachings.

Answer 10

Babies are born in sin. Not because of sex, though some sex is sin. And the original sin was not sex! It was disobedience - believing the serpent (Satan) rather than believing the Word of God.

Because Adam sinned, he fell from grace. And all of his offspring are of him, so they are a fallen race. We must be born again to enter again into the grace of God, which is eternal life.

Infants and small children do not go to hell if they die while still so young. They are not held accountable for their sins. Generally speaking, people reach the age of accountability at approximately 12 years of age. God makes exceptions for the mentally retarded, who are small children in older children's bodies.