Original Sin and Evolution

[Guderian]

Christian theology, however, typically maintains that our basic human nature is corrupt; that we will usually be led into sin by our instincts. Original Sin -- caused by Adam's disobedience -- was the explanation for this "fallen" state, but if the concept of Original Sin is discarded, what then accounts for human badness? The other alternative is that God created something inherently bad, which flies in the face of everything Christians profess to believe.

I wasn't disagreeing that if the idea of Original Sin as we know it is correct, then it is incompatible with evolution. However, if you discard Original Sin, does that imply that God created something inherently bad? Couldn't he have also created something that had the possibility of becoming inherently bad? Or would that ultimately be the same thing?

There's a lot of speculation that Moses just ripped off elements of other cultures' creation myths when writing his own story, which explains the similarities. He was present in the Egyptian court for quite a while by all accounts, and would have had easy access to all of those resources.

If you're willing to stretch your imagination a little, there's always the possibility that Moses was a remnant follower of the Amarnan religion of Akhenaton. Akhenaton's successors worked hard to eliminate his monotheistic ideas from the Egyptian pantheon, but is it entirely unreasonable that some true believers may have survived these persecutions? This would require Moses actually being an Egyptian, as opposed to a Hebrew, which I am willing to buy. It would also require an explanation for those aspects of the Hebrew religion that have no Egyptian equivalents.