New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-02-28
HOW SIN ENTERED MAN
A Correspondent Gives his Views upon one
of the old Church Doctrines.

Under the heading, ''Creed and Rea-
son, a reader of the Review sends us the
following interesting article
Having been requested to give my
views on certain religious topics, do so
with a coed deal of hesitation and re-
luctuncc.
The dogma, which lies at the bottom
and in fact furnishes the foundation Tor
almost all of the crecds of the orthodox
church. is the idea of inheritance of sin
and total deprvaity. It is on this doc
trine that all of the orthodox churches
live and thrive. lis this supposed con-
dition of the human race which furnishes
market for their goods. If the condl-
ton was not supposed to exist the busl-
ness of priests would prove asignal fail
ure. The doctrine was adopted as
part of the orthodox faith of the
charch in the General Cou2cilium at
Carthage in 41S and at Ephesus in 431.
The man most instrumental in framing
the system and bringing about its adop-
ton as the faith of the church was St.
Augustine. The form, as adopted by the
different churches, may vary little, but
the substance of it is as follows:
Adam and Eve, persuaded thereto by
the devil, disobeyed God by eating the
apple and thus fell into sin. When Adam
FELL the whole human race fell through
him and became corrupted. Our first
parents were created perfect. but when
they fell, all the good qualities or what
was supposed to be the image Of God in
man, were destroyed, and nothing re-
manned but wickedness and sin. The
human reason and will power were per-
verified, to that we can no longer see the
truth and have a desire to do good. By
disobeying God and obeying the devil
man fell under the power and control of
the devil and eternal damnation must
follow unless the original state of man
can be restored through the atonement
and redemption. the benefits of which |
can only be reached through the mini s.
terial office of the church.
Having been requested to give my
views or certain religious topics, I do so
with good deal of hesitation and re-
luctance. Were people content to live
according to their own honest beliefs and
allow others to live in peace, there would
be no need of stirring up such matters,
particularly when the slightest discus
sions awakcns narrow prejudic. For
myself, I believe what my convictions
teach me to believe, and it makes very
little difference to me what opinions
others may entertain. Creeds, doctrines
and beliefs never create nor alter facts
anyway, and truth remains the same no
matter whether it believed or rejected.
A lie cannot change its nature by popu-
lar acceptation as truth.
But when people without ideas in their
heads, except such as have been bor-
rowed from others, undertake to de-
nounce good and respectable citizens as
deFraved and criminal simply because
a cd cd pid submission to church doctrines,
otherwise paraded as faith, is not ac-
knowledged by them, it may not be en-
tirely amiss to show that these "depraved"
beings have also some very good rea-
sons for not accepting all that comes
from the pulpit. With this object in
view, shall endeavor to show of what
manner of stuff some of our church dog
mas are made.
The question at once arises: What
foundation is there for such doctrines?
Do the ''faithful'' know where the idea
comes from2 That they have history
cannot be doubted. Existing originally
IN simple form, they have been changed
and magnitied through ages, as snow
ball is in rolling down hill. To as
sumo that they originated with the auth
ors of the Bible in the present form is
decidedly erroneous, for some of them
existed in some form long before they
found their way into the Bible. while
some were manufactured long after
the Bible was written.
In free discussion Of this matter we
have to deal with the Bible merely as a
record ofi human history and as
reflection Of the developmentofh human
ideas, not as an inspired book. I have
no time at all for the tactics of ignorant
and irresponsible preachers who attempt
to shield absurd and ridiculous notions
under the authority of the Holy Scrip