I’ve always been intrigued by this idea. Leave it to the Catholics to make being conceived a sin. This concept stems from early preoccupation with our darker nature. It brings up the old question, “Is Man basically good or basically bad?” The Catholic (or perhaps, Christian) twist is that, if the latter, then it is somehow our fault, if only through our ancestors.
But to anyone who stops referring to animals in the third person, this question is moot: Man simply “is.” We don’t have a dark side. We have many sides…but only one nature: that of a highly social mammalian primate. We evolved to thrive in relatively small, tribal groups, and we are equipped with an array of instinctual tools to survive and compete in that arena. How that plays out in our modern, less-than-natural social environments is the question we should consider.
If we started from that point, we might manage a constructive dialogue around how to live together.
We share over 99% of our genetic makeup with chimps and with proper social skills, we certainly behave much better than they do. Note Jane Goodall’s research in the Gombe preserve. Original sin is an idea that gave the Israelite priests tremendous power to expiate sin through all manner of sacrifices, sacrifices appropriated by the priests themselves. What a scam!