text: original sin... if we are guilty by relation, what is god's penance for creating evil? if i can be held responsible for my 6000 year ago ancestor, shouldn't god have birth pains for creating satan and every other evil? he didn't create evil, evil is a consequence of separating from him (which is what lucifer - one of his created beings chose to do).  evil is the anti-god state.  not his creation, but the lack of himself.   i don't believe we are guilty by relation.  we become guilty when we make a choice to sin.  i think those who believe in "original sin," from what i understand, have misinterpreted david in psalm 51:5  "behold, i was brought forth in iniquity,  and in sin my mother conceived me."  i think that means that david was conceived and born into a world where sin exists and is pervasive.  it also could be from exodus 20:5-6  "you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. for i, the lord your god, am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments."  i take that to mean that children suffer consequences of the decisions/sinfulness of their ancestors.  think of the generational effects of alcoholism or incest.  those sins are visited upon their children.  it's not that those children are guilty of the sins of their fathers, but they suffer the effects of the lives their parents have lived.  (please note that i do not believe that any time a child suffers it is because of something a parent did.  we all suffer because of sin and it's influence and effect on the world.)  i don't believe that god holds us responsible for what our ancestors did.  he offers us a way out of the bondage of our ancestry.  we leave the ways and dysfunctions of our earthy fathers and take him as our father, so that we may learn mercy, forgiveness, love, longsuffering, truth, honor, reverence, goodness, kindness, faith, joy, gentleness, and self-control.  notice i say learn these things.  depending on our baggage and our level of ability, these things take time.  and practice.  you'll never hear me say that christians are sinless, or better than anyone else.  we've just accepted the offer of salvation and are becoming christ-like.  it's a process.  because of jesus we have freedom from the cycle of dysfunction and abuse that our fathers visit upon us.  he doesn't hold us responsible for their actions, but offers us a means of escaping repeating them.  (what makes you think that angels don't have a soul? clearly they have free will, otherwise satan could not have rebelled against god.  see revelation 12:9 and surrounding.)