“You’ve allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they’re born. When men believe this, they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is ‘original sin’.
I have to disagree strongly with Rand here.
If men were not born as fallen, sinful creatures, Socialism and other forms of Collectivism would probably work just fine.”
She is not saying they weren’t “born as fallen, sinful creatures” but that the belief that they ARE sinful, etc., enables them to act on it...I don’t see that as a disagreement in the belief in original sin as much as in the result of believing it, as I read it, but that is just my opinion...I think the work is complicated and is more an attack on collectivism than Christianity and as such, persoanlly, I try to separate the two out...
I think that you still don’t have it quite right. I think that it is a matter of expectation. Liberls believe that all men are born good, but due to conditions beyond their control will commit sin.
The 1957 premise that all men are evil has been expanded, to a type of moral relativity, which redefines sin, as relative and excuses it as necessary. The liberals then go on to blame the sin on the tyranny of the white capitalists.