This is going to sound harsh and it's going to come out wrong, but babies first and foremost are totally and completely selfsish. Their wants and needs come totally before anything else in their world. It might be said that they're totally immeresed in themselves which of course is the exact opposite of Godliness. Not that it's their fault, it's what sin did to the world. It's a great physical survival tool, but doesn't do anything spiritually.
Actually, I don't disagree with you.
If you read this earlier in the week, you will see that I do not believe a person has "sinned" unless they are competent of the idea of sin and free to choose their actions. In short, if the baby does not know he is doing wrong, does not even have the concept of right and wrong, then the baby is not guilty of any "sin."
So you describe a baby's actions as "selfish" and "willful" but I do not see how they can be "sinful."
Remember, the Fall was related to eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Until Adam and Eve were able to "know" what was right and what was wrong, there was no sin.
In our development as children, we relive this in microcosm.
sD
I would disagree. I sin every day. I don't always realize that what I'm doing is sinning, but it is sin nonetheless and it separates me from God. Repentence from that sin, which implies a recognition of sin, is what God wants.
Remember, the Fall was related to eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Until Adam and Eve were able to "know" what was right and what was wrong, there was no sin.
I would say that the concept of "evil" had never entered their mind before then. They weren't aware of sin because they had never sinned up to that point. When they sinned, it became clear in their mind just what it was.