CRITICS

• Augustine may have misinterpreted the Fall and the original sin.
• Richard Dawkins argues that Original Sin is not only contrary to evolutionary biology but also absurd and dangerous as an idea.
• The notion of the corporate responsibility of all humanity for Adam and Eve’s sin goes against our contemporary understandings of justice and fairness.
• Evolutionary biology shows that humans emerged from much less sophisticated animal forms that lacked the kind of consciousness needed to make moral choices.
• Even symbolic accounts of the Fall does not rid Christianity of its unhealthy obsession with sin, guilt, violence and repressed sexuality.
• The idea that God restores human nature by killing Jesus on the cross is sadomasochistic and irrational.
• Christopher Hitchens- he argues that these religious concepts degrade and undermine humanity as outdated values compete with more modern commitments to equality, diversity and rationality.
• Steven pinker- He argues that in modern societies the irrational superstitions of Original Sin, the Fall and grace should be replaced by the humanitarian principle.
• Organisations such as the British Humanist Association aim to promote the humanitarian principle by representing the case that it is possible to seek and live a good life without religious or superstitious beliefs.
• Reinhold Niebuhr responded differently to the secular/humanist challenge. He argued that while it may be unfashionable to talk about sin, failure to understand sin leads to colossal mistakes being made by society and particularly those in power.
• Neibuhr accused both religious and non-religious leaders of ignorance if they think that the power of reason and belief in moral goodness is enough to bring about just and fair societies.
• Neibuhr argued that humans must come to understand their imperfect and flawed (sinful) nature and establish a relationship with God. Only then could they realise their true limits and possibilities. 
• Freud was an atheist who argued that God was a psychological construction based on an infantile need for a powerful father-figure. This may have been necessary to restrain our violent tendencies in ancient societies but could now be cast aside in favour of reason and science.
•  Freud agreed with Augustine that the sexual drive (and the drive towards pleasure) was an essential quality of human behavior and shaped us deeply.
• Freud disagreed that what was needed was guilt and atonement for these urges. In fact unfulfilled desires could lead to mental illness and neurosis in later life. Rather psychotherapy could be used to help channel sexual impulses in a healthy direction.