I’ve never bought into Original Sin. It’s a terrible concept, used to manipulate, not to explain anything.

I recall a time playing with my autistic toddler and his sister long ago when he stopped to make a comment, completely out of the blue and so matter of fact, that it was getting harder to remember what all he used to do before being born here, in this body. His sister acknowledged it but said she doesn’t remember much. I tried to press a little, but it got in the way of what our action figures and Barbies were doing right then (I know my place), so we kept playing.

As St. John of the Cross aptly points out, that the remembering is found in the apophatic, the mystery, the unknowing:

How well I know the spring that brims and flows,

Although by night…

Its source I do not know because it has none

And yet from this, I know, all sources come,

Although by night.

I know that no created thing could be so fair

And that both earth and heaven drink from there,

Although by night.

Its radiance is never clouded and in this

I know that all light has its genesis,

Although by night….

The current welling from this fountain’s source

I know to be as mighty as its force,

Although by night.

This passage is from the Sophia of Jesus Christ, a manuscript found at Nag Hammadi.

Everything that came from the perishable will perish, since it came from the perishable. But whatever came from imperishableness does not perish but becomes imperishable. So many men went astray because they had not known this difference and they died.

Mary said to him: Lord, then how will we know that?

The Perfect Savior said: beginning with invisibleness, you arrive at that which is visible. The very source of Thought will reveal to you how faith in the invisible is found in that which is visible, that which emanates from the unbegotten father.

And this, from the Gospel of Mary, page 7, from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri in Greek and Berlin Codex in Coptic:

The disciples asked, "Teach us about the material world. Will it last forever or is everything impermanent?"

The Saviour answered: “All that is created, everything that is formed, every natural thing, all exist interdependently in and with each other. Then each will be dissolved again back into its own roots. It is [the way of] nature that everything will eventually decompose back into its own elements. Those who have ears, let them hear.”

Peter said to him: “While you are explaining everything to us, tell us one more thing: What is the sin of the world?”

The Saviour answered: “There is no such thing as sin, you only make it appear when you act according to the habits of your adulterated nature: that is how what you call 'sin' manifests. This is why the Good has come into your midst, pursuing [the Good] which is in everyone’s true nature, to restore it inward to its root.”

Then he continued, saying: “This is what sickens and destroys you: it is your love for the things that deceive you. Those who have ears, let them hear. Whoever can understand, let them understand!"