The Fall

We had a long, sort of excruciating, discussion on the subject of total depravity. The Fall is a major part of our religion, mainly because without it we wouldn't be having this discussion. Total depravity says that as humans we are completely evil and that we are only redeemed by Christ.

My view is that we must have something good about us to redeem. There has to be something that was or is originally good so that it can be saved and resuscitated. For the Sci Fi nerds like myself a good example would be cloning. There has to be some DNA left to clone.

Also if we were completely evil the human race would have destroyed itself before Christ came. We would have all killed each other in hate and there never would have been anyone to save. Also Noah is a prime example. The world was evil but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

On top of all this compelling evidence I wonder why ancient cultures would have developed religions if they were evil. If I didn't feel a reason to try and be better than my basic nature then i wouldn't bother to develop a religion that demanded I sacrifice time and material. But they wanted to please the gods and be better than they were. I disagree with total depravity.