Went to Christmas at the Prado in Balboa Park. Very nice.

Listening to the monologue between Christmas carols, I really understood this idea for the first time:

Christians (at least some subset) really believe that Adam committed the original sin, that every child is born of sin, born a sinner. It’s a stain that can’t be cleaned, it’s there from day one, and it’s the reason that Christ died.

That, to someone who didn’t grow up with it, is a completely bizarre world outlook. I don’t mean that in any offensive way – I’m just saying it’s very strange to an outsider.

I don’t know if this is Islamic, Bahaii, cultural, or simply the influence of my parents, but I always believed that a child is born with a clean slate, free of sin. As she grows she builds a coating of sin, but that can be washed off. The child is born in the image of God; she is perfect, and life is a pursuit of perfection, of being God-like.

I’m not saying one is better than the other, but they certainly are different. Being born perfect or being born quite imperfect in a way that you can never fix, that must have a big effect on your life outlook.

I’m no expert on this, so please feel free to correct where I have gone wrong.