Augustine, the Pear Tree, and Original Sin
In The Confessions, by Saint Augustine, Augustine discusses his life events and the journey he took to find his faith. In Book II, Augustine talks about an incident in his life where he and his friends stole pears from his neighbor’s tree. This experience was a huge moment in Augustine's adolescent life, it was sin that Augustine realizes he has committed. Comparatively, this could be considered Augustine’s original sin. Augustine did not steal the pears because he needed them for himself, he stole them for the sake of stealing which is what made the sin an egregious act. Neither Augustine nor his friends put a single one of these pairs to good use. Instead, they threw the pears at the pigs. Following this incident, Augustine realized
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After analyzing this question, Augustine concludes that he stole the pear for the thrill of it, as well as, from the influence of his friends; moreover, Augustine believes that the crime was not something he would have committed on his own.
Augustine’s story of the pear tree parallels many of the aspects that can be seen in the recounting of the original sin seen in Christian doctrine. The preposition of Original Sin suggested by Augustine is that everyone is sinful. This means that everyone is born with the urge to do bad and disobey God. Christian teachings, say that the Original Sin is the result of the actions taken place by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (BBC - Religions - Christianity: Original Sin, 2017). God told Adam and Eve, that they were able to eat from any tree, but one -- the tree of good and evil. If they ate from that tree, they would learn the difference between good and evil. However, a serpent personified as Satan coaxed them into eating an apple from the tree. Due to their betrayal of God's orders, the act of sinning was created, and it would continue to affect all human life after them. This perpetuous