The doctrine of original sin, which theorizes that everyone is born a sinner, is widely believed. This doctrine presupposes that man fell from his primal perfection; and many conscientious people are convinced that there is scriptural authority for believing he did. They cite the Bible account of Adam and Eve, who ate fruit forbidden to them by their creator and were punished for their disobedience. From this it is reasoned that all generations since then are burdened with original sin and its punishment.
But this Bible account is actually an allegory depicting the nature of sin, mortality, and the false, material sense of God and man. It is not a literal history of the true creator or of His creation. God's perfect man, created in His likeness, never fell. As Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, "Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father." Science and Health, p. 282.
We can awake from this Adam-dream by perceiving the spiritual meaning of the Bible, which shows the supremacy of God —indeed His all-inclusive reality—as divine Spirit, all good, and the nature of man as spiritual, sinless, and Godlike. This spiritual view is supported by the first account of creation in Genesis 1.
