Yes, there is such a thing as Original Sin: Lent 2021, Day Nine

You feel the anger rising. Suddenly, you lose it. You are now shouting, the blood is up - you are ready to thump the miscreant, be it the person you're arguing with or a recalcitrant laptop. Fury has taken over, you have literally lost your senses, your powers of reasoning. You're spoiling for a fight. Your normal conscious self has been taken over by something far more primitive.

Familiar?

This, dear reader, is Original Sin. The Beast has taken over from the Angel in you. The reptilian brain, driven purely by instinct is in charge. You have lost the capacity to self-monitor and to observe objectively. 

This behaviour goes back to the earliest forms of conscious life, a flight-or-fight response to external stimuli that predates the evolution of rational thought. A switch is thrown, rational thought is supplanted by instinct. 

Will we never be set free? The theological notion of 'sin' is a shorthand here. When your cat, hitherto calm, suddenly turns on you and scratches your face, it isn't sinning - it is responding to a stimulus that it has instinctively flagged you up as being a threat. But when a human suddenly goes wild and turns to violence, that human brain - the most advanced thing we know of - has gone over to pre-human mode. 

I wonder whether humans have evolved over time to become less prone to rage than had been the case in early history? I would hope so. Is a propensity to lose one's temper a genetically inherited trait? Is it epigenetic?

Rage vs. anger, from 1500 to 2019. [Google Ngram viewer]

The road to God is long, the scale is eternal. Mankind's brief history as a species is the tiniest fraction of the time-span required by full spiritual evolution, hence my instinctive feeling - based on personal experience, that our consciousnesses exist for more than one human lifetime. To advance towards God is to lose one's beastliness - the characteristics of our reptilian ancestors. Striving towards a more angelic nature should be our goal in day-to-day life, trying to overcome the propensity to anger when things or people stand in our way. 

Often it is materialism, desire for more money, power and possessions, that leads to those conflicts in which the baser side of our animal nature becomes exposed. We get angry when we lose money, or lose power (losing face, losing one's place in a hierarchy). Lashing out is a reaction, unchecked by the conscious side our nature. Though almost universal it is a spectrum-like trait. Some of us, blessed with an easy-going disposition are slow to anger; this should be seen as a gift. Others anger with hair-trigger ease. 

Referring back to yesterday's post: Do I feel guilt for showing anger? Only if another person is involved, and didn't really deserve it. Tomorrow I will put the two together - sin and guilt - looking at sins of omission, errors of judgment, saying things I shouldn't (being more honest than discreet) - and how the embarrassment thus caused stays with me for decades - defining me, and my ego.

This time two years ago:
London's Smithfield Market

This time three years ago:
Mid-winter in late February
(from -15C in Warsaw three years ago to +18C today!)

This time four years ago:
Ten years of digital photography

This time five years ago:
Between atheism and creationism

This time six years ago:
A peek into the Afterlife

This time seven years ago:
The new dupes of Moscow

This time eight years ago:
Late-winter commuting, Jeziorki

This time nine years ago:
My Nikon D80 five years on

This time ten years ago:
My Nikon D80 four years on

This time 12 years ago:
Nikon D80 two years on

This time 13 years ago:
Nikon D80 one year on