"The only innocent feature in babies is the weakness of their frames; the minds of infants are far from inncocent" (20).
St. Augustine begins The Confessions with his life as a child and infancy in general. He describes infancy as a miserable period in which humans are unable to properly express emotion and thought, and have little to no physical power. It is hard to determine sinful nature in babies as they are incapable of much expression, yet the Bible teaches that sin occurs even when an infant cries or demands attention. He continues on to explain how most of childhood revolves sinful nature; boys even indulge in sinful nature while in school. It was common practice during this time to wait to be baptized until one was older, as youth was seen overall as the most sinful stage of life. In my opinion, it is impossible to judge babies based on their nature after birth. They need time to mature before they can be judged as sinful creatures. My question for the class is as follows: Do you not believe adulthood to be just as sinful, if not more so, than that of youth? What is your opinion on the judgement of infants as sinful even before they can form logical thought?
I do think that individuals should be held accountable for their sins more so during their adult life than their time as children, however, it is true that every living human is a product of sin ever since the Fall from the Garden of Eden. This means that although infants cannot form complex thoughts and have an understanding of their actions, they are still sinners until purified or 're-birthed' during their baptism. Yes sinning at an older age seems worse than during a younger one, but baptism was usually done later in people's lives because when an individual is older they can recognize what actions are right and wrong, so they have a better chance than an unaware infant to make the decision to not sin or sin less. Also, I cannot remember or find where in the Bible it says that sin occurs when infants cry or make demands...
ReplyDelete