In the loss of paradise described in Genesis, death and toil are said to have arisen as a result of humanity’s primordial sin. The stories of Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, and Noah’s Flood likewise consistently express the idea of human sin and divine judgment. Original sin reveals that human beings are creatures endowed with the freedom to choose between good and evil, and that, precisely because of this freedom, they must bear anxiety and suffering. Furthermore, in the Book of Job, **the absurdity of human existence—**the suffering of an innocent person—becomes a fundamental problem, undermining the idea that evil can simply be explained as a punishment for sin. Thus, in higher religions such as Christianity and Buddhism, sin and evil came to be deeply recognized as fundamental problems at the root of human existence, and people began to seek a way to transcend them through forgiveness, grace, and salvation.

Original Sin and Forgiveness

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