Corrupting the "word of God" by taking certain verses together to try to prove something that is not so seems to me to be a pretty good definition of what one hears preached by modern right wing evangelicals (as well as ancient roman ones I suppose).... or at least it was until I stopped bothering to listen to them.

Anyway, I don't believe in this concept of original sin myself, but I am curious as to why it was created in the first place. What did the church hope to gain from creating such a doctrine? To what advantage did they use it? Is it really as simple as locking all human beings to a dependency on the church to avoid damnation from it?

You are condemned to hell because of original sin. Only Christ can save you from this so you better get right with him. Only we can get you right with Christ. So you better pony up and fly right or your headed for hell.

Even if that is the case, there is usually some other theological justification that such an extortion would hide behind. Does anybody know that that is? Or is it really just as simple as the sins of the father are the sins of the son and so on down the line to me.