>>> Belief in an afterlife is strictly optional and there's no notion of salvation or original sin.
>>
>>I find it particularly hard to understand how a sin can be original. It's all been done over and over :).
>
>"Original sin" is the best concoction of them all - universally applicable to everyone so everyone is a possible recruit.
>
>But I've always wondered why it is that pastors/priests preach 'save it for marriage'. Shouldn't they be preaching save it forever????... thus ending original sin for good!!!

The whole concept of being 'conceived in original sin' never made any sense to me. The idea of tarring a newborn baby with the 'sins' of the parents is so nuts that it's hard even to be angry at the creators of such foolishness. They are more to be pitied for their depressed outlook on life, I think.