The state of sin that has captured human beings since the Fall. The idea that we have plenty to be ashamed about simply through being alive is one of the less appealing of ethical doctrines, but is also one of the main components of any variety of Christianity, since without it the doctrine of the atonement loses its rationale. The precise way in which Adam’s guilt was transmitted to us all has, naturally, exercised theologians. For Augustine, it simply comes as a consequence of sexual reproduction and its accompanying concupiscence. For Aquinas, it is not so much sin that is passed on as the loss of a supernatural capacity to govern the lower appetites by means of reason. Original sin is functionally necessary to dramatize the importance of redemption, and the religious practices that facilitate it. See also traducianism.