How to reconcile the original creation of every soul (Creationism) by God with original sin?

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By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice [sic]. And that is why original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not an act.

Catechism of the Catholic Church ... III Original Sin ... Paragraph 404

The catechism here makes clear that sin is a matter of the transmissible human nature. Sin is a matter of humanity, of flesh and blood. And the flesh and blood, the humanity, that is inherited by natural generation, is that in which sin is transmitted.

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The question accepts that every soul is subject to original sin, it then goes on to ask why. One can peal back one layer and say that every soul is subject to original sin because Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but that does not tell why they did.

  1. Can humans obey God's law without God's help/grace?

  2. Could God have given Adam the grace to obey?

  3. Why did God withhold from Adam the grace to obey?

I think these 3 questions are all part of the why which is being asked.

Ans 1. In Job the Devil obeys God but not God's law of love. To obey God's law we need the power of God that raised Christ from the tomb to work in us.

Ans 2. If God had had a different plan for creation then things would have been different. But given the plan He had it was not His intention that Adam would precede Jesus in obedience.

Ans 3. God alone is holy and therefore His creation, which is not Him, is not holy. God is holy in demonstrating this, which He does by giving a command that Adam will fail at. Adam's failure becomes Christ's opportunity.

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God's creation of a soul subject to original sin is part of a broader question – why is there evil in God's creation? One aspect of that broad question is that evil is a privation of good. The Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas:

Evil, according to St. Thomas, is a privation, or the absence of some good which belongs properly to the nature of the creature. (I,Q. xiv, a. 10; Q. xlix, a. 3; Contra Gentiles, III, ix, x).

Due to original sin, human nature lacks the holiness that is proper to it. Hence CCC 405 explains that

[Original sin] is a deprivation of original holiness and justice

Human nature is a "unity of soul and body" (cf. CCC 365). By original sin, both soul and body are damaged. Since all men share this fallen nature, all men are subject to this fall in both soul and body.

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