“All religious beliefs prompt rejection.  Souls are reincarnated?  Ridiculous.  The Bible is divinely inspired?  Dangerous nonsense.  Muhammad is the prophet of God?  Poppycock.  Jesus rose from the dead? Absurd.  It is the common fate of doctrines to be dismissed; you’d almost think that’s what they were made for.  But not all beliefs are dismissed in the same way.  Some get an airy wave of the hand; others, a thoughtful shake of the head, with pursed lips indicating a tinge of regret;  still others, the stern wag of a hectoring finger.  But of all the religious teachings I know, none–not even the belief that some people are eternally damned–generates as much hostility as the Christian doctrine we call “original sin.”

– Alan Jacobs (2008 )