Mark Twain got me thinking tonight when I read a quote from him that said,   

“Such is the human race. Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party didn’t miss the boat.” 

He understood that the human race was sinful, he just didn’t understand why…he didn’t know the truth.  But then I got to thinking, why is man sinful?  I know the fundamentals, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…” but why did Adam sin?  What was in him that made him sin?  Does having free will give us the inclination to sin?  You would think, being in the image of God, that we would have the inclination not to sin. 

“Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire [lust]. Then desire [lust] conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death. (James 1:14,15)

Desire conceives and brings forth sin.

There is no sin until our desire conceives it…creates it and births it.  We crave and we covet and then we sin.  Adam craved and then disobeyed, and for the first time sin was conceived.  In that moment, in the shade of a tree…

he screwed it up for the rest of us!  (Is it any comfort to know it would have happened sooner or later?)

I still think it’s interesting that Adam (okay, Eve first) gave in to his desire.  Desire was stronger than the truth.