You have some good questions and I am, by no means, a theologian; nor do I have my Bible with me here at the library, but I will do my best. Ok, first of all, you are right, we do have to suffer in a sin-filled and sinful world. We did not ask to be born into such a situation and I am sure that most people have felt, at some point in thier lives, that maybe it would be better if they had never been born at all. I know I have. But the thing is that God has a good plan, a VERY good plan, for every single human being that He creates. We are created out of the supreme love of God who wants nothing but the best for us...period! Why is He going about it in such a strange fashion? I mean, like you said, why not just punish Adam and Eve and then be done with the whole sin issue, then let every other human being be born into a perfect, sinless world and the whole thing would be great! Right? Well, again, God has an ultimate plan for this world full of beloved human beings.

I have heard it put in a simple way like this: How would you know what love is if you never experienced it's opposite? How would you appreciate pleasure if you never knew pain? And how could you choose to love God if you never had a choice to begin with. To trully love someone, with your heart, you must get to know that person over time and then choose to love him or her. Our human hearts were made to love. God made us that way because we were created in His image, and His image is pure love. Now think about it...if we were born into a perfect, sinless world, how could we choose to love God? I know this kind of opens up a can of worms because the next question is, "So did God intend for Adam to sin right from the beginning?" Man, I can't answer that one, I don't know if anyone can. All I know is that it is more important to focus on the love of God than the pain of a sinful world.

Oh yeah, the only people who pay any kind of price for sin are the ones who reject Christ. If you accept Him, then the price is paid. Actually the price is paid for everyone, but only those who accept the gift will recieve the benefits of it. It is just the nature of the gift, not because God is being rotten or something. I think we all feel bad about being born into a situation like this, but when you really study what God has done for us, I think you will see that it is His love that ultimately wins out throughout history. Yes there has been a ton of pain and suffering, but when a person is in Christ, that pain and suffering actually becomes something good in his life...like you said, "Iron sharpens iron".