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Originally Posted by peragro
The English word sin derives from Old English synn. The same root appears in several other Germanic languages, e.g. Old Norse synd, or German Sünde. The word may derive, ultimately, from *es-, one of the Indo-European roots that meant "to be," and is a present participle, "being." Latin, also has an old present participle of esse in the word sons, sont-, which came to mean "guilty" in Latin. The root meaning would appear to be, "it is true;" that is, "the charge has been proven." The Greek word hamartia is often translated as sin in the New Testament; it means "to miss the mark" or "to miss the target".
-wiki
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I love it, to sin means to be! Augustine had no influence on that did he?
One likely merit of Islam over Christianity is the absence of a doctrine of original sin. I'll venture the far fetched opinion that it gives Islam a leg up in the current war of civilizations. Christians can easily let capitalism and its corruptions run their course because that is the 'nature' of the sinful world. Islam tries to civilize the world because it's not willing to paint everything outside the church with the brush of original sin.