Naturallists and materialists are habitually thinking in natural and material terms as if supernatural and metaphysical things do not exist.

Granted that every one is born as a sinner with the natural tendency to sin, sin is not so much a built-in or innate biological or social attribute as a volitional and spiritual character. thus the transmission of sin has to be understood primarily in spiritual term. This is key to our correct understanding of sin.

(1) Spiritual aspect: Due to the spiritual nature of mankind, sin is primarily transmitted spiritually, i.e., maintaining the status quo of being separated as a whole from God. An analogy is this: a group of fish left the life-giving ocean and got stuck in a muddy swamp. All offspring of those fish were similarly stuck with the less desirable status.

(2) Social aspect: Our entire human race is corrupted in sin, despite the small and increasing presence of godly believers. Sin is partly transmitted through the social environ which is not conducive to holy and righteous living.

(3) Scientific aspect: scientists are finding certain genes that may predispose a person into alcoholism, sexual promiscuity, anti-social behavior, etc. This type of genetic predisposition may contribute to the transmission of sin, but unlikely to be the most important factor. Such variant genes were most probably mutated from the original normal genes after the fall of man.

In sum, sin transmisison has primarily spiritual, seconarily social and scientific aspects.