There is SIN and there are sins, and unfortunately these two dissimilar things are called by the same name, creating confusion.
The first, SIN, is a condition. Any person with perception can notice this condition. We do tend to place ourselves and our property first, first above all other humanity, first above the needs of the earth, and first above The Godhead. The ancients, noting this propensity, assumed that our original parents acquired this trait and genetically passed it on to all of human kind. Today, we note that the laws of genetics say that this is impossible, that acquired traits are not passed on.
However, we also note that the condition exists. It is explained by the fact that we are still a creation in progress, not a finished product. We are like the automobile somewhere along the assembly line, not like the completed car rolling off the end ready to drive. We can perceive the next step, or next couple of steps, and realize that we are wanting.
Still, the astute realizes that The Godhead does not reject us because of that condition. In fact, because some of human kind has availed itself to congress with the Godhead, we become aware of how much further we have to go.
Then, there is the second definition, that of "sins." These are actions, or in-actions, beliefs or attitudes, either consciously committed or done in innocence, which hurt our relationship with others. (They can also affect our spirituality and hence, our relationsip with The Godhead.) As we become aware of these sins, we need to deal with them, to correct their effects, both with the person we have hurt, and with the Godhead.
When we make efforts to correct our sins or undo their effects, we should become aware that many of these sins are the result of "instinct." Others are actions or attitudes that were considered normal and even acceptable just a generation or so before, maybe even earlier in or own life times. (Surely my parents feel the stigma of racial prejudice as a sin, since they grew up and lived their early years of adulthood in a time when the Black-American was considered to be inferior and the law treated him as such. In the same manner, I feel the stigma of sin when I consider the atrocities my generation has committed against those of differing sexual orientation, merely because society considered this to be normal or even godly in my earlier years.) If we are astute, we then realize the relationship between SIN and sin. Sin, the behavior, is a result of SIN, the condition. We commit sins because God isn't done perfecting us yet, and will continue to do so until such a time as our perfection is complete. Part of the process of that perfection is learning what truly constitutes sin.
