The fallacy of “generational sin” (as God’s punishment)

I was reading about the Christian concept of “generational sin” this morning because of a question I received on FB. One of the statements I read about it said, “The sins of the fathers are punished in the children through becoming the sins of the children.” The idea that God punishes the “sins” of parents by cursing the children ranks right up there with one of those most absurd things I have ever heard. The plain and simple truth is that every human being is a product of their conditions until they begin to exercise conscious choice, and even then it often requires substantial personal work to free oneself from destructive patterns that a person has been conditioned into. In other words, we all are predisposed to the dysfunctions of the family unit and early life circumstances we grew up in. It’s often the case that we perpetuate these by default until we guide our lives more consciously, and choose differently. God has nothing to do with it. God is not actively punishing people by somehow cursing their children.