Why would God punish children for the sins of their fathers?
The Bible claims that God both does and does not do this. It is one of the clearest and most profound contradictions in the entire Bible.
Any Ideas?
Duh!?
Why not ask it this way: Would God not see Life as Unitary?
Why should God make a distinction between generations?
Interpolate our own view of things. Do we thousands of individual ants, trying to name each one of them, or do we see "a nest of ants". Do we see a thousand blackbirds, trying to tell each one apart from the rest, or do we see "a flock". Notice that the words "flock", "herd", "school", even the word "family" are singular. These words are showing Unity in collectivity.
Anyway, it would be useful to understand the Concept of Karma. The Saints of the East are convinced that God sees things as per Karma, and the Catholicism of the Religious Orders (not the religion of the indoctrinated and indoctrinating Bishops and Priests) conforms remarkably well to the Eastern Views of Karma.
One not only accrues Karma by one's own action, but one is more or less pickled in the Karma of all of one's associations: one has Family Karma, Societal Karma, Cultural Karma. One even assumes the Karma of the Organizations one joins. One who decides to convert to Protestantism suddenly forfeits their Spiritual Sponsorships and is flung outside the Pall of Grace. One who joins the Republican Party, or takes the secret bloody vows of infant sacrifice to become a Free Mason, well, they sign a contract with Satan and take on the Karma of Hell... which often comes with a 6 Figure Plus salary, if that is all one cares about.
Now, in the Ancient Systems, such as Western Stoicism or Eastern Buddhism (that of the original Buddha), the idea for dealing with Karma was to reject and pair down one's associations. Every familiar and social affiliation was rejected. People became anti-social hermits in order to escape karmic consequence. Now, this did not work for a very good reason, and that is because the World quickly went to Hell as everybody renounced their Moral Responsibility. One cannot reject their Human Karma. In rejecting Moral Responsiblity, they had to be held responsible for those consequences as well. Christ, coming along after the development of Western Stoicism and Eastern Buddhism, saw these flaws and taught their correction, that one had to take on More Karma, not less. The more Karmic Responsiblity each good person would assume, the more this would relieve the remainder of Humanity from the Evil Consequences of the Collective Evil.
Yes, yes, Paulist Christianity emphasized individual Salvation. But remember, that Paul was preaching to the Greeks, a Barbaric People still ill-acquainted with the notions of Civilized Collectivity, though they had been acquainted with such ideas and Peoples for their entire History, but like stawart Barbarians, consistently rejected any sense for accepting Moral Responsiblity. Indeed, even the Hebrew Religious Traditions presented too much of a mix of the Individualistic and Collective. What is this nonsense of the yearly killing of live-stock so they could screw around, charge usury, and lie to one another without consequence. Indeed, it was the Moral Infraction that made it so easy for Paul to sell the idea that Christ could be killed for the pleasure of Sinning.
Yes, it is possible that Christ voluntarily assumed a great deal of Collective Karma, and, indeed, this has been the aim of the atonements and asceticisms of many of the Catholic and Eastern Saints, to take on Karma. However, it is one thing to volunteer to take on Karma upon one's self, and it is the opposite to teach that one can off-load their personal Karma upon some Savior. We can therefore designate two Categories, calling one Religion, and calling the other Anti-Religion. Religion instructs one to accept Responsibility for oneself and even for others. Anti-Religion instructs one to reject Moral Responsiblity and to have Faith that some Scape-Goat can be assigned one's guilt.There are Givers and there are Takers. The Takers should not be allowed to call themselves Religious. Rather, they should think of themselves as the Thieves they are.
