Defining sins! - Page 2

I don't think there is any such thing as "sin" really. The notion of sin is mostly religious, anything that violates God's will/law or a religiously accepted moral is a "sin". Since I don't buy notions such as God's will or universal religious morals - sins don't exist for me. I find it quite silly to categorize human behavior as sinful or saintly and such.

Originally posted by: boreddamsel

Agreed .. I don't think I am ashamed of any of those seven sins.. aren't they part of life?

I love what you said in the bold. Then those sins are definitely not "deadly" as our forefathers claimed.

I don't think crimes and sins are related. I don't think religion and morals are related either. I think a general sense of moral conscience is embedded within nature.

Crimes are defined by law, but based on human moral conscience . Crimes are defined to prevent explicit harm to society.

Sins are defined by religious contexts, and based on morality as defined by a religious view. Sins are defined to prevent people from straying from a religious path.

Lust, envy, pride, greed, wrath, sloth, gluttony and such maybe sins. But none of those are crimes. It is perfectly normal to experience all these. Depending on the extent they may range from moral to grey to immoral. Sexually harassing/raping someone on account of lust would be a crime. Killing someone on account of wrath would be a crime. But in a religious context a rape may not be sinful or immoral because it could be defined as a slave holders or husbands right. A murder may not be sinful or immoral because it could be something an infidel deserved.

That is why I find it very important to keep a general human sense of ethics and morality separate from religious notions of how conduct ought to be. I can see how a secular view of sin tries to do so and is separate from religion, but the fact is the notion of sin originated in religious beliefs.

Originally posted by: boreddamsel

So we all had a splendid time discussing about obsession.. that made me wonder.. is obsession a sin ..? Doesn't look like it.. because it is not listed in the seven deadly sins..

[A] Of course it is not and thats because obsession is an illness 😛 and illness could not be a sin but only a consequence of it 😉

I guess the deadly sins don't include all sins .. just the ones that destroy your spiritual development. 🤔

OK I ll try and remember that while attempting the looong list of questions you put. Thanx for the hint 😃

So here are some thoughts.

What defines a sin and what makes it deadly or not deadly? Is it a feeling .. is it something that will hurt us or hurt others ..? How is a sin different from say, a crime?

hmm a tough one that

The judge dealing with sin remains invisible but the one dealing with crime remains very much visible 😒 hmmm ... and out of sight is out of mind

Committing a crime should be a sin right.. or is a sin defined as something that leads us to commit a crime?

Woud depend against whom the crime is committed, against allies or foes 😳

How about selfishness.. is that a sin? Or being homosexual?

This one should be easy 😛 If the nation is overpopulated homosexuality must be made mandatory, if the nation is facing zero growth then make it a sin 😛

Wait...would that be selfishness 😲...

What will happen to us if we sin? Is it because of our sins that we face troubles in our life .. umm.. I could be wrong, but I refuse to believe that!

Try an experiment 😛

That makes me also wonder. I don't know about you, but I've mastered most of the seven deadly sins! 😆

Good going 😆 Carry on. Practice makes perfect and Perfection is a virtue 😳

Is there anyone you know who hasn't sinned at least once?

Need to check the bookkeeper

So does that mean Hell will be crowded .. and no one will get to go to Heaven? Or are we already in Hell? (Ok, for all these questions, I'm assuming hell and heaven exist.. do they exist could be a totally different debate 😉)

With the current crowd on the planet ...erm...looks like Earth is in Hell or hell on earth...

If getting to Heaven is not our purpose in life, then what is? Commit more sins and stay happy?

You mean something like bribing St Peters 😲

No that would be very naive ...we could try something else that we are getting quite adept at ...we could try our reasoning and bargaining skills... 😛 Hell seems to be the flavor of the season so we could settle for an off season destination that is Heaven , what say 😉 might as well earn some brownie points for the sacrifice 😆

Also the seven deadly sins were defined a long long time ago .. Have we uncovered new sins since then?

No, we only managed to cover the older ones instead 😈

Pardon my ignorance..

Pardoned dear. To err is human and...well...to forgive is currying favour with the divine 😳

PS: You might think I'm being silly,

Not at all , that tag belongs to me 😳

but while I was typing this, the server I was remotely working on crashed .. and now I have to set up my work on it all over again 😭 .. Sure, there is an explanation (there always is!). The program must have run into a bad block! But is this just a coincidence .. am I being punished for doubting?

No second thoughts about it 😛 ( dont want to risk my server from crashing as well 😔)

Phew ...that felt like attempting a test paper. Hope I ve covered all your questions...

Originally posted by: McNinja

Are you telling me my gluttonous ways are destroying my spiritual being, wherever that is? 😆

Are those who condone, maybe provoke or even encourage others to sin just as bad as those labeled the sinner?

Originally posted by: --arti--

I don't know about sins, but I think it's good to have a sense of morality and right and wrong. I love the Malcolm X quote that says you can fall for anything if you don't believe in something.

Some of the language around sin and guilt is in fact rooted in Christian eschatology though, so it's perfectly acceptable to view the concept of sin as being grounded in religion. That doesn't mean that religion and religious concepts don't exceed their own scripts and boundaries, because that happens all the time since they are part of our ever-evolving social life.

I think a lot of "sins" you listed are subjective though. A lot of people in this world get away with greed, pride, arrogance, and so on, but our relative social positions (race, gender, class, etc.) determine whether that behaviour is acceptable. For example - if a guy is arrogant, it's seen as him just being manly, but if a woman doesn't go out of her way to demonstrate humility and if she comes across as assertive, she's judged as a b*tch. Just one example.

And crimes are not necessarily sinful, because what constitutes criminality is something that changes over the course of time. Slavery was not criminal once upon a time, for example. Treating a person like a sub-human was perfectly acceptable. Homosexuality was until recently considered criminal in India. And so on.

Overall I think that we need a moral code to live by, and to me personally that moral code is based on progressive values of human dignity, equality and collective responsibility.