I'd like to open a discussion on Sin. What is it? Why are such behaviors considered sins? What are the sins that various Christian denominations recognize, and what are the various levels of sin with differing punishments? I'm finding it hard to sort them all out.... So if you could please identify sins, their punishments and perhaps which denominations recognize and punish such.
Guilt and sin are intimately related. Having your sins forgiven then means your guilt is wiped away. But is it really gone? Is that the real purpose of Christian forgiveness, to wipe away the guilt from one's actions?
The whole concept of 'sin' is an archic and outmoded one. 'Sins' are usually anything which is fun, pleasurable and doesn't invole grovelling to some imagined big daddy in the sky. Once upon a time, usury - charging interest on borrowed money - was considered a 'sin' by xians, as is still the case with islamics to-day. That's one they dropped back in the renaissance period, thus paving the way for international capitalism and big bussiness to screw us all over. Strange how that one got dropped, but not others. When I was a kid, the nuns told me that eating in the street was a 'sin'. But it's ok to take someone's home away if they can't keep up the mortgage payments. In an 'xian ' nation too! 'Care for the sick' I believe is something JC said his followerws should do' But lost in their 'sins' they demand payment for healthcare. At least in xian America where the anti-xian virus of socialism never gained political power. In the uk it took socialism with it's basic agnosticism to provide free care for the sick. Patch 'em up - then they can get out there and sin a bit more... and still have the dosh to pay for such enjoyments, rather than making the stinking rich even richer. The idea of 'original sin' is probably one of the most harmful ideas that has ever gained credence. It says thst we are basically bad, the world is flawed irrepreably, and is evil to boot. It is a prescription for a guilt ridden, fear filled and neurotic society - just like what we got...
So does the Christian Church provide its followers with some kind of "Sins for Dummies" book or whatever so they can easily find and keep track of their sins? Some kind of Sin Logbook would probably help. I know it's all in the bible, but no cliff notes version? The Churches always rail against sin, but if you have a specific thing you are concerned about whether it's a sin or not, is there some authorative reference, or are you at the mercy of your local clergy's whims? I mean if you ask your local pederast priest if its a sin to have sex with children, what will they answer? I know Catholics get to confess their sins and ask forgiveness and their priests will confirm or deny whether a sin was committed, but how do ppl even know what activities were sins to begin with? I guess someone just said, if there's guilt there's sin. But what if you feel guilty about something that isn't sinful? You can see how confusing this whole setup is... So who invented sin? Was it the Jews? Along with Guilt, no doubt, as they are the masters of it. So without the Jewish contribution, there would be no sin, right?
They'd have to say it is a sin to cover their slimy asses. I'd say it's sickness and a crime. A sickness for which catholic sexual repression can probably take a lot of the blame. In fact, the whole 2,000 year old xian notions of sex in any form as basically 'sinful' may well account for a lot of the twisted shit xains have got up to over the ages. Psychologists might well argue that persons who go about torturing others, and burning innocent women are enacting some perverted and warped form of the sexual drive. The Marquis De Sade had a very deep insight into the ways of catholic sexual perversions I think.
Don't overlook the contribution of Zoroastrianism - that's where the dualistic universe as a conflict between a good god and a bad devil began. It's feasible the Jews got it from there, or at least the seed of the idea.
Judaism predates Zoroastrianism by millennia. In other words, the guilt was laid on thick by the time Zoroaster cut his teeth. Of course there was probably some cross-religion pollination there.
Well I'm not at all aware of the time period in which the Old Testament was written or when the laws were codified. Anyone know? OK, I looked it up, and they say Moses started it all with his 10 commandments, the Torah, which he wrote most of, including a lot of oral teachings around 1280 BC. That's quite similar to the time of Zoroaster. Hey, maybe they were drinking buddies back in old Kabul? Nah, Moses didn't venture over there, he was too busy helping the Pharoah or leading his ppl thru the desert. But the memes were out there, no doubt.
Back to sins... What about white lies? Are they sins? And what if you tell a white lie so that you don't hurt someone by telling them the truth? So if you feel guilty about telling a white lie, it's a sin, but if you don't feel guilty it's not? I'm still not getting this... Is there a relative value to sin? A Sin scale we can all use to measure how bad it is and how bad the punishment would be? As you can see I'd probably have been kicked out of Christian bible study with my endless questions that no one seems to be able to answer... I guess that's what they mean when they say "the devil is in the details?" Perhaps it's better not to pursue the trivial inconsistencies and illogical details of Christianity. Just have faith in fantasy, if nothing else matters or adds up, who cares? Long as you FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF AND CAN IGNORE YOUR SINS AND CRIMES, that's all that matters, right?
