The Deadly Sins

Hmmm ... so now I am to write of the seven deadly sins: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.

First, I should try to figure out the difference between covetousness and envy ... OK ... Google is my friend, and it seems to tell me that the former is about wanting more goods, and the second is about wanting what someone else has. It seems like a fine distinction to me.

Anyway, now that that is sort of sorted (see what I did there?), let me say that I think  that I (and assume everyone) has suffered from all of these sins. But mildly in most cases, I also assume.

I mean to say, if you haven't experienced a hint of pride in some accomplishment or possession or your grandchild, then you aren't terribly human in my opinion. In other words, you have inded experienced this because you are human. But I think for most of us, it's a good sort of pride. You persist in some task and eventually succeed at it, and you experience a healthy pride. It doesn't mean you are proud as in haughty and disdainful.

I go through the list, and I have committed each one of those supposed sins — multiple times. But they are really all in passing. They are little sins if indeed they are sins at all, and not necessarily deadly or besetting sins.

There are some in the list that I have to think about a little more deeply: lust, for example. Is my appreciation of a pretty woman, which entails a longer than usual glance, lust, or is it just only that — an appreciative glance? Is something beautiful not to be appreciated? You look at art or hear a piece of music, and you appreciate it. You don't call that appreciation lust.

What about gluttony? Of the list, I may be closest to this. My belly is too big, so, therefore, it would follow that I eat too much. But do I? I don't think so, really, for I am dispositioned to not like veggies and to love fatty and fried foods. I wish it weren't so, but it is so. So, I don't think I overeat so much as I eat the wrong things. And these days anyway, I can't really exercise the calories away. It's not as if I eat plateful after plateful of fried chicken or a whole box of chocolates at a sitting. (Although, should I choose to blog about my birthday weekend, you might see that food is greatly involved.)

Of course, the sin list comes from a time past when certain religionists were obsessed with trying to emulate whatever their theology told them that Jesus was like and how to find heavenly favour with him. There were those who agonized over their grave sins, even going so far as to self-flagellate although I am not sure how useful that would have been.

However, the emerging scientific consensus seems to be that free will is an illusion; every predilection and decision springs from a combination or our genes and our experience. In other words, if you were to go back to that bad decision that you made and now wish that you hadn't, you would do it again. It would be groundhog day. We like imagine that we would make a different choice, but that is wishful thinking from our retrospective viewpoint. Sure, if you could bring your present brain, experiences and thought back with you, you'd likely make a different decision, but if you could be placed back in exactly the same circumstances as you were then, you would always make the same decision.

If that's the case, and I think it is (or nearly enough anyway), the concept of sinning is dead wrong. Sinning implies choice, and it seems that we don't have choice. I know that it sure seems that we have the ability to choose because we can think and reflect, and that makes it seem as though we have choices, but we probably don't. Yes, when certain bad actions affect society harmfully, then there needs to be behaviour modification, even if the perpetrator couldn't help himself (more often than not a 'him' it seems). You need to forfeit your allowance, serve a detention, or go to jail. That changes your experience and may hopefully result in improved behaviour in the future. But it should also change our view of crime and punishment ... which is another story for another day.