Sin: What's It Good For?
What's the point?
Filed under Religion
| Skeptoid #09 November 26, 2006 Podcast transcript | Listen | Subscribe Also available in Japanese |
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This week, I'm going to put on my burgundy velvet robe, fill my martini glass, and observe that bastard stepchild of the value system: Sin.
Sin is an interesting thing. A sin is something you're not supposed to do, according to a given set of religious restrictions. Sins are not necessarily illegal. Sins are not necessarily wrong. Sins don't necessarily harm anyone. In fact, many sins can be completely, entirely harmless, like the thinking of impure thoughts. So what's the problem? Why are sins bad?
I guess that all depends on whose definition of "bad" you use. For example, if you're a Muslim, it's sinful to get urine on yourself. The rest of us follow this commandment pretty strictly too, but we certainly wouldn't consider the odd dribble to be sinful. Buddhists consider skeptical doubt to be a sin (though they call it a hindrance), but doubt certainly isn't a problem for Christians or Muslims. Most Christians consider polygamy to be sinful, but it's the rule for most of Africa and the East. So there's no one clear yardstick for determining what's sinful or not. It depends completely upon the religious context. Outside of a religious context, the word sin is, for all practical purposes, meaningless.
Christians in particular consider everyone to be sinful, regardless of their performance. They call this "original sin", and it's essentially a negative blot on your report card immediately upon birth. Since Adam and Eve had the gall to eat some fruit that was offered to them, you and I and everyone else are considered guilty by association and are thus fundamentally bad people, according to strict Christian doctrine.
Christians also have to deal with "mortal sins." A mortal sin is one that, if left unrepented, sends you to hell when you die. Christians don't maintain a list of what types of sins guarantee you a date with the devil, instead they lay out some general rules. The big sins, like murder and adultery, put you on the fast track. Mortal sins have to be done deliberately. If you simply forget to go to church, accidentally put on a condom, or unintentionally catch a glance of a hot girl out of the corner of your eye, such sins are called venial sins and you can get away with them. But if you do them deliberately — blow off church on purpose in order to saw some extra logs on Sunday morning, wear the condom on purpose, or deliberately stare at the hot girl with impure thoughts — they are mortal sins. If you do things like this regularly, strict Christians consider that you are hellbound for sure. There are probably a lot of human males who needn't bother wearing their jackets for their burial.
Worst of all is the "eternal sin" - to deny God, which cannot be forgiven. Those considering an eternal sin might as well lose a fiddling contest to Satan right now. The punishment for an eternal sin is the same as for a mortal sin; the difference is that there's no opportunity to be forgiven and get out of it. It's sort of like being on death row in a state where the governor doesn't have a telephone.
When you eliminate activities that injure others or are otherwise wrong, there are still items on the sin list: basically a long list of victimless crimes. This is where the fun begins for those of us not hampered by religious restrictions.
Take social relationships, including plural marriages, same sex marriages, and anyone living together or having sex outside of wedlock. It doesn't hurt anyone, everyone involved has a great time, and it's mutually fulfilling for all participants. But those activities are all pretty high on the sin list. Take it out of a religious context, and suddenly there's nothing wrong with it. Polyamory is also a victimless crime that for some reason is considered sinful: wife swapping, swinging, hedonism, group sex parties, and open marriages are things that all the participants enjoy behind closed doors. Where's the harm?
Straight sex between married partners is all right, so long as it never extends to include masturbation, fetishism, lust, or impure thoughts. "Have to stop a minute, Mabel, I started to feel a little lusty."
The list of sins is not static: it's even been updated to include cybersex. Using a computer in some way to enhance sexual stimulation is sinful. This includes a video chat session with your spouse when one of you is traveling. That makes a lot of sense.
Drunkenness and tobacco are big on the sin list. This one's just plain counterproductive. Who among us doesn't appreciate an evening at the club in an overstuffed leather chair, with a martini and a fine cigar, talking politics and blasphemy. Throw in some profanity (which, fortunately, I don't see on the list of sins), and you've got the perfect evening. Drunkenness and tobacco are fundamental to healthy male adulthood. Frankly, I don't even know how I'd be able to conduct a proper board meeting without these accoutrements.
Idolatry is another sin that would be hard for me to live without. Idolatry doesn't necessarily relate to graven images or statues of other gods; idolatry is the practice of loving anything or anyone more than you love God. For me, the brand names Porsche and Jeep are hard to get past. I do attend church every Sunday morning: My temple of worship is a rectangle at the beach measuring 8 meters by 16 meters and involves the hitting of a synthetic leather ball at other worshippers. And since I cannot honestly say that there are any supernatural invisible flying magicians whom I love more than my own family, idolatry is definitely a sin that I need to commit every minute of every day, as much as I need to draw breath.
Hate and anger are sins. I don't really hate anyone and I don't get angry very often. About the only thing that gets me angry is when I hear the worst of the bad news from the world: children being abused or murdered, and genocides. Apparently, the world's major religions think that I should go to hell because those things make me angry. I'd have to say this is one case where the world's major religions can kiss my ass. I respect how the Amish can overlook these crimes and offer loving forgiveness to even these criminals, but I'll save my applause for the inmates who beat Jeffrey Dahmer's head to death against a prison toilet.
Lying. This one's tough. I don't know how anyone can claim that they don't practice this sin every day, no matter how religious they are. Have you ever told anyone that you can't go somewhere, or can't do something, when the truth is you simply didn't want to? You're a liar. You ever stop talking about someone when they entered the room, to deceive them into thinking you weren't talking about them? You're a liar. Ever give someone one of those quick fake smiles when you pass them in the hall — as if seeing them makes you happy? You're a liar. Lies don't have to be spoken and they are usually not malicious, but they're still lies. We all do it, all day, every day. Lying is a fundamental of politeness and a pillar of good behavior.
The truth is the concept of sin has no place in the lives of intelligent adults in modern society. Politeness, honesty, industry, and simply being yourself will take you a lot further. I say to the religious people: Keep your arbitrary restrictions, and your hateful belief that I should go to hell, to yourselves.
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© 2006 Skeptoid Media, Inc. Copyright information
References & Further Reading
Anderson, Gary A. Sin: a History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
de Waal, Frans. Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Feldman, Fred. Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties, and Plausibility of Hedonism. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2006.
Kurtz, Paul (editor). Science and Ethics: Can Science Help Us Make Wise Moral Judgments? Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2007.
Livingstone, E. A. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press Inc, 2000.
Manning, Henry Edward. Sin and Its Consequences. Charlotte, NC: TAN Books & Publishers, 1986.
Portmann, John (Editor). In Defense of Sin. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Thera, Nyanaponika. "The Five Mental Hindrances and Their Conquest." Wheel. 1 Jan. 1993, Volume 26.
Reference this article:
Dunning, Brian.
"Sin: What's It Good For?" Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc.,
26 Nov 2006. Web.
2 Sep 2010. <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4009>
Discuss!
5 most recent comments | Show all 95 comments
Remember, you should always read with skepticism the comments of anyone too lame to put their real name & city.
@Howard, i see your astonishment about the "my wife and I" part, but please think before you write a comment here.
This part of the sentence is the object and not the subject. If it was the subject "my wife and I" would have been correct.
Karsten, Germany
February 22, 2010 12:04pm
"And since I cannot honestly say that there are any supernatural invisible flying magicians whom I love more than my own family, idolatry is definitely a sin that I need to commit every minute of every day, as much as I need to draw breath".
This could not have been said better by anyone, anywhere.
Cam, Thunder Bay, ON.
March 02, 2010 9:28am
Participate in enough gangbangs and it will have a toll on you psychologically, im pretty sure of that. Shit even 2pac understood that at some point, he says it in one of his last interviews. If you constantly degrade other people in one form or another it will hurt you in some way because I think we do have some kinda global interconnected consciousness or somethin(unless your a complete psycho:-).
As for truly "victimless sins", I think it depends on how deeply certain beliefs have been ingrained into your head. Then your mind will start punishing itself if it believes you are doing wrong.
Janusz, Hamburg, DE
April 20, 2010 12:13am
Back in the day the major religions were not just church but also state. And like state they enforced laws. A law is profoundly more effective if you believe it has supernatural connotations. Now I think at the very top of the church heirarchies, they fully knew this (it started out with good intentions I think, but then you know what the road to hell is paved with) and set laws as sins, and advovated in things like inquisitions and crusades decreeing it in the name if God thereby giving its partakers divine right to do as they please (which in fact they did, and the uneducated nonsceptical populace fully believed). I think the church heads were the most cynical people ever, and considering how many can use religion as a tool of malevolent control (The stinking rat Peter Popoff for example), I fully advocate sceptical thinking so you are not led around by the nose by cynical people who are looking to rob you through the use of what for some people is a decent way of life, religion. To paraphrase Frank Herbert "To seek freedom is to become a slave to your own desires. To seek discipline is to find freedom". In this case to seek religion is to become a slave to those who would use religion to rule you, and to seek scepticism is to find your own way and not be led around by the nose by anybody.
Cam, Thunder Bay
April 22, 2010 9:16am
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"Take social relationships, including plural marriages ... Take it out of a religious context, and suddenly there's nothing wrong with it."
I say there can be something wrong with it, even outside of a religious context.
"Polyamory is also a victimless crime that for some reason is considered sinful."
I say it's not necessarily victimless. Since most of the sin list (killing, stealing, etc.) rose out of societal mores, I think adultery and (more recently) polyamory wound up on the sin list for the same reason.
Abby, Austin, TX
February 17, 2010 8:42pm