molly.com
Sunday 9 March 2008
A Jewish Girl’s Thoughts on The Seven Deadly Sins
- Lust: Not a sin.
- Gluttony: Not a sin. Unless you don’t share what you have!
- Greed: A sin.
- Sloth: Rest only when weary.
- Wrath: It happens sometimes.
- Envy: Only that the health of our youth is not equivalent to the wisdom of a greater age.
- Pride: a sin only if truly misplaced.
Filed under: faith(less), humor, poetry & fiction, religion, society
Posted by: Molly | 22:49 | Comments (41)
My take on this: there are no sins, only the effects of your actions on others. Another way to look at the biblical sins is as paths away from happiness.
Lust: how can it be wrong? But don’t forget to love yourself.
Gluttony and Greed are the basis of our modern malaise, but for me reflect a deep-buried fear or dissatisfaction with life. Deal with your fear and become a kinder, more giving person.
Sloth: If your laziness is not hurting anyone else, take as much rest as you need. It’s a big world and occasional action is probably enough to pull your weight. Make room for others.
Wrath: it had better bloody not be a sin! Seriously, though, it’s ok to be angry – it’s what you do with your ire that can hurt the people around you. Learning to accept my anger and not dump it onto others is certainly my biggest weakness.
Envy: possessions schmossessions. Enviousness is a sure sign of self-dissatisfaction.
Pride: a bit like sloth – resting on your laurels gives you the time to recuperate and be kind to yourself.
PRICELESS! Funny yet accurate. I love and share your thoughs re: “Envy” and “Pride” LOL.
As an ex-baptist-born-again-christian and now gaiaist-come-atheist agrees totally (except that greed is not a sin if you are hungry). I only wish that I could tell my trained-as-a-christian-from-birth subconcious that about pride.
I’ve never understood why sloth is on the list. What’s so bad about being lazy? The other deadly sins aren’t much of a problem for me ’cause they require too much effort.
Given that for almost the entirety of human history, bare survival required full-time effort for 99% of the species, and even with that level of effort your odds weren’t all that great… it seems pretty obvious why “Sloth” would end up on that particular Top Seven list.
Even today, it’s effectively a Deadly Sin—in the sense that indulging in it is likely to result in death for oneself and any dependents—for a significant fraction of humanity.
Your thoughts coincide with mine.
I believe our current society encourages procrastination and laziness.
I’ll go get a coffee now, it is more interesting than retouching images.
Lust: Reduces others to something I can possess, use.
Gluttony: The assumption that only my own satisfaction and appetites matter; screw those without, satiate me!
Greed: I must have more, never mind that there are others more deserving
Sloth: Others will pull my weight; I’m above contributing to my community
Wrath: Born of a belief that my own fault is never as significant as everyone else’s
Envy: The inability to appreciate cause and effect, as it affects others
Pride: A self-centred view of life, an elevation of one’s self above others
These define the outer bounds of where society ceases to be civilised.
Didn’t Moses or someone lose the list of the other 5 deadly sins? Shit. That was the other 7 commandments when he dropped that other tablet. Never mind.
Indeed, Anonymous Heathen, those descriptions do define the point just beyond the outer bounds of civilized society, which is why The Seven (Sorry, Fourteen) Deadly Sins and Ten Commandments are so useful for people who are incapable of recognizing and respecting those limits without external help. That’s many, many more people than I’d personally like it to be, but it’s still not everyone.
Besides not being particularly deadly, they really are an anachronism.
Lust: Cynically, the basis for the multi-billion dollar beauty and fashion industries. Keeps seemingly intelligent people doing stupid things, and has done for centuries. (Do you think we could ask Eliot Spitzer about this one?)
Gluttony: Keeps restaurants in business? “All you can eat places”, anyway. Helped create a multi-million dollar cardiac care industry. And it provides the reason for the purchase of that LaZ-Boy recliner.
Greed: Wall St, the City, economic driver. Do I really need all that money my employer throws at me?
Sloth: Stop and smell the roses. Those who never stop, never see. (Not very cynical, I know.)
Wrath: Ooh, Eliot’s wife does look cross… The basis of entire legal systems. And maybe the driver for voter turnout in the forthcoming US elections.
Envy: Big economic driver; basis for the vast majority of car and flat screen TV ads. Or, more cynically, the biggest personal debt generator of all.
Pride: I’m quite proud of what my accomplishments.
Carolyn Ann
Oops – apparently I can’t take much pride in my proofreading. That last one should read “I’m quite proud of my accomplishments.”
Carolyn Ann
Some of these ought to be virtues now. Really, what would designers do if pride is out?
IMNSHO, I think there are concepts in the English language that are emotional. I think Greed is one:
Greed can be defined as ‘excessive desire’. But who judges when it is ‘excessive’? Greed is not something you would apply to yourself, it is something you apply to other people, to label and judge them. They are less than you, because they are ‘greedy’. And you do this, because you feel inferior to them. So you bring them down, back to size. Sounds a whole lot like tall poppy syndrome.
Greed: I must have more, never mind that there are others more deserving
Are we not divine creatures and thus therefore worthy and deserving? If you want something, then go for gold. Of course, that means someone else doesn’t get whatever it is (promotion, pay rise, the last wholemeal grain loaf of bread in the supermarket). Doesn’t mean you are unworthy or undeserving simply because you got it and they didn’t.
I have not been brought up with this concept of ‘greed’ nor do I use it. Life is better without it.
Eric Meier, just what are the fourteen deadly sins?
There are 8 deadly sins and they’re all delicious. I have proof
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garethfordwilliams/2330169609/
I feel no guilt on cold winter evenings.
G
Vic, the Vatican just recently issued a list of seven more mortal (deadly) sins, so now there are fourteen. If you’ve been engaged in any morally debatable experiments, for example, time to repent. Of course, much like with W3C specs, the exact definition of “morally debatable” was not supplied, so I guess it’s up to each user agent to decide what it means.
Unfortunately, the new list does not correspond well with either the “Gilligan’s Island” cast or the “Andy Griffith” cast, so there is no easy way to remember what the new sins are.
@Gareth Ford Williams where can i get some of those?
, but seriously, i’m craving chocolate right now… i haven’t had any for months!
Thank you Eric for the reminders on the list of sins. I didn’t have to go to confession today
The seven “social” sins are:
1. “Bioethical’ violations such as birth control
2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty
May I remind everyone that the Seven Deadly Sins don’t come from any Jewish or Christian writings? They’re from Dante’s A Divine Comedy.
I’ve always thought my two sins were gluttony and sloth. But maybe it’s just I choose the wrong foods and am not work-obsessed. Like right now, commenting on a blog, is that sloth? I’m not working, after all.
I think the biggest one that Jesus wouldn’t like is greed. He seemed to have big issues with the rich, not giving to the poor, etc. My ex was a Christian and he was all about getting to the top no matter what and making as much money as possible. I remember telling him that he has as much of a chance to get into Heaven as a camel has going through the eye of a needle, and he laughed at me. Sinning is the American way, I guess, and Americans, though primarily Christian, really have no idea what Christ’s message was.
Pride assumes that you were responsible. Was I responsible for having been born in the United States? Should I express my pride with arrogance and if not, then how?
A sperm entered an egg. What followed was a logical outcome of the combination of DNA and environmental factors, so why is pride deserved?
To embrace pride when things go right, I must then accept responsibility, and in doing so, it follows that I must embrace shame when things go wrong. If I embrace shame everytime something goes wrong, I’ll necessarily be subject to denial (self-deception) and won’t learn from my mistakes.
Given the choice of the pride/shame combo or truth, I prefer truth.
I really am impressed with the example many of our “stars” are setting. Change is in the air. Green is cool and so is sharing the wealth. As a baby boomer, I’m feeling very hopeful about the generations to come. There’s a return to caring about the earth, its inhabitants and peace on this planet.
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tification for not doing so must be legacy application support.
ication for not doing so must be legacy application support.
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