July 11, 2011
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What is a Sin?
A sin is breaking God’s law. But other than that what are sins?
Why are some acts called sins?Is sin just a arbitrary set of rules written in a book no one really reads?
Many people say they do not believe in sin at all. Of coerce they are wrong, they do believe in sin, even sociopaths believe in sin, but in their perversity they do not care and may even enjoy the worst of sins. A lot of sins are enjoyable, some are not, but all will hurt you or someone else.
So what are sins all about? If you do not believe in God what are sins in your eyes? And are your sins any different than traditional sins?
Short secularized definition of sin. Sin is anything that hurts yourself, or others, or the society at large.
Excluding the most important sin, because you may not believe in God, can you name one biblical sin that does not hurt yourself, or others, or the society at large.?
True or false. Everyone other than some who are mentally ill believes in sin, and for the most part we even agree what they are.
Comments (70)
i thought sin is a concept in religion… because it is related to punnishment.. it is not simply just “wrong-doings”, i think..
of course, because certain religion is like a big majority in certain region, the concepts, or at least words, from that particular religion tend to be used in more generalized term by the society..
Why is it that even toddlers get offended when someone steals something from them?
And liberals make hay to the max with the concepts of fairness, envy, discrimination and equality.
It is hard for me to separate the term sin from being an offense against ‘God.’ I know that is really not the subject, but I am brainwashed, I guess.
@ANVRSADDAY - then think in terms of why is God offended, he must have a reason? @maniacsicko -
I agree with what you said. I believe anything against God and people is a sin.
@LoBornlytesThoughtPalace - they are offended because the definition of sin is set in our hearts and only needs to be directed. we know that sin exists from birth. And with liberals they they often say they do not believe in sin I find they make up more rules than anyone else
@trunthepaige - wait, your comment to me is in invisible ink or something?
Eating Shellfish? Throwing a football around? Being around a woman on the rag? (never mind scratch the last one)
@tendollar4ways - Most of those are rules for priests and there is nothing wrong with playing even on the sabbath, not sin. Eating shellfish is fatal a few time every year, if you do not have the ability to test for toxins which no one did back them. They are yummy but they will kill you.
@trunthepaige - Huh? Me tinks you make this stuff up as you go. So only preists need to be killed if they are gay otherwise knock yourself out?
@tendollar4ways - No your biblical ignorance is showing. Sodomy will also kill you without antibiotics.
According to the Catholic Church it’s a sin if you don’t show up to church on Sunday…. just a fun fact I thought.
What sins do I think are harmless? Eh, not sure, varies from person to person and how deeply they get into the “sin”. Premartial sex is a harmless sin for ME, because it’s not hurting anyone, no one’s getting sick, and it’s not harming society. And I think gay marriage is a harmless sin as well. Two people who want to be monogamous and faithful (regardless of gender) isn’t a horrible thing in my eyes.
@tgwiy - Church s get into of trouble when they start making it up
As to your familial relationships do you think any of them are good for the society you live in? with your society carry on with a significant part of it doing this? It takes 2.3 children per couple well raised for a population to stay stable
Sin = summer and not making the time to go fishing!
Sail on… sail on!!!
@trunthepaige - Canada’s allowed gay marriage to be legal for over 6 years now, and I think we’re a pretty stable country both in terms of the economy and mentality. It’s not like gay people make up 60% of the country, they’re a small %age, and there’s still a whole ton of hetero couples who have more than 2.3 children making up for the gay people and the hetero couples who don’t want or can’t have children. If you look at our demographics, we’re still a growing country. And besides, gay couples can adopt the children who are abandoned by the straights and raise them in a good loving home, as opposed to the child bouncing around from foster home to foster home. Which I personally see as a plus.
In terms of premarital sex, I can see how it would be a problem if you were sleeping with a different person every night. The chances of getting a disease are hugely increased. And I can see how this would be an important point however many thousand years ago when medical practices were less than effective. In my personal experience, I don’t think me sleeping with my boyfriend of 4 years is seriously detrimental to society in any way. We act like a married couple in almost all ways, except we don’t have the rings, we haven’t exchanged vows and we don’t have the papers.
Well “sin” is just the act of “turning away from God.” And that’s different for a lot of people.
Non-religious do not call wrong-doing, “sin”; they would just call it immoral. But much like religious people that can be different for every person as well.
A socio-path doesn’t see their actions as wrong even if they are hurting someone; more often than not they will justify their actions.
@tgwiy - The demographics say Canada will not be Canadian all that long. You are being replaced by people not holding to those values. Just facts
@trunthepaige - You mean immigrants? Or that Canada is being “Americanized”?
@AmeliaHart - in interviews sociopaths know its wrong they feel no guilt about it. Which goes to the point that morales have nothing to do with feelings. You can know its evil and enjoy it
@tgwiy - immigrants mostly not the immigration but the reproduction after that fact.
@dreadpirate - OK got me there
it’s just doing the wrong thing, some call it sin, and some just call it doing the wrong thing, and your right most sane people know what that is.
@trunthepaige - You might be right. I went to school with a lot of children of immigrants, and work with quite a few as well, and they seemed pretty accepting of the whole “gay people can marry” and related issues from previous posts, even if their parents aren’t. I mean, that’s obviously not the case for EVERYONE, but I’m not necessarily too worried about same sex couples losing the ability to marry here in Canada.
Even my very Catholic friend is like “I don’t agree with gay marriage, here is why the church doesn’t think gay people should marry, but I understand not everyone shares my beliefs so whatever.”
I think youth these days are becoming more and more indifferent. It’s just a trend I see in BC. The more conservative provinces (Alberta and the far East coast provinces for example) I could see people being more traditional and not open to the issues I mentioned before. But they’ve also got a lower rate of immigration.
Only time will tell I suppose. But I’m not too worried.
@NewDog2 - You got it
@tgwiy - no you would not be worried, the big change is not going to effect you personally other than your culture and bloodline dying out. But you will not see that. But you can see why a culture might call things that will kill it off sin.
@trunthepaige - So the Bible is cool with Gay Blowjobs?
This is what God told me sin was while he ate my heart.
God said the answer is within
The children’s crying dreams
Misaligned, devil’s details
In their lies of ability “to”
In their imperfecton hue
In their wayward sayings
In justification’s hanging
In their wayward criss-cross
Cadence that sings cries, lie
The blackened heart sins
The good heart trapped within
As if, good, bad are perception, no
That was a clever rhyme for time
Everything in this desired alibi
It’s either right or wrong, strong
In the ancient singing song
You have no choice but to do
Until our punishment is through:
“To love,” believe in air.
As if that could care, oh, careless.
I got another one…”Kill the Unbeleiver”.
I for one can attest that this would hurt me. Even from you guys standpoint. What if I were to find Jesus in a few years and you guys kill me today?
@tendollar4ways - That would suck but we are talking about sin not legal penalties
@tendollar4ways - Not somnthing I seen in the bible, but I have not ever heard of gay guys not butt fucking so whats the point
@trunthepaige - You are right. My bad. That would hurt everyone involved very bad example.
@trunthepaige - I don’t see how gay marriage or premarital sex would kill off my blood line. If for any reason, my (direct) blood line will die out because I don’t want to have children.
As for my “culture” it’s apparently a bad thing to be proud to be white anyway, and Canada is being Americanized daily and that’s not even a huge shift from our “culture” in the first place.
I really think Canada and America are too young to have any real culture anyway (compared to say China who has 4000+ years of recorded culture, or England which has 2000+ years of recorded culture). I think we’re just by-products of being a melting pot of culture.
@tgwiy - All well and good but you can se the these practices are not the path to genetic success or cultural
@tendollar4ways - the perceived evils of God would be a fine subject another day
@trunthepaige - You’re right, they’re not, but they’re also not the majority of the population so I don’t see how it’s a major deal. They’ll never be the majority.
If we’re worried about our bloodlines surviving, perhaps adoption is a sin as well, regardless of who the adopting parents are. The child is not made from you. You’re just looking after it. You’re not reproducing.
I think we put too much emphasis on our blood lines. I’d be perfectly happy to adopt children.
EDIT: I also still don’t see how my specific case of not-being-married-yet-still-having-sex would have any effect on society or my bloodline/culture either.
@trunthepaige - Damn, almost forgot…Wearing clothing made of two different types of Cloth?
@tendollar4ways - You could get a rash!
@tgwiy - Yea that is about it. Theists like these rigged games that they cannot lose. Why they are so insecure in their religion is beyond…..no wait a minute. There insecurity makes a whole lotta sense cuz it is Soooo preposterous.
sin is simply rebellious offensive in word, thought, and deed towards God… and it affects people…
but let’s be clear… sinning towards ppl in light of God must also be objective… a vegan would say i’m sinning against them because i eat spareribs and smoked brisket… and we all know God isn’t offended by my meat consumption but a vegan would be offended… is that sin?
i say no… a vegan on the other hand…
isn’t Seattle built upon the religion of recycling? so a non-recycler would be sinning against those who a proponents of said recycling lifestyle… so…
One of your favourite argument techniques seems to be “everybody believes [x] and everybody who doesn’t is a sociopath/mentally ill/etc”. I have to say, this annoys me. It’s baseless and serves no purpose other than to try and backhand anybody who disagrees with you.
To me, “sin” is an action performed against your ethical belief. To an extreme case, a psychopath knows what he’s doing is wrong and may still enjoy it. He knows it’s a sin, but he doesn’t care. Ethics is taught everywhere from family education, from experience, and/or from literature of the Divine. People don’t have to believe in the Divine to acknowledge the notion of “sins”, or at least they shouldn’t.
@trunthepaige - Oh yes they acknowledge that society sees it as wrong but they themselves may or may not justify it with their own twisted logic. Most definitely we cannot depend morals upon just feelings. I mean it feels good to eat a lot of cake but it isn’t good to do so lol.
Jesus taught that there are two commands, upon which, the entire Bible hang. 1. Love the Lord God with all the heart, intellect, physical ability and strength. 2. Love your neighbor as you (already) love yourself.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Galatians 5:1 No matter how great the wrong or sin,
God is more powerful. For the Christian wrong doing is not the focus. The focus is God’s power to utterly overcome sin and bondage to it.
@tgwiy - no it not a sin its a law in a Jewish state. the old testament has sections on rules for priests laws for their state and then it has basic human morality and crimes against god (sins)
@NikBv - Ok where am I wrong? if I am not them your assertion is baseless
@Such_are_you - Yeah that is the end all
@tendollar4ways - rigged as in I am right and you are out of things to say
@trunthepaige - I asked you about the clothing sin…you said nothing. I will answer for you…it pisses off God which is bad. You can never lose. It is a rigged game…much like 3 card Monte.
I don’t believe in sin.
@trunthepaige - Right, ok.
You use the word sociopath a LOT. A quick google search brings up the following people who you disagree with, and who therefore are sociopaths:
People who are pro-choice but don’t always agree with abortions
http://trunthepaige.xanga.com/731445389/ugly-ugly-truth/
Promiscuous men (jerks and womanisers)
http://trunthepaige.xanga.com/741451791/jerks-and-girls/
Someone who doesn’t feel love the same way you do
http://trunthepaige.xanga.com/720448649/the-question-of-desire/
Same with mentally ill. You use that a LOT too, for people who disagree with you. Once again, thanks to google, you’ve called all the following people mentally ill:
Animal-rights supporters
http://trunthepaige.xanga.com/707946662/animal-rights–mental-illness/
mental health professionals…
http://trunthepaige.xanga.com/735343559/dudes-youre-not-all-sick/
and democrats…
http://trunthepaige.xanga.com/649051346/half-of-us-are-simply-nuts/
I’m sure you were being somewhat facetious in some of these, but nevertheless, you do seem to present an alarming tendency to call those who disagree with you… insane in some way. That doesn’t sound particularly rational to me. You prove to me that all those claims are accurate ones, that all those groups actually are sociopaths or mentally ill, and I’ll rescind my comment.
@tendollar4ways - Sorry i left the answer with another than not you her the repeat for you “no it not a sin its a law in a Jewish state.
the old testament has sections on rules for priests laws for their state
and then it has basic human morality and crimes against god (sins)”
@NikBv - I said prove me wrong not make a list of subjects were I am right.
@trunthepaige - … right Paige. You’re completely right. All those people are insane.
@filthyminds - SO nothing in your eyes is inherently evil?
@NikBv - Seriously you need to make a point address the subject, and maybe they are all insane you need to make a case. Prove me wrong on this subject
@trunthepaige - Fine. Let’s look at sin, then. For the most part, the definition of that word (except in the common vernacular – it’s a sin to wear white after labor day?) is intimately tied in with religion. A sin is something that transgresses a divine law or a religious precept. By that very definition, secular people would not find much use in the definition of sin. That doesn’t make them sociopaths.
Your secularized definition of sin can also be dismissed. If one were to substitute either public law or general societal morals for religiously defined laws, then a sin would be something that contradicts that. That isn’t automatically “Sin is anything that hurts yourself, or others, or the society at large.” – society has nothing against hurting others in some contexts… wars and the killing of the “enemy” is perfectly sanctioned both by general societal understandings of morality, and by societal laws. Thus, it isn’t a secular “sin”.
As for your final question about biblical sins, I haven’t the foggiest idea, and I really couldn’t care less. That’s for biblical scholars to debate. The point here is, no, Paige, a person isn’t a sociopath for not recognising religious sins, and secular “sins” don’t always conveniently line up with your religious laws.
Huh?
Deuteronomy 22:11 “Thou shalt not wear a garment that is woven of woollen and linen together”(Scratches head as I try to read anything about preists and their laws?)
Doesn’t it pisses God off and you don’t wanna piss God off thus its a sin work just as well?
Sin is such a culturally biased concept I have to say I don’t know if it is true or false. After all, mental illness is culturally biased too.
@NikBv - I AGREE WITH YOU AND PAIGE BOTH YOU GUYS SO SMURT
You need a course in crititcal analysis. You’re confusing sins with wrong-doings. There is a big difference. I may not believe in a god and so I am not “sinning” against a god. But I will still believe in wrong-doings.
A sin (according to the Bible) that doesn’t hurt another? Many, many of the Jewish commandments like turning on the lights or stoves on the Sabbath are considered sins against some crazy god, but don’t hurt anyone.
And there are many commandments by a crazy god that are wrong-doings like stoning disobedient children as commanded by a lunatic god in the Old Testatment. Just because it’s a commandment by some god, doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong.
everything in life is a choice. when we KNOW the “right” thing to do and we choose something else – it is sin.
It’s not anywhere near a good comparrison,but with our limited minds this is a shot at what the utter sinfulness of sin looks like compared to God’s Holiness.
get the brightest whitest light man could ever get and then dip a sheet in a 100 year old septic tank that has never been cleaned out and hold the sheet up next to the light.Again,you can’t really describe the awfulness of sin and completely grasp how nasty it is or we would run from it if we TRULLY saw it for what it is.
Drawing and showing a picture of god.
Christ told Peter to call nothing unclean, said that the law of God is love and everything else is the commandments of men. So sin would be an action committed without love, an action committed from fear and guilt, forcing your will on someone else or manipulating situations in ways that, if the ignorant parties knew, they would be aware they were violated. Noticed someone said sin is the act of turning away from God. “If a man say ‘I love God’ and hate his brother, he is a liar” according to John. Aseph in Psalm 82 said ‘Ye are Elohim’ or the gods and Jesus Christ quoted this as well in the temple and God being love, I would have to agree that sin is an act of turning against God. And yourself.
LOL Honey you are so confused!
From a secular standpoint I have to say that I find the word “sin” useless. It holds a religious context that has no meaning to me, as I find every premise upon which it leans to be questionable.
From the standpoint of a socially functional sociopath, I find your use of the word clumsy and irresponsible. Sociopathy requires only that one does not have the cognitive response for empathy. We are not automatically “evil” people; that is determined by action.
I have friends, eat fast food, laugh at jokes, go to work and pay taxes like anyone else. I adhere to the law wherever possible and respect the dignity and safety of others. The only difference between you and I, is that I am not compelled by my brain chemistry to treat others kindly – I consciously decide to.
“Sin” is a religious word which makes no sense in a secular setting. I disagree with your definition of it as “anything that hurts yourself, others, or the society at large”. Growing up in a secular setting, i’ve never heard of the word being used that way. We already have a word for something that “hurts yourself, others, or the society at large”. That word is “harmful”, and it’s better for a secular context. If we feel like using a word that adds a moral judgement to an action or behavior, we use the words “immoral”, “wrong”, or “unethical”. Those words don’t have the religious/ supernatural connotation that “sin” does.
You’re making two major errors.
1) Equating “sin” with wrong doing.
2) Equating anything that hurts oneself, others, or society with wrongdoing.
I teach children’s Bible clubs during summer and we define sin as anything you think, say, or do that breaks God’s laws. But there’s also things we don’t do that’s sin (“Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doesth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17).
i wouldn’t necessarily call it “sin” but there are some things that are immoral.
murder and stealing and rape are “sins” but they’re just immoral and wrong to me.
i don’t think jealousy is a “sin” or immoral, and i think it’s mainly things that hurt others and society. you are free to make your own mistakes and hurt yourself as long as you don’t infringe on others’ happiness. you shouldn’t want to hurt yourself, and should want to correct flaws in yourself that can be corrected, but you’re free to.
Going by what the Bible lists as sin, it makes perfect sense. God made certain things sin to protect us. Pork was outlawed for awhile because they did not have the knowledge to cook it properly and thus many would have died of illness. But when we were able to cook it correctly, He lifted that ban in the New Testament. Murder is sin to keep us from hurting others. Gluttony is sin to keep us from getting sick from overeating and not taking away food that could have fed someone else. That is how it works. There is a rational reason behind everything the Bible lays out as sin.