Hieronymus Bosch's (disputed) The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things (Circa 1500; Oil on wood; Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Here's a question? If you do not believe in a God(s) is sin relevant?
As a Roman Catholic, I am well-aware of sin. And as it is now Lent (and an election year) I'm even more aware of it.
Regardless of how one sees a higher power (or doesn't see one) does the spirit of sin still carry through as an ethical constraint, even if one does not subscribe to the dogmatic law of divine retribution?
I think its a valuable question to consider, especially in light of prevailing moral relativism, and unfolding current events. Have Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth (the seven deadly sins) dominated our response to governance, politics and crises?
If one steps back and looks objectively at public policy and personal behavior of late, it's not hard to see it's loaded to the gills with these Seven Deadly Sins. Legislation and executive prerogatives have become ensnared in webs of Pride and Envy. Laws are drawn with equal measures of Greed, Lust, and Wrath. The general public is easily placated with promises enabling both Gluttony and Sloth. Its enough to make a Middle-Ages monk giddy!
But rather than even acknowledging that there are ethical benefits as a society, of not letting our egos outweigh our reason, current thought seems to run in the opposite direction. It is as if we have freed ourselves from some mystical entity that makes libertine behavior not only acceptable, but honorable.
In the Judaeo-Christian-Muslim concept of God-- we are in the image of our creator. Whether we believe in this creator or not, the concept that we (as a society) are a higher power in-and-of-ourselves, should be reason enough not to chuck the concept of sin onto the ash-heap of civilization. To do so (in my opinion) would be very deadly indeed.
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