Sin
Sin is an act violating a deity’s will. Sin has no real meaning for unbelievers. Good and evil or right and wrong for individuals and between individuals are the human standards of morality. Violations and crimes are defined by humanity. Crimes against the will of an unproven deity aren't crimes unless you share the same beliefs. Sin should have no standing or consideration in a secular government since it’s unique to each religion.Many religions proclaim people are sinners or evil at heart instead of believing we’re inherently good or neutral. That would mean we’re created with a default desire to violate a supposed deity’s will. This belief is followed by the solution of the deity guiding us and forgiving us for following our naturally evil instincts. We’re just asked to follow the deity without question. The catch to getting that forgiveness is we must follow the religious teachings of their religious leaders since we can’t be trusted to think for ourselves and few people are qualified to communicate directly with the deity. People are sold on the fact the common person can’t determine what the deity thinks is a sin and can’t directly gain forgiveness for themselves.
Think: Can you make a better country by taking any one religious text and replacing the laws of a country with the defined sins and punishments of that religion?
Another problem with sin is with anything we might normally think is moral can be considered sin. Likewise, the supposed good will of a deity can include actions humans view as immoral. Religious teachings include many atrocities presented as God’s will including killing, genocide, and rape. It would be sinful to not commit these atrocities if a god willed you to do so even if our personal standards consider them immoral. Because of this, I’m certain it isn’t superior to take our definition of wrong from religious sins. There isn’t an absolute morality clearly defining a gold standard based on a supposed higher intelligence. I continue to see the benefits of using human morality defined by the specific people involved in each situation.
Seven Deadly Sins
A Christian view of ethics defines a set of thought crimes they claim to be the seven deadly sins. This ultimate list of the most evil emotions has seven virtues to counter them and guide Christian lives. Here’s their list for being emotionally right:
Vice : Virtue
Lust : Chastity
Gluttony : Temperance
Greed : Charity
Sloth : Diligence
Wrath : Patience
Envy : Kindness
Pride : Humility
Religions oversimplify their guidance and it’s usually easy to see huge flaws in their sales pitches when you have a mind no longer clouded by blind faith. Hidden underneath this obvious attempt at controlling human behavior are some of our most basic emotions. These real emotions are as much a part of our humanity as the molecules which make up our bodies. Where are love, laughter, and overall happiness in this scheme? Where’s the healthy fear of dangerous situations kicking in for the self-preservation and continuation of our species? Where’s the positive side of feeling anger at perceived injustices driving us to act in defense of others?
I can look at this list and see some right in the vices and wrong in the virtues because emotions aren’t this simple. Would it really be bad if my desire for another is on the lustful end of the spectrum? Unleashing wrath against someone screwing over some people usually improves the situation from society’s perspective. The religious didn’t unwaveringly stick to patience in World War II. Too much charity can promote dependency on the givers which isn’t a virtuous situation in the long term. The caregiver could abuse people’s dependency. The real motivation for religions to promote charity may be to build that dependency to their group. The thought crosses my mind every time I see religions spreading their message through charitable acts.
Think: Are our emotions simplistic, clear, and individually identifiable?
Christian sins and virtues try to tell us how much of an emotion we should have and the right way to experience them. Emotions aren’t this simple and the main flaw here is thinking they come from some higher order act of creation instead of our most basic biology. Ekman’s list of six basic emotions is anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. A newer classification from Plutchik lists eight primary bipolar emotions which blend into additional emotions on a wheel of emotions: joy versus sadness; anger versus fear; trust versus disgust; and surprise versus anticipation.
Love and awe are emotions built from the more basic animal emotions I see every day in my cat. You would think our most basic desire is to keep experiencing good emotions and avoid the bad ones. However, doesn’t it sometimes feel good in our core to experience some of the generally bad emotions? We do seek out the excitement of fear and sometimes find humor in disgust when you consider Halloween. I find good and bad in each emotion depending on the situations I experience them in and considering the full spectrum of human emotions.
The seven deadly sins aren’t deadly and they aren’t as clearly negative as the label of sin might suggest. The same holds true for the supposed virtues. Our emotions are complex and we each have to struggle with how we feel them and what we do with those feelings. The only thing I know is each emotion isn’t permanent as they come and go. We can change how we feel and how they impact our overall moods because what we do impacts which emotions we encounter. Love and joy can be emotions we choose to build up in ourselves from our more basic emotions with all of the choices we make. Happiness has nothing to do with religions and gods and has everything to do with what we do with our own minds and bodies.
I may not know exactly how or why all of existence came to be, but it’s fairly obvious from my observations that we’re naturally emotional creatures lacking any specific natural disposition for our emotions. Agnosticism should lead us to question the guidance and motives of anybody claiming special knowledge of our creation as sinners or claiming religious beliefs provide the only recipe for becoming virtuous.
We Are Not Sinners
Sinners and everyone’s evil ways are generally the exception and not the rule in the world. We aren’t 100% good, but I do believe we’re mostly good on average. Religious people tend to believe we couldn’t have a decent and civil society without a deity to keep us in line. Some actually believe the word of a deity created our systems of government and laws.Tribes of humans came before organized religions and they did fine without Christianity, Sharia law, or any other religious dogma. Native Americans worshiped their ancestors and gods of nature. They weren’t lawless savages lacking ethics or the basics of morality. There are many other groups from the past and present which have done just fine without a mainstream religion in their lives. Religions have no mention of democracy or any hint the will of the people has any place under the will of God. Humanity was able to establish rules and laws to develop peaceful tribes growing into larger societies and countries without the benefit of the almighty word of a deity as our master.
Think: Japan is one of the most peaceful and safest countries today and is predominantly secular with only a quarter believing in religion. About one percent of Japan is Christian and Christianity makes up only one-third of the planet’s belief.
If we were all truly sinners and our basic instinct was evil, then a claim that the Christian God is the only way to overcome our true nature would mean two-thirds of the planet should be destroying itself at this very moment. Do you really think Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and atheists are all destroying themselves because they’re evil sinners without the right deity to guide them? Some radicals may make the news, but they’re a select few out of the billions making up the non-Christian world majority doing just fine. Each religion tends to overlook the radicals among them and their mentally unstable followers killing a few random people. I could easily provide stories from every belief to compare but it wouldn’t be proof any one religion is comprised of evil sinners hell-bent on killing everyone else. The same type of reasoning shouldn’t be used against other religions.
Any religion continuing to tell us we’re all a bunch of evil sinners in need of a deity to be good denies what we’ve become as a human race. If we were evil creatures then the world would be a terrible place as most of us are unable or unwilling to overcome such a basic instinct. If one-third of the world has the one true religion then it exists in contrast with the rest of the world. The true religion part of the world would be the only civilized society protecting itself from the completely evil savages surrounding them.
Go out and see the world with all of the various religions and lack of religions and you’ll see for yourself the real nature of humanity isn’t sinful. I’ve traveled the world and seen other people completely different from my predominately Christian American society. Overall, humanity is good and is fully capable of love and peace regardless of our beliefs.
Judgment
Many religions teach us we won’t be judged for our sins if we accept God, Jesus, or some other deity as our master. Society and governments operate based on judgment, condemnation, and punishment for our crimes instead of forgiveness. If we operated our governments the same way as our religions then all punishments and accountability for wrongdoing could be avoided by the citizens if they simply beg the authorities for forgiveness. I can see the appeal of only being held to a religious legal system if the only consequence for breaking the law might be going in front of a judge to apologize for your sins and beg for forgiveness.Think: What is the purpose of defining religious sins or crimes if judgment and punishments are avoidable by believing in a deity and asking for forgiveness in accordance the religion?
If an all-powerful and judgmental deity always forgives us for our sins in reward for our faith then is the deity actually judgmental of our actions? Do those deities really only care about our faith and worship? There is no true consequence for sin under such a master. I prefer to be held to the standards of right and wrong defined by human societies which don’t forgive every transgression when we claim a belief and worship for their authority. If the only judgment we’re punished for is our disbelief and the punishment for disbelief is eternal damnation, then why is it a believable threat and standard for the truly unforgivable evils?
Punishment
My first thought and basic impulse in any situation isn’t lying, cheating, stealing, and defrauding my way through life. Nobody's perfect, but do we really need religion to tell us to be good? I seriously question how many people actually think it’s a great idea to steal and murder until they read it in a holy book that they shouldn’t. Those ideas of sin and wrongdoing aren’t unique concepts people didn’t understand until they see it written in a book. I know our actual standards of conduct come from humanity since I know humans wrote those books without divine inspiration.People shouldn’t need the fear of a deity to keep them in line. If fear and devotion to a religion is what's really needed to be good, then there wouldn’t be religious leaders committing crimes against humanity. I can’t imagine a deity allowing such things as pedophile priests to exist if there really were punishments for our sins. These religious leaders are supposedly closer to their deity than the average person and should really know the eternal consequences of their sins. However, there is nothing about religion stopping them or effectively punishing them in this life to prevent them from doing such things again. Instead, religions offer them unconditional forgiveness in this life. They can just do it again and again since they know forgiveness is so easy to get. Religion can contribute to the existence of repeat offenders because of the unconditional forgiveness provided by religious belief. The laws and punishments of human societies more effectively deal with repeated crimes against humanity. Punishments are a more effective deterrent than guaranteed forgiveness.
Freedom from Sin
Many religions promote the idea we’re all evil so they can sell us their brand of salvation from our sinning ways. If they really preached what I believe concerning the general goodness of our human nature then they wouldn’t have guilt as a control over our minds. I truly believe most of us are good and loving people at our core. Why else would we have the instinct to care for our offspring and families? Why else would we not feel a common bond to our fellow humans and lend a hand to a total stranger? I don’t need religion to tell me these things are good for me and for us as families and societies. My first instinct isn’t to kick a person when they’re down or take advantage of someone who’s disadvantaged. Is that really the first instinct of religious people only held check by their god?Overall, I may have more hope and faith in humanity than the average religious person does. I don’t believe we are sinners at heart since I believe humanity is inherently good. Even though I believe most people are good, I do realize not everyone decides to live that way. There are some truly evil people at their core living among us. Additionally, a good person believing everyone else is evil and full of sin might not feel guilty about doing bad things to those people they judge to be evil. Even the most devout religious person can rationalize doing bad things in the context of dealing with people they’ve personally condemned as evil. I’ve never met a person with a truly absolute morality who didn’t adjust their actions to the situation.
Being free from the concept of sin defined by a deity allows us to adjust our morality to the situation instead of blindly following a very limited set of primitive guidance. This is what we already do every day with the choices we make based on the fear of judgment from humanity for our wrongdoings.
The true freedom from the concept of sin comes from being able to determine right and wrong without the confusion of trying to apply ancient texts to every situation with the empty threat of punishments which never occur. The price of forgiveness is unacceptably low for any sins including the worst imaginable ones. Easy forgiveness probably increases the amount of sin being done instead of discouraging it.
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