Thursday, October 16, 2008

Listing the Seven Deadly Sins

In the bible, there are seven sins described as mortal to one's soul. I know every sin is bad and will result in you going to hell if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your savior, but the seven main ones will prevent you from ever connecting with Jesus in a spiritual relationship.

Lust--Overwhelming sexual desire and pre-occupation. By letting your sex drive control your behavior and thoughts, you are not able to focus on building a moral or productive life.

Gluttony--Consuming more than you need. Usually taken to mean eating too much, but this sin can force you into always needing more and more stuff rather than living within your means. Moderation of anything helps you enjoy it more and live a healthier life.

Greed--Life gluttony, this sin causes people to make money or horde resources at the expense of others. It is deadly in that if you are greedy, you will never trust others or share your success with anyone. It leads to an isolated life far from developing your spiritual self.

Sloth--This has different meanings, but generally means being lazy and unproductive. By being unproductive and not contributing anything to society, you are wasting your life. Many times, this is done out of hopelessness and despair and inability to feel you can make a difference during your blessed time on earth. People are put here for a reason, so it has to be a mortal sin to waste the time you have been given.

Wrath--This is anger and inability to moderate one's behavior. If you can't control your behaviors, it can lead to fights, killings, prejudices and other manifestations. By hurting others, people keep themselves and others from living productive and meaningful lives.

Envy--This sin involves resenting others for things they, themselves, are perceived to lack. This is a deadly sin in that it keeps people from finding ways to actually attain the things they lack. They blame others and want to deprive others of the things the jealous person does not have. By blaming the person with things you don't have, you are not living your own life. This sin leads to theft, justification of illegal behavior, class warfare and such.

Pride--This is apparently the worst of the sins and pride leads to each of the other sins. Pride can be a good thing, as most things in moderation. Taking pride in one's hard work is a great attribute. However, pride becomes a sin when one tears others down just so they can rise up. By creating excessive "love of one's self," a person is prevented from loving his neighbors and finding ways to be productive with the time he or she is given. The Bible even states very clearly that people are to hold no idols above God and that most clearly means do not have so much pride as to hold yourself above God. We serve Him like we serve our fellow man.

These are the sins we shall discuss in this forum. We shall approach the discussion from the point of view of how these sins are prevalent in our society and how they are causing decay of our great nation. I will generally discuss this topic from a non-religious side to show the Bible and God's Plan doesn't necessarily have to be a religious belief, but a solid common sense plan. People who don't believe in a Supreme Being are constantly turned off by being forced to believe something they cannot see.

The Seven Deadly Sins can be thought of as Seven Important Things to Avoid As A Strong Society. The best part of the Bible is that it is a collection of really good ways to live a meaningful and productive life along with following this good guy named Jesus as he teaches you how to live right. Supreme Being or not, people can learn a lot of religious studies and apply lessons in moderation. The Bible can be considered one of the original "Self Help" books.

Please contribute all you can in comments and if you have some good insights, I would consider having partners post with me. I do not know the Bible inside and out, am fairly socially liberal and might not have all the answers you would expect in a blog such as this. I will do my best to be a good Christian and a good American and let God decide where I go from here.