Essay: The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins is an essay by Leo in which he analyses the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, adding his blasphemous and probably heretical commentary along the way.
It is my belief that much of Western culture is blighted by the pernicious teachings of the early Christian church, whose legacy is easily perceived in modern society, in particular with regard to the seven so-called "deadly" or "mortal" sins. Each of these I feel should be viewed as either harmless or positively moral. They are as follows:
1. Luxuria . Let us pretend that this does in fact, as is claimed, mean "Lust". The most blindingly obvious point to make about this integral human characteristic is that without it the human race would not have survived this far. Second, it is typical of religion to suppress this most basic urge as a form of control. We see it now with censorship and the demonisation of sex. This links in with the guilt that many adolescents attach to the act of masturbation: that it is felt that teenagers need to be "protected" from sexual imagery is utterly laughable. The idea that the desire for sexual release can end you up in hell is, thankfully, an untrue proposition.
2. Gula . "Gluttony". Many of you will already know my opinions on this esteemed virtue.
3. Avaritia . This is rather vaguely translated as "Greed", but let us not assume that it refers to the hoarding of money, a practice of which I as a Socialist heartily disapprove (while that can be the result of Avaritia, in the same way as rape can be a result of Luxuria, that is no reason to condemn it as a trait). Rather, Aquinas defines it for us as "condemn[ing] things eternal for the sake of temporal things" In other words, realising that there is not life after death and trying to live the one life we have comfortably. This relates to the preposterous injunction by Jesus to "Take therefore no thought for the morrow" (Matthew 6:34), and the slightly less famous and vastly less ambiguous earlier verses: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on… Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." (ibid. 6:25-6) It is therefore a mortal sin to "gather into barns" because apparently one is supposed to wait for the proverbial silver platter.
4. Acedia . Another of my favourite virtues, "Sloth" : I hope you’ll forgive me if I wax Marxist on this one. Clearly a device to control the masses by keeping them busy so that they don’t organise or, what’s worse, educate themselves, the Church attaches a punishment of eternal damnation to the concept of rest. While it is the Marxist vision to be emancipated from toil, so that man can cease to be alienated from his humanity, this doctrine has the obvious intent of keeping the worker at the level of chattel. That is, however, only one interpretation. To go back to Aquinas, Acedia can be defined as "uneasiness of the mind", which sounds rather Orwellian to me, as does Dante’s interpretation as "failure to love God with all one’s heart, all one’s mind and all one’s soul". One final alternative is that it refers to the failure to fulfill one’s potential through laziness, although if that is the case then all are guilty of it, and either way it certainly isn’t deserving of eternal damnation. I would argue that whichever one of these you subscribe to, this "sin" is inexcusable.
5. Ira . Wrath. What exactly is wrong with being angry? This is another result of another ridiculous Christian tenet: that of "resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5:39), and the even more immoral "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (ibid. 5:44). This is unmitigated nonsense, undermines all sense of morality and justice and again makes a mortal sin out of the natural instinct of a creature supposedly created in the image of God. Persecution and oppression should be met with not just anger, but with outrage and preventative action.
6. Invidia . "Jealousy" is a pejorative semantic rendering of the admirable and commendable human desire to better one’s conditions. What Aquinas dubbed "sorrow for another’s good" could more accurately be described as sorrow for one’s one lack of another’s good. If one is envious of someone, then that is because he and that person are not equal, and thereby assigning a punishment of eternal damnation to the struggle to raise oneself to that level is malevolent and immoral. If everyone did refrain from Invidia, there would have been no Civil Rights movement, no Reform Acts, no abolition of slavery, no welfare state and certainly no human race. It is no crime to want better, and it is certainly no sin. And while you’re at it, why not covet your neighbour’s wife? What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
7. Superbia . "Pride". It is apparently a mortal sin and, significantly, the punishment Dante ascribes to it is supposed to induce humility. Again, this faux virtue of humility is clearly intended to keep the masses in their place, and echoes the servility and masochism that is inherent in the Christian faith. Not only may one not try to better himself or herself, as we have seen, but they may not even take pride in their state of being. That’s right: you will burn in hell forever for the grievous offence of self-esteem. If you achieve something, it should not be verboten to take pride in that achievement. It is yet another indication of the Church’s attempt to turn its adherents into a flock in as literal a sense as possible.
In conclusion, while I have spoken about the individual "sins", there is one common factor that I would like to mention in closing that I find to be particularly telling. All of these are, to pseudo-coin a phrase, thoughtsins. In none of these cases does one need to supersede the mental stage to merit eternal damnation. Moreover, every single one is a natural human reaction. This list calls strongly to mind Greville’s pithy summary: "Created sick, commanded to be Sound?"
It is my hope that some day soon we will fulfill the promise of the last Enlightenment and fully cast of the stigma attached to these characteristics as cancerous remainders of a defunct Christian theology. We ought to embrace them as valuable, if not essential, components of our humanity, and stop apologising for them.
