[RxForMoreCowbell]

Thanks so much for posting this. I’ve long had an issue with the seven deadly sins. As a skeptic, I don’t agree that there as such a thing as “sin” but I do see how this concept is at least related to immoral/unethical acts, and so I will analyze the list as such.

Sloth and Gluttony I don’t have much interesting to say about, besides that no one seems to follow either very well.

Greed in my opinion is morally neutral. I define greed as wanting something for your own satisfaction, not the acts taken to get those things you want. Nothing in this view of greed is intrinsically right or wrong. If you do immoral acts to get something you want, it is the immoral acts that were your flaws, not the original wanting. Furthermore I often hear that a little greed is ok, but once it becomes excessive it is immoral. I consider this nonsense. Even assuming we all agree on what point we cross from a small amount of greed to a good amount of greed to an excessive amount, what is the harm caused by people who have the excessive amount of greed? There need not be any harm at all really. It seems to me when most people say “greed is bad” what they mean is “breaking your own ethical code to get things you want is bad”. In this case I say the compromising of your own code is the issue, not the greed.

Lust is also morally neutral. Like greed, I view lust as something that isn’t really a choice. If you feel lust, you feel lust. Furthermore, I feel acting on lust is not necessarily wrong. If you lust another person, and they feel that lust for you and you act on it, both being single with no one to hurt, there’s no harm that has been done. Acting on lust is only wrong if you break a promise to another by doing so. If you are married and act on lust towards another woman, it is the lie, the breaking of your vow that is the immoral act, not the lust.

Pride in my opinion can be wrong when it is excessive, but only to the same extent that it’s polar opposite is wrong. Pride is wrong when it is excessive to the point of deluding oneself from reality. Believing you are capable, or even the best at something is not a flaw if you are right. It is only when you overestimate your abilities that a positive opinion of yourself can harm you. So hubris can be seen as bad, not all pride is bad. In addition low self-esteem is equally immoral to hubris. Not believing in your abilities can cause as much harm as believing in abilities you don’t have.

Anger I agree is immoral. Like lust, I think to a large extent you cannot control whether you feel anger or not. Unlike lust, I believe it is always harmful to act out on the anger you feel, and therefore acting on anger is wrong. This is a pretty simple yet often overlooked moral value in society. Beyond the fact that so many people lack the self-control to not act out on anger, I think there are many instances in which people who say anger is absolutely wrong would then defend some instances of acting out on anger. An example is vengeance. Vengeance in my opinion is a product of anger. Taking vengeance on another never does anything productive for the world (at least not intentionally), and it is certainly destructive. Vengeance is both fueled by anger and proliferates anger. It shocks me how many people will say anger is a sin and yet defend someone who takes vengeance.

The fact that envy is on the list in my opinion is redundant. Envy is a product of anger and greed. You want that which your neighbor has and you are angry at them for having that, so you resent them. Envy is only wrong to the degree that it is acting upon anger. Holding a grudge on another because they have something you want is petty, but just the wanting those things which they have, even if you want it a lot, is not necessarily wrong.