I have still been thinking about this question and I see sin as another reason I can't believe a god exist.
Lets look at what sin is according to a few different sources. The dictionary say this is what sin is. What do religious people see it as? I don't think most religious people really use the dictionary version as they do their own personnel version. This is what really makes it tough to get a good list of what is and isn't a sin. I found this list of sins and another here. I haven't gone though either list completely but you can see they are different.
How many people even try to live their lives according to either of these list? How could anyone live according to these list? The concept of sin doesn't really fit in with the god most christians claim to believe in and worship. There are things those within religions call sin that I can agree with but most of the stuff harms the one trying to avoid the sin more then it would harm others if they just did it. The second list really trips me out but because of it, I am better able to understand why it is so easy to manipulate christians into acts that go against their better judgement. I have glanced at the second list and it just seems to me that sins are whatever some religious leader at the time wanted it to be.
I think people should focus more on what is right or wrong for humankind then on individual sins. How should we decide what is right or wrong? I look at how my actions will effect those around me directly. I think most indirect effects a decision has on others is not something you can use fully to make that decision. The bad part is not all actions that are right will always have positive effects on others directly. If we only do things that have positive effects we will never do anything but you can take actions with the least negative effects. I think drugs and alcohol are good examples of what can be right and wrong decisions made. Many drugs that are defined as illegal can easily have more negative effects then positive effects. The negative effects of drugs tend to be caused more because they are illegal then that a person has taken them. I know most of the hard drugs will destroy the person taking them and anyone they know can have their lives ruined also. I doubt the negative effects of illegal drugs would be as bad if most drugs were legal and controlled more then alcohol though. Alcohol has negative effects on society but with the correct education those effects have been seriously reduced. I think you could do the same with most drugs. No we will never be able to remove the negative effects either of these from society but we can reduce those effects. These are also good examples of how different religions have different things as sins. Christians all see the use of either differently and I wouldn't be surprised if you found many of these groups didn't see some drug use as a sin until it was made illegal.
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