The Seven Deadly Sins

I am not a religious woman. However, I feel that a few of the seven deadly sins are, to this day, an accurate depiction of the worst in humanity. That which is destructive to the "spirit" and, in some cases, to society as a whole. I have listed them, in order of severity, according to Dante's Divine Comedy and Wikipedia:

Lust: "Unlawful sexual desire, such as desiring sex with a person outside marriage."

Interesting that this was #1 in Dante's time. Taking this definition of lust, it would surely rank at the bottom if it makes the list at all which, in my book, it does not. Society has a lot more to worry about than horny teenagers.

Gluttony: "Wasting of food, either through eating too much food, drink or drugs, misplaced desire for food for its taste, or not giving food to the needy."

Guilty. Overeating is indeed a problem for me, as it is for many Americans. The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. is proof of this. Most restaurants in this country offer portions too large for people to actually consume. Still, many people sit there and stuff themselves to the point of nausea in an attempt to clear their plates. There have been multiple studies that confirm this phenomenon. They have shown that the amount of food that people will eat is proportional to how much they are served. It is no wonder why, throughout history, the idea of beauty has been tied to sacrifice. When food was scarce and having to work outside in full sun was the norm, a beautiful woman was one that was rotund and pale. Now that most of us work indoors and have more than enough food to eat, beauty is thin and tan.

So, are taxes on sugary junk foods the answer to our country's obesity "crisis"? Not likely. For one, people will not trade in their Twinkies for carrot sticks just because they have to pay a little more for them. But much more importantly, it is blatant assault on personal freedom to punish people for what they consume. Being fat and unhealthy is a personal choice that one should be allowed to make without government intervention. If the State is given the right to decide and enforce rules as to what foods are best for us, then we have opened up our bodies to their governance and, consequently, relinquished sole ownership. If we are not free to decide what goes on within the confines of our bodies, then freedom means nothing at all.

Greed: "Greed is when somebody wants more things than the person needs or can use."

There is a fine line in the minds of most people between "greed" and "ambition". Wanting more than you need, well ... who doesn't? All we need to survive is food and shelter. So almost all people would be greedy if you take that definition. I think it is important to want more. Wanting more is what keeps civilization going. If people were satisfied with just the bare essentials, there would be no invention and no technological growth. We would all live in caves or, less dramatically, we would all be dirt poor and happy to stay that way. If there are people out there who really want to stay poor, I have nothing against it. I just don't know anyone that does.

So who is to say how much is enough? Who should decide when you have accumulated enough wealth? I think the answer is obvious - YOU should! If you have reached a point in life where you are exactly where you want to be and have as much as you ever want to have, then you are part of a fortunate minority. But to chastise others for wanting more, is to claim authority over them and the right to decide the limits of their success. On the other hand, gaining wealth at the expense of another person's right to work to achieve their own is criminal. This is how I define true greed. The greedy person willfully deprives others to fulfill their own love of excess. They don't need it, they simply want it -even if they have to take it from someone who does needs it and is willing to work for it.

Sloth: "Laziness; idleness and wastefulness of time that a person has."

This is one of my personal pet peeves. Not only is sloth revolting to me, it is also infuriating. The lazy person, via their action (or inaction), asserts that they should be exempt from pulling their own weight. I see sloth as a form of entitlement. In almost every social structure, physical work is a necessity and a precursor to co-operation. The lazy person is essentially saying that they are entitled to rest while you work and they benefit from your efforts without contributing their own.

Wrath: "Inappropriate (not right) feelings of hatred, revenge or even denial, as well as punitive desires outside of justice."

Guilty. When I feel like someone has seriously wronged me, I want revenge. The problem with this is that wrath and justice need not go together. While I'd like to think that I would only take an eye for an eye, people often forget that this biblical phrase was originally conceived to inspire mercy. It is in humanity's nature (with a few exceptions, I'm sure) to seek retribution that matches the degree of misery that they have had to endure. Since events affect people differently, this will not always amount to punishment matching misdeed.

Envy: "Hating other people for what they have. Dante wrote that envy is "Love of one's own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs""

Dante said it beautifully. I cannot compete but I will start by saying that, by definition, jealousy and envy are different. Jealousy is a normal, and often healthy, human emotion. Envy is something else entirely. Courtesy of Merriam Webster:

Jealous: intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness

Envy: painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage

So "envy" implies pain or resentment on the part of the person feeling it. Most people have looked at someone else and thought "I wish I had a car like that" or "I wish my body looked like hers!". I think the difference is in what happens next. For example, the jealous man, after seeing a guy with a more expensive car, may say to himself "That's a nice ride. He must make a lot more money than I do. I need to get a better job!". But he will harbor no ill will and soon go on with his day, oftentimes with new determination to better himself. The envious man, however, will be consumed by thoughts of worthlessness and by anger.. He will feel true hatred toward the guy with the nice ride and toward himself. The envious man will experience prolonged suffering at his own hands.

Envy seems to make people see things through a skewed lens of injustice. If the life of someone they know is going well, they will find erroneous reasons why that person doesn't deserve it, or why their happiness won't last. Envy is a damning emotion. It deprives the people who suffer from it of ever achieving lasting happiness. This is simply because their happiness and sense of self worth is measured in the misery of those around them and in the failures of the people they call "friends".

Pride: "A desire to be important or attractive to others or excessive love of self (holding self out of proper position toward God or fellows; Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor")".

Originally, the seven deadly sins were eight "evil thoughts" from the mind of the 4th century monk, Evagrius Ponticus. The main differences are that envy was excluded and there were three additional vices, "acedia", "despair" and something called "vainglory".

Vainglory (Latin, vanagloria) is unjustified boasting. Pope Gregory viewed it as a form of pride, so he combined the two in his 590 A.D. revised version of the list. I have to disagree with Pope Gregory here.

If you take the definition of pride given above, then the prideful man would view his own life and pursuits as objectively more important than that of his neighbor's. And, while I believe that self-preservation, self-interest and self-love (and interest, love and preservation of one's own family) are the most important human drives, they should never come at the expense of someone who has done you no harm.

By contrast, vainglory makes no mention of actually believing that you are better than anyone else. It involves unjustified bragging. A person could fit that description in a number of ways. They may be prideful or their boasting may be a defense mechanism to cover their insecurities. They may simply be delusional. My point is that the above definition of pride (which is not what I would normally associate with the word) is much more nefarious than that of vainglory and the two should have never been joined.

In conclusion, the "seven deadly sins" not only sound wickedly cool, they also describe the drive behind some of man's most horrible deeds. You need not be religious to agree.