Deadliness of the Deadly Sins

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They've featured in countless stories from Seven to Fullmetal Alchemist to a Supernatural episode. For whatever reason the seven deadly sins hold a sway on collective psyche of the western world (and maybe beyond though I'm not qualified to say.

Generally useful unless they become overpowering
These sins are in my opinion beneficial provided they aren't taken to their extremes.

1. Pride
It's good to take pride in one's self and one's work. Pride can make you answer a challenge you might otherwise shrink from. The dark side of Pride is when you don't accept help when you really need it, or foolishly take on a challenge that is far too great because Pride demanded it.

2. Greed
It is good to want more than you have and a powerful motivating factor to better your life. Greed helps make the decisions that betters things for yourself. Greed becomes destructive when you let it take over and overpower your morals.

Necessary, but easily become destructive

3. Lust
Sexual attraction in of itself is not sinful, and lust often provides the spark for people to initiate relationships that become love. However, lust also has a very destructive dark side that manifests in a variety of forms that are damaging to people.

4. Sloth
There is a value to laziness. Can help you recharge, and help you accept life. Can help you figure out the most efficient ways to do things. Of course laziness is often a destructive force that prevents you from doing what you need to.

Didn't fit anywhere else

5. Gluttony
Gluttony mostly hurts yourself in the modern world, so I didn't put it in the next category.

Extremely destructive

6. Wrath
Anger, wrath causes damage and destruction wherever it goes. Most would probably rank it as the most destructive but there is one more that I think is even worse.

7. Envy
Wanting what others have and you don't is the single most destructive force on the planet. Unlike greed which channels into doing things better for yourself, envy channels into tearing others down. Wrath may be anger, but envy is hate.


What do you think of the deadly sins?

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." -- Romans 6:23 (NIV)

PRIDE - boasting about one's accomplishments /successes /intelligence , self-centered, "I am better than you", "I am right and you are wrong".

Probably considered the worst sin, because it contrasts with (religious) humility.

Always sound like the saved is going to be a parasite in Jesus insides forever.Like a sinful tapeworm.

I noticed a lot of people consider wrath (anger) and envy to be "completely normal" and claim they shouldn't be blamed for it

I think they are normal, but also very destructive. From time to time I find myself in the grips of envy. I don't feel wrathful very often at all. The distinction here is between feelings and actions, and whether you embrace those feelings or try to move away from them.

No one has complete control of their feelings, although they can direct them in certain ways by focusing on some thoughts or another. Everyone has control over their actions.

It's one of those blatant Neoplatonisms in the bible where they sneak in a pantheistic high-pagan philosophy and the local priest or pastor hopes no one notices.

Yes, I was talking about people defending actions (including lashing out in a harmful way) born out of envy and anger.

Any sin can be deadly.

Sorry for unrelated post but I couldn't resist:
Every time I read this thread's topic, I misread it as deadlines of deadly sins. And the word "deadline" triggers the idea of "I must hurry to do X". Not a good idea in this case.

Your unrelated post is amusing and appreciated. Now if you'll excuse me I need to indulge in some Greed before monday morning otherwise my boss is going to be furious!

Everything in the OP is based on a misunderstanding of what's meant by the original terms, which is probably understandable given that the terms used have, since the original formulation, taken on new meanings. For clarity's sake, let's call pride "narcissism", greed "covetousness" and sloth "despondency". I don't see how any sane person can condone those things. Lust is not compatible with love, though your mistake here may be understandable in a world where real love has been debunked as "bourgeois", "oppressive" and "patriarchal".

Advocates of the deadly sins:

1. Whitney Houston sang, (Pride) "Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all"


2. Gordon Gecko,(Greed) "Greed is good"


3. Ayn Rand (Pride) "Selfishness is a virtue"


4. Bernei Sanders (Envy) "It's not fair".

I don't know whether you were being ironic here, but if not, then, like the OP, you've misunderstood the meaning of the original formulation of the seven deadly sins (see quoted post). This notwithstanding, I wouldn't consider the sorts of people mentioned here to have articulately defended the qualified sense of the sins in question one bit; I have no respect for any of them.

Lucifer's sin of pride was in believing himself equal to God uttering the words "Non serviam" (I will not serve), and upon being cast down to Hell with the angels that followed him declaring "I'd rather rule in hell than serve in heaven." It is considered the devil's original sin, and the father of all sins. To an extent, man's original sin of consuming the apple can also be considered an act of pride. Christians were to be humble and subserviant. To have pride was to believe in oneself and not god. If one were an artist and having pride in one's work, one would give themselves the credit for their art and not god. The original definition of pride is closer to "defiance of god" than "narcissism".

Greed has less of direct religious examples but has been described in contrast of charity as the heavenly virtue it opposes. Greed is largely understood as "wanting more than is necessary for oneself." It is not defined as strictly as wanting the possessions of others, as this falls under the domain of envy. A greedy person may want another person's gold, but this is because they want more gold not because the other person has it. They'd be just as happy finding gold in a mine and taking it rather than taking it from another person. According to the christian values of charity, if one finds gold in a mine the correct thing to do is to distribute to one's neighbor not to keep it for oneself.

Lust is defined in contrast to the heavenly virtue of chastisty but also has strong historical association with the practice of prostitution. By christian values all sexual desire outside the bounds of marriage was considered lust. The strictest definition of lust is "sexual desire for the sake of sexual pleasure alone." By this definition, lust and love are incompatible, because in order for it to be lust it requires the absence of any love. I think if we make a small transformation to "sexual desire for the sake of sexual pleasure" as is more consistent with a modern definition than they are no longer incompatible.

You may be right, about sloth, I'm too lazy to fact check my conceptions of what it was originally described as.