Sinning...

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It's bullsh*t when you think about it.

I mean what does it even mean to sin?

It depends on who you ask. Some people think that mere thoughts can be sins. In my opinion, something is bad if it harms someone else, especially if the harm is intentional, but I don’t believe in sin or a deity. If the Bible were true, I think God would be a much bigger sinner than I am. I haven’t killed anyone…so far.

I sin a lot in my role as Satan.

I don't like the term either, not surprisingly as I'm secular.

You can see religion as a manifestation of fundamental distrust in your fellow humans. Most people trust themselves to behave in a righteous and moral way, but don't trust anyone else. So you need a rulebook, just to make sure everyone's on the same page. Adherence to a religion is like signing a contract for a minimum standard of behaviour. Not much different from the unwritten social contracts we live under in democracies. Where religion deviates is in putting the judge and jury of moral behaviour outside the human sphere of influence, into the supernatural.

A sin in that context has a purpose, I think. It's a recognition that you've fallen short of expected behaviour, and crucially, an obligation to make amends somehow to bring you back in line. There has to be a cost and a path to redemption.

In Christianity, the original sin puts us all at a negative on the moral balance sheet from birth and obligates us to strive to get back to zero. It's quite an elegant solution to the problem of getting people into a religion.

Applying it to someone who hasn't signed up to it, however. Yeah, kinda pointless.

Sinning? I heard everyone does it.

I went to a Protestant school and was taught that sinning included bad thoughts and desires as well as actions.

However, I became an atheist when I was twelve.

My dad was raised as a Mormon, but he was disowned by a significant portion of his family when he left the religion, so he doesn't like to talk about it. Especially when he refused to marry a nice Mormon girl and married my mum instead, that didn't go down well. As a result, I don't know much about what Mormons consider to be sin; other than consuming caffeine.

My parents sent me to a church school despite being atheists themselves because it had a good reputation. Unfortunately, it changed hands when I attended and took an absolute nosedive in quality.

And they say there's a heaven for those who will wait
Some say it's better, but I say it ain't
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
The sinners are much more fun
You know that only the good die young

-- Billy Joel

---

"There's a little black spot on the sun today
(That's my soul up there)
It's the same old thing as yesterday
(That's my soul up there)
There's a black hat caught in a high tree top
(That's my soul up there)
There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop
(That's my soul up there)

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running 'round my brain
I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign
But it's my destiny to be the king of pain"

-'Sting' and 'The Police'

"Who Needs Hell or Sin in A World Like This"

-me

Been THere Done iT; Ain't
Going BacK NoW; How About 'You'

-Just An Old Cliche

Back in Catholic Kindergarten School at 5 Introduced
to Sin Putting Spots on my Soul And A Horned Devil

Beast With A Long Red Tail Who Would Surely Burn
me Forever if i Put Spots on my SoUL That Would Not Erase...

Later That Night
i Had a Dream; Not Really
A Nightmare; Just A Dream
That That Horned Beast With
A Long Red Tail And Big Jaws And Teeth

Speared Me in the Neck With His Long Fork He
Used to Rake Coals Over in Hell to Make it Hotter There...

It Wasn't A Nightmare As When i Awoke (You Know Being
Woke and Not Believing in Bull CR8P Stories Other Folks Make

Up to Control Folks to Their Selfish Whims) That it Was No Different

Really than The Portrait of A Man With A Beard and Long Hair Over my Bed
That Couldn't Be God; That Was the Dude That the Good Old [Men] Boy's Spit on

With Long Hair and A Beard At the 'Five and Dime,' When Five Cents and A Dime
Would Actually Purchase Something in the 60's With Folks Who Called Themselves

Christians

Who Were Afraid
of Peace And Even
Called the Symbol
A Chicken's Foot Like
my 'Big Daddy' Did too
From a Distance As He Left
Us at Age 3 To Pursue His American
Dream of Getting Rich and Acquiring
A Wife to Work Who Didn't Want to Stay
Home and Raise Children in A Place of Peace in Love;

Same God Damned American Dream Professed by the
Onward Christian Marching Soldiers at the First Baptist Church
Promoting Another Unwarranted War to Build Up the Military Industrial
Complex and Associated Contracts More; Meanwhile Spitting on those Hippy
Dudes Like Jesus With Long Hair And A Beard Who Promoted Peace in Love Like

The Beatles Who
Were Quickly Replacing
Jesus As They Were Real

And Jesus was Just A Story
That Didn't Act Like the Story
in Lives of Others Who Promoted
Their Quarterback of Their Favorite Religious Team...

"DarK Jesus," The Man Who Burns You Forever If You Sin
And Do Not Believe He is the God Who Controls if You
Burn Forever, If You Have Spots on Your Soul Called Sin;

In Africa, The Muslim Women are Talked into Having Great Self-Esteem
Through the Practice of Genital Mutilation to Erase Their Pleasure in the
Sex Act to Control Any Potential Desires to Wonder Over to More 'Perky Pastures;'

To Not Undergo The Procedure is a Great Sin There And Dear Lord Don't Listen to
Music And Don't Even Think About Getting Naked And Exposing Your Skin to the Free Sun Above;

Similar Requirements Not to Sin in the Christian Requirements Like Don't touch Parts of Your Frigging
Body You Are Born With As Pleasure is Sin And Being Unworthy Born With Sin is How You Wanna NOT

Develop
into a
Free Self
Authenticating
Human Being Able
to Generate Their Own
Happiness From Organic
Soul to Head to Toe And So Much
More as It's True, IF You can Convince
Folks that Being Happy is Bad and Being
Worthless Is Good, It's Just Another Big Daddy

Routine Across the Generations, Where Little Boys
Could Never Really Measure Up To Their 'Trump Turd' Big Daddy's
Who Yelled And Scream It is a Sin For A Boy to Literally Cry or Even Frigging Smile

In the Halls of
Middle Schools
And Even The Frigging
City Park to Play Zen Tennis
Solo Where Racquet Ball and
Human Become One Force of Chi in Flow;

Of Course, If You Practiced Buddhism Or Even
Yoga Meditation You Would surely Become

"Possessed"

With Peace And
Bliss, Where Others Could
Not Control You For Their Selfish Whims...

Have You Heard the News Out of Florida Today;
Governor DeSaTaNiS And His Evangelistic Politician
Republican Cohorts Have Determined it's Best to Teach

The Privilege and Benefits of Being Slaves Then Learning
Brand New Skills That Could Be Beneficial to Those Who Are Not Free...

True in 'His Book;'
It's a F iN Sin to
Tell the Truth;

Like it is With the Pope;
A Chemistry Major Without
Enough Biology Knowledge to
Understand Transgender Folks are
Just Another Natural Part of Nature

Like the Rest of the LGBQT Plus
Folks Who Often Have the Most

Empathy and Compassion For
Others in Terms of Real Original Coke Jesus Juice;

True, They Were Not Considered Sinners With Sin
With American Indians And Other Folks Closer to
Nature Who Celebrated Them For Their Diversity

As Holy and
Sacred Folks
For Real In This Life Then And Now...

The Original Greek Definition of Sin Means "Missing the Mark;"

Typically, Humans Who Desire to Pursue All Their Human Potentials
Are Averse to Mistakes; And in Some Instances, So Dedicated to the Excellence of
Perfection They Harm Themselves in Pursuit of What Others have Not Done Before...

Indeed, Life is an Art Not A Science Alone;

If You Can Figure Out How To Make Your
Best Life's Worth Now Without Prematurely Dying
or Enduring Being As Just Another "King of Pain;"

That Works for me; Yet One Thing For Sure; i Wasn't

Born a Fool At 5 Years Old; i Could See WRiTE Through
The Grift then as i Can Will and Do Now Too; Yes, God

Damn IT i'm Woke;

i Ain't Asleep
in a Pile of
Someone Else's

BuLL CR8P Story;

i Pile my MaNuRE HiGHeR to Grow
More Beautiful Roses Naked Enough Whole Complete.

And Every Instance, i Miss A Mark, It's Another Door to
More Colorful Creativity Coming in Effortless Wu Wei Tao Ease...

Indeed There Are Better Stories to Read in the World And Even
Better Ones Still To

Create

THAT
ACTUALLY
FRIGGING WORK NOW.

---

I think the aim of pure philosophical religion has merit: Questions about how human beings got on earth, what it all means, and what happens when we die. I'm into all those questions even if it turns out they have a mundane or scientific explanation, or even if I'm dead wrong in what I choose to believe. I'm a dreamer and a thinker so it's more interesting to imagine different scenarios than it is to be a nihilist or think only in terms of the physical world. I wonder and conjecture about souls - not related to heaven per se, but as energy. I've studied metaphysics and I really enjoy this type of musing.

I think institutionalised religion can in rare cases be good for a community to focus on service and "other" instead of themselves. I believe whole-heartedly in the golden rule whether it's a religious tenant or just a way of life. I assume most people on the planet believe in the golden rule too at its core, although most don't stop to think about it as much as I do.

Unfortunately the philosophy of religion as metaphysics has been bastardised into what we know today, with rules and dogma, hell and brimstone. I believe that started as a way of controlling lust, sexually transmitted disease, resultant poverty (including absentee fathers), and crime such as murder. I believe this is why marriage was first created or institutionalised as well, to protect children by the fear of God. I can't imagine living without antibiotics, paternity testing, birth control, and access to safe abortion, not to mention neo-natal care and sonography to ensure healthy pregnancy and promote the wellbeing of our kids. In some respects religion served a good purpose by protecting women and their children, but of course it went overboard into the gaslighting of our moral consciousness, and it has caused more trauma and bloodshed than any good it once provided.

As for sin, I think a true "sin" is when you don't have moral integrity and you hurt others. It weighs on your conscience like The Tell-Tale Heart and can trap you forever with shame and self-loathing. Hell exists in our own minds, for people who have a conscience. That to me is more of a sin than anything the Bible or other books of worship could devise.

^^^I didn't mean what I wrote to be an attack on religion in itself. Just one filter you can look at it through.

I think about it a lot too. I wrote a novel about it in fact. Sadly it was rubbish.

I tend to think that religion serves multiple purposes for humans, and I believe it's an innate thing - I think if you put a hundred children on an island and came back in a couple of hundred years, they'd have invented some sort of religion for themselves to follow.

Although I am not religious, I find as I get older that I increasingly lament the way religion has faded from people's everyday lives, in the UK at least. It seems to me that a good number of people, and society in general, does benefit from a set of behavioural rules and moral guidance, even if it often gets corrupted. I feel we have abandoned something that probably had run its course but not replaced it with anything.

This expert will explain it all.


https://youtu.be/E5ZJ6jiyWfE