Ishmael

...and other other things the doctrine serves up...

MY OWN WORK HERE:

Increasingly my position on sin and The Fall is that they are myths.

The various doctrines of sin are of the more scary myths to discard, but a myth nevertheless. Why is discarding this myth so scary? Because once we rationally understand that human persons are not fundamentally flawed and give up the notion that “immoral acts = sin�? then we begin to know the real responsibility for our actions. No more are we able to blame the devil for the bad and God for the good. We are utterly responsible for our actions.

No more is there a forcing function to help us to "be good." The forcing function of the was the presence and power of a God and our inability to measure up because of the fundamental flaw in our "will." And this fundamental or noetic flaw is the real problem of the SIN issue in the first place. It’s the power of the Gods to hold us captive-- a vast opus of dogma which says, “You are not, as you are, okay, but there is a God who can help you.�? This help comes in various forms in different cultures but is unneeded in any culture. Humans are okay just as all of the other animals of the world are “okay�? in their natural state. If there is a species level problem it is also the solution: our rationality.

This is what makes us all responsible for our own actions whether good or evil without any inherent inclination towards evil deeds. And certainly there is no sin in this light of truthfulness for that word itself seeks make “immoral actions�? in opposition to God and not against human beings, where the offense of evil deeds logically belongs. Further it is this misplacement of offense in our religious cultures that must be a reason why we feel such outrage at the serial murderer (for instance) who is converted to Christianity just before his execution and why we as a culture allow such vile individuals to become converted in the first place. Perhaps we don’t even know where that angst coupled with guilt comes from but I say that it is the natural feelings of outrage against a religious system that has so tainted the natural order that we cannot place responsibility and offense and guiltiness in the correct places, upon human beings.

SOME STUFF FROM BETRAND RUSSELL with comments from me. BR in quotes:

Another two quotes from Bertrand Russell on "sin" which illustrated how the doctrine subtracts human responsibilty for human action. In addition, these quotes illustrate better than I how such a doctrine makes the normal, natural state of a human person inherently evil.

"The whole conception of 'sin' is one I find very puzzling, doubtless owing to my sinful nature. If 'sin' consisted in causing needless suffering, I could understand, but on the contrary, sin often consists in avoiding needless suffering. Some years ago, in the English House of Lords, a bill was introduced to legalize euthanasia in cases of painful and incurable disease. The patient's consent was to be necessary, as well as several medical certificates. To me, in my simplicity, it would seem natural to require the patient's consent, but the late Archbishop of Canterbury, the English official expert on sin, explained the erroneousness of such a view. The patient's consent turns euthanasia into suicide, and suicide is sin. Their Lordships listened to the voice of authority and rejected the bill. Consequently, to please the Archbishop- and his God, if he reports truly victims of cancer still have to endure months of wholly useless agony, unless their doctors or nurses are sufficiently humane to risk a charge of murder. I find difficulty in the conception of a God who gets pleasure from contemplating such tortures; and if there were a God capable of such wanton cruelty, I should certainly not think Him worthy of worship. But that only proves how sunk I am in moral depravity."

A concept of sin and the violence that occompanies it. <saracasm>After all, violence is needed when the offense is against God AND part of our natural, biological make-up.</sarcasm> After all, we are fundamentally flawed, naturally...

"Most stern moralists are in the habit of thinking of pleasure as only of the senses, and, when they eschew the pleasures of sense, they do not notice that the pleasures of power, which to men of their temperament are far more attractive, have not been brought within the ban of their ascetic self-denial. It is the prevalence of this type of psychology in forceful men which has made the notion of sin so popular, since it combines so perfectly humility towards heaven with self-assertion here on earth. The concept of sin has not the hold upon men's imaginations that it had in the Middle Ages, but still dominates the thoughts of many clergymen, magistrates and schoolmasters. When the great Dr. Arnold walked on the shores of Lake Como, it was not the beauty of the scene that occupied his thoughts. He meditated, so he tells us, on moral evil. I rather fear that it was the moral evil of school-boys rather than schoolmasters that produced his melancholy reflections. However that may be, he was led to the unshakable belief that it is good for boys to be flogged. One of the great rewards that a belief in sin has always offered to the virtuous is the opportunity which it affords of inflicting pain without compunction."

Ishmael

For Your Amusment:

http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28180