Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Bree · 07-14-2003, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Odemus
From a Christian perspective, pride is the root sin of all other sins. Lucifer fell because of pride...

I have heard this explained in a similar way by many other Christians in my life, and I never fail to inwardly chuckle when they quote a well-known tale that is demonstrably not in the Bible.

echidna · 07-14-2003, 04:30 PM

According to this, there were originally 8 �

http://deadlysins.com/sins/history.html

Quote:

According to Sacred Origins of Profound Things, by Charles Panati, Greek monastic theologian Evagrius of Pontus first drew up a list of eight offenses and wicked human passions:. They were, in order of increasing seriousness: gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory, and pride. Evagrius saw the escalating severity as representing increasing fixation with the self, with pride as the most egregious of the sins. Acedia (from the Greek "akedia," or "not to care") denoted "spiritual sloth."

In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great reduced the list to seven items, folding vainglory into pride, acedia into sadness, and adding envy. His ranking of the Sins' seriousness was based on the degree from which they offended against love. It was, from most serious to least: pride, envy, anger, sadness, avarice, gluttony, and lust. Later theologians, including St. Thomas Aquinas, would contradict the notion that the seriousness of the sins could be ranked in this way. The term "covetousness" has historically been used interchangeably with "avarice" in accounts of the Deadly Sins. In the seventeenth century, the Church replaced the vague sin of "sadness" with sloth.

Yes, interesting that they are all based on fixation with the self. Maybe �pride� had slightly different connotations back in the fourth century, but today it seems overdue that the Sin should be renamed to �conceit�.

trekbette · 07-14-2003, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Trekkie With a Phaser
Does anyone honestly feel that being proud of one's accomplishments and abilities is something immoral or distasteful?

I always understood it to be that you should not be proud of your accomplishments and abilities because than you would not be focusing on your god. Or that you only did that wonderful thing because of god's grace so it is actually his accomplishment, you're just the tool. Or some crap like that.

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