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Seven Deadly Sins against Reason

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Tonix777

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The traditional Christian Seven Deadly Sins have nothing to do with Reason but with Altruism and God.

So we Objectivists reject them.

Instead here they go "our" version of the

Seven Deadly Sins against Reason:

1- Lust

The real truth about sex is that it is not an end in itself, it is (or ought to be) a consequence of your triumph in life and not the supposed source of it.

Highly overrated in our modern culture by both its fans and detractors, it has not the power by itself to make you more successful or happier beyond the ephemeral range of the moment after which you will feel even more miserable than before if you are lying to yourself about yourself.

So the real sin is to revert the relationship between cause and consequence. Sex is GREAT but is not the cause of success, it is the consequence of it.

2- Gluttony

It is a sin eating too much, but it is not a sin against those less fortunate or against the limited resources of Mother Nature, it is a sin against yourself, your health, your body that is the hardware were your more precious software has to run: Your Mind.

Indulging yourself with some pleasure is GOOD as long as you earned it, as long as you remain in control of yourself.

The real sin is to take your decisions about your own pleasure (or your life in general) based in the opinions of others or the alleged false assumption about limited resources on Earth or the guild induced by some ancient priests in order to keep you unhappy, fearful and consequently under their control.

3- Greed

It is definitely not a sin at all. It is a VIRTUE only publicized as a vice by those ignorant or haters of what life is, or worse by those with the most evil intention: to take your wealth away, to rob you from the reward earned by your effort, this noble resource that is a expression of your values and achievements and also a tool for getting your dreams done: Your money.

The real sin is not having greed, or having greed for the unearned.

It is the worst sin of all not having the greed to be better, to be more, to earn a place on Earth by your effort and intelligence, the greed to be richer in soul and body, in spirit and in practice in wisdom and gold, the greed to fight against laziness and the grey background of the emptiness before and after that marvelous spark burning against the cold nothing of eternity: Your Life.

4- Sloth

It is definitely a sin, but not against God, it is a sin against yourself and against life. Your success in life or even more your simple daily survival can be only achieved by effort and work and intelligence. If you are not doing it, other people are doing it for you and worse: if you are not paying them, they become your slaves, whether they know it or not, whether they do it because they have not choice or impulsed by the vice of altruism.

5- Wrath

Here things get more complicated. Where come your wrath from? It is rational or irrational? Against what? Just or unjust? What "Justice" means for you anyway? Your wrath is a consequence of your values, so it is hard to say if the wrath is good or bad in itself. You have to look for the causes, you have to check your premises, you have to revise your values and for this you have to know them, explicitly. You have to know yourself.

Wrath can even be a virtue when generated by the right values because it moves you, it can be also a powerful tool to defend yourself and the ones you love against aggression and injustice.

So the real sin is not wrath but only wrath generated by the wrong values. The real sin are wrong (irrational) values.

6- Envy

Envy is good or bad according to your later intentions. There are three different kinds of envy according to these intentions:

a- The good envy which impulses you to make the effort to win or build the material and/or spiritual resources that will allow you to achieve your desired neighbor's status or at least to get as close to it as possible according to your own real possibilities.

b- The bad envy which impulse you to try to unjustly deprive your neighbor from his own achievements ir order to get them, to steal his wealth, to rob his achievements, to enslave his soul or his mind when and if you can.

c- The worst envy which impulse you to try to destroy your neighbor's achievements or life, just because they remind you about your own worthlessness or your hate of your own miserable existence.

7- Pride

Considered by Christianity the origin of all Deadly Sins, it is in reality the best of all virtues and the origin of the single most important feeling toward happiness: Self-steem. Of course they don't want you to be proud, of course they don't want you to be happy. A proud and happy person can not be as easily controlled as a poor bastard that thinks about himself as worthless and unfit to existence, as unable to think by himself and to use his intelligence to survive and advance in life.

The real sin is not to be proud if you have something to be proud of.

The ultimate sin then is to have nothing to be proud of and do nothing about it...

Edited by Tonix777
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This is an very well put list. It's a great summation of the seven deadly sins and how they are inimical to man and his life. I'm goin to show my friends this. :)

Thanks man

Please tell me later what your friends say!

If some of them are religious probably will not be very happy... ;)

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I was actually thinking the other day: Hmmm.. maybe I should invent a philosophy in which the seven deadly sins according to Christianity are actually good!

Unfortunately what I got was chaos and Epicureanism. I was stuck on Sloth (Sloth is actually defined as apathy, not laziness. Laziness is just something that comes with apathy).

I would actually have to disagree with you on Gluttony, however. Gluttony was not just defined as living beyond your means back then. Thomas Aquinas's examples of Gluttony included

- Eating before the time of meals - Ie: there are specific 'times' when one must eat meals. This is an argument against snacking. Not Good, unless you're preparing for the military.

- Seeking delicacies - An argument against pursuing 'fanciness'. Again, if you can't afford it, don't eat it. But Thomas Aquinas clearly thinks that PURSUING delicacies is a bad thing.

- Putting condiments on your food (And get this: The reason why this was considered evil was because you'd actually enjoy your food).

- Eating more than you need - The moral decision of eating your food should not regard quantity, but rather, the healthiness of what you eat and whether or not you can afford it.

- "Taking your food with too much eagerness, even if it's the 'proper' amount" - in another words, enjoying your food is bad.

And according to Aquinas, the fifth one was the worst. Because it shows that you're "Attached" to pleasure. Yep, pursuing pleasure is a bad thing according to Mr. Aquinas.

So I would take that into consideration and revise Gluttony.

Edited by Black Wolf
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...I would actually have to disagree with you on Gluttony, however. Gluttony was not just defined as living beyond your means back then. Thomas Aquinas's examples of Gluttony included...

...So I would take that into consideration and revise Gluttony.

Ok, how would you reformulate "Gluttony" then, our church is open to suggestions :dough:

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Ok, how would you reformulate "Gluttony" then, our church is open to suggestions :lol:

While not a reformulation of gluttony, a different contribution to the suggestion box. John Ridpath in 'Religion vs. Man' points out that it is no accident that there is a trinity at the base of many religions.

I would like to propose and introduce, as if an introduction is necessary, The Holy Axiomatic Trinity, naturally being: Existence, intrinsically inseperable from Identity, with a spirit of Consciousness.

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This is excellent. Mind if I post this on my blog and give you credit?

P.S.- That is also a good one CapitalismForever, despite its lack of descriptor/summarization of the reason.

Yes but a want a dollar for every extra click you get...

Just joking!! Of course you can :lol:

(And thanks for the praising)

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P.S.- That is also a good one CapitalismForever, despite its lack of descriptor/summarization of the reason.

I'm sure you'll guess it if you give it a little think. There are seven of them, and I said "vices," not "sins" ... what is "vice" the antonym of?

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