Every sin

Is every sin just as bad as another? Are some worse? In the messed up system of Christianity, being jealous of your neighbor's new car is just as bad as triple homicide. So it's natural that GMN would have questions...

QUESTION: I can understand why God says it’s wrong to do things that hurt others, but what about things that don’t hurt anyone? I don’t see why they ought to be labeled as sin. What I do privately doesn’t bother anyone else. — G.M.N.

No need to worry, since there is no 'sin' to begin with. And no, if something doesn't hurt or betray another in any way, it's not 'wrong'.

ANSWER: You’re right, up to a point; anything we do that hurts others is a sin in God’s eyes.

Except when he commands the murder of entire cities, allows his people to take women as prizes of war, commits global genocide, dictates that selling one's daughter as a sex slave is fine, that general slavery is permissible, that punishing rape victims is just and on, and on, and on...

If you look at what is forbidden by the Ten Commandments, for example, you’ll discover that most things on the list deal with sins that hurt others – murder, lying, stealing, adultery, and so forth.

Really? Most of them? You have got to be kidding me!

1) Other gods: No one is hurt here, unless you are counting God's oh so sensitive feelings... But he's supposed to be all-powerful and loving, so that shouldn't be a problem for him at all. Unless he's just a total egomaniac...

2) Idols: No one hurt here either. Well, unless there's a freak chisel accident, but that's not what this commandment is talking about.

3) God's name: Still no one hurt. And how can anyone even misuse God's name if he hasn't definitively shared it?! Some think it's Jehovah, some Yahweh, and others say it's I AM. But one thing certain is that the 'God' in "God damn it' is not his name.

4) Sabbath: Four down and no one harmed...

5) Honor you mother and father: What if they are terrible parents that don't care about you at all? If that is the case, you walking away or telling them to piss off doesn't harm anyone. Parents are not automatically deserving of respect. Respect is earned. Parents can take care of you and love you. But equally they can betray your trust or take advantage of you (Like Lot offering his daughters up to be gang raped). You have to treat each case separate of another. But since it can lead to harm, let's count the tally at 4 to 1.

But wait... Does the Bible even follow this rule? Jesus tells a man to disrespect his dead father, he
says that one must hate their mother and father to follow him, and that he has come to divide families. So here we have one commandment that God can't even keep.

6) Murder: Okay, this one certainly harms others. But as I've stated earlier, this is another straightforward commandant that God fails to follow.

7) Adultery: This only hurts another if your partner is not okay with it, orif they are married and their spouse is not okay with it. But this is a very strange commandment when Biblical marriage includes such things as polygamy and the keeping of concubines...

8) Stealing: This can harm another, but why is it that Jesus asks for one of his followers to steal him a donkey then?

9) Lie: Telling a lie can hurt someone, but it can also protect someone from hurt. But if one should never lie, why does God lie to Adam and Eve when he tells them they will both die the very same day they eat the apple?

10) Covet: And here we are with the final commandment. One that harms no one. So even if we are incredibly charitable, we are at a 5/5 tie. So not the 'most' Billy claims. What's more, the 'sins' that can hurt another are broken by the very god that supposedly set them.

But this isn’t true of all the Ten Commandments. The last, for example, forbids covetousness (that is, a deep yearning for something that belongs to someone else). But covetousness isn’t an outward action; it’s something that goes on only in our hearts and minds. Nor does it apparently hurt anyone else (unless it leads to something like cheating or stealing). And yet God still labels it a sin.

Sorry, but if you covet something and then steal it, it is the theft that is the sin, not the coveting.

Why is this? 

Because he is so terribly insecure that  he's worried that if you see someone enjoying their (other) god, that you might want to try it out as well?

But God loves you and doesn’t want you to be a slave to sin any longer.

Because he wants us to be his slave instead, and boy does he hate competition...


-Brain Hulk

Please share, subscribe, comment and follow us on your favorite social networking sites!
facebook | google+ | twitter