Mar 27th, 2008
Mortal Sins
Even as I’m immersing myself in my futuristic lifestyle with my HSDPA-enabled laptop, and reading emails in the thick of traffic along billboard-riddled EDSA… other things are changing in the world.
Remember the seven deadly sins (pride, lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, greed and envy)? You might be interested to know that the vatican has declared additional sins–or modern day counterparts to those.
http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2008/mar/11/seven-new-deadly-sins-declared-by-the-vatican/
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=111744
1. "Bioethical" violations such as birth control
2. "Morally dubious" experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty
Although most of these will be quite a non-brainer to most Catholics, 3 will be contentious: excessive wealth, birth control, and genetic research.
Use a condom and you go to hell.
Get rich and you go to hell.
Mess with your genetics and you go to hell.
Excessive wealth in particular is a touchy thing–because it can be relative. In a poor country like the Philippines, it isn’t that hard to poke above the median, if you get lucky enough. Or is the excess on a global level, so only Warren Buffett and Bill Gates get the Ninth Hell (include those guys who own Google, Youtube, and Facebook).
I find religious discussions interesting nowadays, because it’s only now that changes in the Church are becoming dramatic–in an institution that’s been pretty inert since our childhoods (the Church your parents and grandparents knew was virtually identical). Now we got new sins of the times.
Gives us all an opportunity to rethink our beliefs and values.
Many people I know were raised Catholic, but are actually living agnostic nowadays–although their ability to articulate their agnosticism leaves a lot to be desired.
Some people I know have also left Catholicism altogether for a more "wholesome" (my word) definition of Christianity (familiar question: Do you accept our Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour?). Technically these wholesome beliefs fall under the category of Protestantism, which can be conservative or liberal Christianity.
I wonder how my Christian friends react to the Vatican’s declaration. Some of these folks are quite rich themselves, and use birth control. The agnostics won’t have a problem with that.
Interestingly, I heard anecdotally that Christianity (of the Catholic and Protestant sort) is becoming quite the rage in Africa now. While in Europe and North America it’s pretty much in stasis. It’s quite an odd correllation: developing countries are predominantly Christian, while more mature and developed economies are not. Something about the beliefs and values and the way its taught. Chicken or egg: ether the belief system is caused by the economic situation, or the economic situation is caused by the belief system.
Then again, was middle-age Europe also predominantly Christian with all those holy wars in Rome? So maybe a sign of progress in a society is the tone of religion you find around.
More agnostics and atheists = progress?
