I really did not want anything to do with religion for a
long time because it seemed to me that religion was trying to teach me that God
created me as a sinner and then was mad at me and planning to punish me for
being a sinner. I am still not sure if that is what religion was trying to
teach me or not. I am sure I still want nothing to do with any religion that is
trying to teach me that.
Fortunately, I was desperate enough that worrying about theories of various religions/denominations/etc became a luxury I could not afford and I had to focus on actually doing spiritual practices, such as confessing sins to the most trustworthy I could find, trying to make up for harms I’ve inflicted, engaging consistently in some sort of contemplative meditation/prayer practice, trying to be a trustworthy and generous fellow to those trying to do similar things, etc.
As a result most of my spiritual answers come from these practices, as opposed to any particular authority, whether person or scripture or textbook. I realize that makes me misguided at times, and acknowledge that. At the same time when people have completely opposite interpretations of what scripture or anything else means, I’d suggest they are being guided similarly – by their own spiritual practices or refusal to submit to spiritual practices and trying to find a way around them - and just do not recognize this or admit it. I say this to be transparent to help anyone who might read the things I write to understand where they come from. I also say it with the great hope that maybe it will encourage others to trust the process of spiritual disciplines and the answers they provide as the best and most accurate ever evolving answers we can grasp while also knowing they will always be incomplete and somewhat wrong and sometimes completely wrong.
With that disclaimer of sorts, I am going to explore what sin is, where it came from, and how we should view our continued use of it. My definition of sin is any action to gain an advantage at the expense of someone or something else. The root of all sin is seeing myself as separate from everything else, which is a good rudimentary description of consciousness, and I believe what the Bible is talking about with eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Consciousness is the ability to view ourselves as separate from our surroundings and evaluate how we fit into those surroundings. If you combine that with free will and the desire to survive and prosper we are bound to act in ways that try to gain advantages at the expense of other people and things, which again is my definition of sin. Essentially, I am saying the things that make us human are the very things that make us sinful, but also trying to present it in a way that removes an element of moral outrage from it since to be human is to be sinful by design unless or until we develop the wisdom to realize there is more to the story.
While it is true that we are somewhat separate from our surroundings it’s even more true that anything and everything is only defined and meaningful as it related to its surroundings. Each of us and everything else are inseparable parts of greater wholes and The Greatest Whole, which means if we try to prosper at the expense of our surroundings we are harming and putting up artificial boundaries with what we are inescapably a part of. As such, what I am defining as sin (and allowing ourselves or others to engage in it) is dumb as much as it is anything else. And viewing it as something dumb that we want to find wiser solutions for is often a much more helpful perspective to successfully find those solutions for ourselves and our communities.
This does not mean competition is necessarily bad. We often do not reach anywhere near our potential for ourself or our surroundings without being pushed by something like competition or calamity, and being lazy and not wanting to be pushed is as much taking from our surroundings as cut throat competition. It does mean that competition should not be rigged to favor those setting up the competition or their friends and that the loser is not crushed and is given a chance for further fair/level competition or providing other meaningful/valued contributions.
Fortunately, I was desperate enough that worrying about theories of various religions/denominations/etc became a luxury I could not afford and I had to focus on actually doing spiritual practices, such as confessing sins to the most trustworthy I could find, trying to make up for harms I’ve inflicted, engaging consistently in some sort of contemplative meditation/prayer practice, trying to be a trustworthy and generous fellow to those trying to do similar things, etc.
As a result most of my spiritual answers come from these practices, as opposed to any particular authority, whether person or scripture or textbook. I realize that makes me misguided at times, and acknowledge that. At the same time when people have completely opposite interpretations of what scripture or anything else means, I’d suggest they are being guided similarly – by their own spiritual practices or refusal to submit to spiritual practices and trying to find a way around them - and just do not recognize this or admit it. I say this to be transparent to help anyone who might read the things I write to understand where they come from. I also say it with the great hope that maybe it will encourage others to trust the process of spiritual disciplines and the answers they provide as the best and most accurate ever evolving answers we can grasp while also knowing they will always be incomplete and somewhat wrong and sometimes completely wrong.
With that disclaimer of sorts, I am going to explore what sin is, where it came from, and how we should view our continued use of it. My definition of sin is any action to gain an advantage at the expense of someone or something else. The root of all sin is seeing myself as separate from everything else, which is a good rudimentary description of consciousness, and I believe what the Bible is talking about with eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Consciousness is the ability to view ourselves as separate from our surroundings and evaluate how we fit into those surroundings. If you combine that with free will and the desire to survive and prosper we are bound to act in ways that try to gain advantages at the expense of other people and things, which again is my definition of sin. Essentially, I am saying the things that make us human are the very things that make us sinful, but also trying to present it in a way that removes an element of moral outrage from it since to be human is to be sinful by design unless or until we develop the wisdom to realize there is more to the story.
While it is true that we are somewhat separate from our surroundings it’s even more true that anything and everything is only defined and meaningful as it related to its surroundings. Each of us and everything else are inseparable parts of greater wholes and The Greatest Whole, which means if we try to prosper at the expense of our surroundings we are harming and putting up artificial boundaries with what we are inescapably a part of. As such, what I am defining as sin (and allowing ourselves or others to engage in it) is dumb as much as it is anything else. And viewing it as something dumb that we want to find wiser solutions for is often a much more helpful perspective to successfully find those solutions for ourselves and our communities.
This does not mean competition is necessarily bad. We often do not reach anywhere near our potential for ourself or our surroundings without being pushed by something like competition or calamity, and being lazy and not wanting to be pushed is as much taking from our surroundings as cut throat competition. It does mean that competition should not be rigged to favor those setting up the competition or their friends and that the loser is not crushed and is given a chance for further fair/level competition or providing other meaningful/valued contributions.
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