From: Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Date: Sun Nov 07 1999 - 01:05:23 MST
> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky:
>
> >I think you're objecting to the fact that "sin" lacks a clear definition,
>
> No, that's not the problem, nearly all the really important things in life
> have no clear definition. My objection is that the idea is pointless.
>
> John K Clark
Gentlemen: Here are assembled the descriptions of "Sin" presented by
those religious sects who use this term in their scriptures:
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
UNIFICATION CHURCH
Adam and Eve...were tempted by the archangel Lucifer into illicit
and forbidden love. Through this, Adam and Eve willfully turned
away from God's will and purpose for them, thus bringing
themselves and the human race into spiritual death (DUTA).
UNITY
Sin, sickness, poverty, old age, and death are not real, and they
have no power over me. There is nothing in all the universe for
me to fear (LT, p. 35).
THE WAY INTERNATIONAL
Man fell because of disobedience to God's Word (JC, p. 66).
ORTHODOX HINDUISM
By the Law of Karma--"sowing and reaping"--wrong actions
inevitably produce punishment, good actions their reward.
Salvation consists of doing good in excess of evil in order
to evolve to the highest state through successive incarnations.
This highest state is Enlightenment--the realization of oneness
with the World-Soul, Reality.
MORMONISM
Adam cried, "Because of my transgression my eyes are opened,
and in this life I shall have joy" (Pearl of Great Price, Moses
5:10-11).
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Sin is a falling short of God's mark of perfection, transgression of
His righteous law (MS, p. 456).
SPIRITUALISM
Man never had a fall.
Whatever is, is right. Evil does not exist. Evil is good. No matter
what man's path may be, good or bad, it is the path of divine
ordination and destiny. (Childs, Whatever Is, Is Ri
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
Sin, sickness, and death are to be classified as effects of error.
Christ came to destroy the belief of sin (SH, 473 :4-6).
BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is
the transgression of the law (I John 3:4).
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
I think a univocal meaning of "Sin" could be extracted by
induction from these statements, but the result would not
be a proper logical definition but rather a metaphor. This
is needed to judge whether there is at least a symbolic
referent for the term or whether it is literally "pointless".
Unfortunately, this entire page is now beginning to exude
Nietzsche's "odor of sanctity"; it is caustic and putrid at
once -- a chthonic smell of the subterranean deliquescence
of something still partly alive. Unbearable -- why must
people talk about things like this? I must dispatch the
letter at once!
=======================
Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
=======================
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