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[absinthe_eyed]

I prefer sins to threats of floods of Biblical proportions.  Sinning--if you believe in sin outside of the context of curses--is part of being human.  Even if you don't believe in the concept of sin, we're still inescapably flawed creatures that allow our base instincts to overwhelm our social conditioning.

Assuming this string of curses isn't

Comments

[yesimagenius]

Sin is a moral and behavioral issue related to society. Instilling the belief that something is wrong or bad shapes a society's behavior. Did you know many of the 'sins' and laws in the old testament were more about health concerns than anything considered 'wrong'.

Not that I think we should dismiss the idea that things like murder and abuse are wrong. It's just...I don't believe in the biblical sort of sin. We create our own Hell here.

[absinthe_eyed]

I don't know if it's an issue so much as an idea that's become too firmly rooted in Western society to do away with. I agree with you, though... ethical debates aside, there are things that most of us can call evil and consequential punishments--physical, emotional.

I didn't know that about sins, no. I do know that some of them are ridiculous.

[yes_imagenius]

Exactly. And for the most part it works to society's advantage. There's no reason to try and do away with it. It won't get rid of fanatics who use sin to commit evil acts.

I found it interesting. It's certainly takes the morality out of things.

[absinthe_eyed]

Religion is the framework that Western civilization was built on... sin was the fear keeping people--sane people--in place. Ideally, I think, we would be better off without religion and sin and ideas of eternal torment, but it does work.

Or at least reminds us that morals are largely matters of convention.

[yes_imagenius]

Ideally, yes but we'd have to have some other form of behavior modification in place.

Oh yes and that's more obvious as you look at how they change from culture to culture and even over time within a society.

[absinthe_eyed]

That's one of the difficulties in the City... there is no common societal experience. Many laws and rules are similar between worlds, but the differences cause more trouble than you might imagine. What might be condemned in one world--stealing, for example--might be acceptable in another.

[yes_imagenius]

And adapting a justice system to this world and then getting them to follow it...difficult to say the least.

[absinthe_eyed]

Add the deities to that...

The police force is criticized for not establishing a justice system and a set of laws, but no one seems to realize how difficult and impractical that would be.

[yes_imagenius]

And apparently the deities like the chaos because they haven't instituted one.

[absinthe_eyed]

They thrive on chaos. If we were organized enough to put a system into place, they'd find a way to destroy it.

[yes_imagenius]

There's got to be some way to gain control over our lives here.

[absinthe_eyed]

We have as much control here as we do anywhere else.