Sin and addiction

Hi,

This is the promised sin thread.

I want to bring up the case of addiction because it is concrete, and it will make us talk in concrete terms.

Please share your definitions of sin and whether an addict is sinning or not?

Here is my position to start the discussion:

I see sin as a concept that reflects the fallibility of humans and actions that cause harm to others mainly. And every harm that we make to others is harm to oneself.

Addicts present an interesting case because, from what little we know, there may be a physiological component about it. We don't say that sneezing people are sinning, because it is not their fault that they have a cold.

Can we say that addicts are sinning when engaging in the addiction if their bodies compel them to be addicts?

I have an answer, but I will let other people share theirs to get the conversation going.

Wow, difficult thread Hugo.  I'll probably have to give it some more thought before I can give a proper response, but I guess I would view addiction as a sin in the sense that it is harming oneself and others.  And with everything else aside it is a choice, not matter how difficult or effected by other issues one may be.  So, oh yeah, physiology and also psychology definitely factor into it.

Hugo, I think any harm of others has an effect against the person who did it. Someone cann't be happy if he/she harmed someone else. Even the remorses are missing, the life of that person is inevitably bad, because there is a psychological-emotional equilibre which is broken when we make injustices to others.

And the lack of remorses coresponds to a atrophiated (by sins) soul and this is the gravest effect of sin, because remorses are passing in time but this atrophiation is forever, only God could cure it but for that the person should be receptive to a divine intervention (in spiritual way) and for that the person should have a complex religious consciunsess, which is missing at almost all people.


So, I think that these effects are bad enough, we have not to condemn more that person.

Edited by Menumorut - 13-Dec-2007 at 15:44

Originally posted by hugoestr Justinian, You are right, this is a hard case. Almost like a puzzle case. Most of us want, especially if we have seen the effects that serious addition has on people, want to categorize it as a sin. At the same time the physical elements of addition tells us that there is some element that doesn't make them fully responsible. How much can you really sin if your body is, in a way, forcing you to engage in a behavior that is destructive? Can extreme addiction be similar to a person with a strong illness who can't work anymore because of it bringing misfortune to their families by their not being able to make money anymore?

I'm a smoker; does that mean that I am "sinning?"
I think I live "healthily;" I stay active, exercise from time to time, don't drink to excess (the Posting Drunk thread in the Tavern being the exception to the rule...), don't smoke pot, no drugs, so I don't even think I'm harming myself too bad- but yes, it's certainly an addiction. But does that mean that I'm transgressing against a higher power in some way? BY being addicted to a substance such as nicotine? I don't act irrationally when I haven't had a cigarette for a few days (which definitely happens- on a college budget, sometimes you're just flat-out broke), I wouldn't steal to get money for smokes, nor kill, rape, etc. Like hugo said, this is a topic that deals in concrete facts; not metaphysics, not the abstract- this can be resolved by simple empirical observation, I believe.

I think that first we had ought to try a working definition for 'sin.' What is a 'sin?' Are we looking at it from a religious standpoint, or from a societal standpoint, or from an individual standpoint? What are the consequences of sin? And finally, what constitutes a sin? Until we have a concrete definition we will remainn in the realm of abstraction and metaphysics.