Saturday, March 05, 2005

What's your Sin??

I asked my kid what she thought of the recent BBC poll that showed the seven deadly sins are out of date. “What’s a sin?” she asked. Miserable pleasure seekers!

According to the BBC’s Heaven & Earth Show, which last month conducted a survey on the current status of the seven deadly sins, my kid isn't the only one whose immortal soul is in peril. (And yes, children, that does mean you’re busted.) Adults, too, are increasingly unwilling to throw stones – or are increasingly inaccurate at it (which I suppose is the next best thing).

Most of us, the survey found, no longer condemn sins like sloth, gluttony and lust. On the contrary. We aspire to them. And as for pride, envy, anger and greed, well shoot, you’ve got to vote for somebody. Anger is evidently the sin most adults commit most often. I know I do – especially when prevented from committing the others often enough. But nine per cent of people polled insisted they had never succumbed to any of the deadly sins or, if they did, they didn’t inhale.

Not surprisingly, today’s adults have become particularly (vi)aggro about calling lust a sin. (Face it, what other deadly sin attracts the pharmaceutical benefit?) Four in ten men nominated lust as the sin they would most enjoy indulging in. (Sluts!) The remaining six in ten disagreed. (Liars!)

A quarter of women also gave first preference to lustful desires, though almost as many – 20 per cent – admitted they were more aroused by binge-eating. Honestly, girls! Haven’t you ever heard of having your beefcake and eating it, too?

These days, people think cruelty is the worst sin we can commit. Yet it’s a vice that doesn't even appear on the original to-don’t list, drawn up in the sixth century by Pope Gregory the Great (who incidentally ranked pride at the top of the charts . . . shame about the funny hat and the infallibility).

By tradition, each sin was also associated with a specific punishment in hell: dismembered alive, smothered in fire and brimstone, forced to cover schoolbooks for all eternity, etcetera.

Sadness was also on the original list – finding an appropriate penance must’ve been a bitch – and it wasn’t until the 17th century that church officials replaced it with sloth. Hey, they were getting around to it, okay?

In 2001, according to Le Monde, French master baker Lionel Poilance went so far as to lobby the Vatican to get the sin of gluttony re-classified (as what? a hobby?) before dying in a helicopter crash two years ago. Sorry, Lionel. But we told you it was deadly.

8 Comments:

Blogger Lois Lane said...

And the survey says, ding, ding, ding... Lois Lane has committed at least six of the seven deadly sins. She also did not inhale, or wear a blue dress, and most certainly did not forget to have her beefcake and eat it too!
Lois Lane

2:11 AM  
Blogger Erratic Prophet said...

Oh, boy.. What sin haven't I commited? The only one I'm not normally predisposed to would probably be envy. I just don't get jealous very easily. I've been known to covet things, but rarely for more than five minutes because at that point I've usually forgotten all about it and-- oh! shiny!

4:07 AM  
Blogger Michelle said...

Heh, love that word "shiny"!
Ok since you 2 have revealed your SINS kind of....lemme tell you i have committted 6 of the deadly sins, and shall keep you all guessing as to the 7th i didn't commit :o/

11:36 AM  
Blogger Jade said...

OK so I did at least 6 out of 7, well maybe all 7, nope for sure 6 of them. But hey nobodys perfect. Well except for maybe me. lmao, yeah right. LOL

1:41 AM  
Blogger Michelle said...

Jade~ We're all perfect!!

4:48 PM  
Blogger Gel said...

Oh, I have "sinned" but I prefer to call it *living.* ;) Binge-eating or anorexia is not one of them. That one was news to me and is sad. OOps being sad is a sin? What hogwash. I'm not fessing up here- too tired to be funny. Excellent post, M.

4:41 AM  
Blogger BeFrank said...

I won't be throwing any stones. As usual, I'm enjoying your writing.

How are those ten commandments working out for everyone?

3:37 PM  
Blogger Michelle said...

GEL~ LMAO @ Living!!! I love that :) Being sad isn't a sin in my book, just a natural emotion.

Bryan~ Heh..your way too cool to have committed any of those.hhmmm ok perhaps gluttony after your trip!!!

4:02 PM  

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