1.

3 Selflessness, greed, ignorance, sin

Sin — an act against the law of God

Religious Catholic Christianity:
views on sins ● sin makes it difficult to have a relationship with god because it separates
a person from God
● “Sin is an offence against reason, truth and right conscience; it is failure
in genuine love for God and neighbour caused by a perverse attachment
● to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human
solidarity. (CCC1849)”

There’s
● Original sin: inherited from the actions of Adam & eve
● Personal sin: consequences of a person’s own actions

Original Sin: Inherited from the actions of Adam and Eve

● all people are born with original sin
● this is washed away at baptism

Bible references:
● The LORD God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of
the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die. (Gen
2: 16-17).
● To the man he said: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the
tree about which I commanded you, You shall not eat from it, cursed is
the ground because of you! In toil you shall eat its yield all the days of
your life. (Gen 3:17)
● To the woman he said: I will intensify your toil in childbearing; in pain
you shall bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you. (Gen 3:16) (the punishment affects the woman
directly by increasing the toil and pain of having children. The
punishment also affects the woman’s relationship with her husband. A
tension is set up in which her urge (either sexual urge or, more generally,
dependence for sustenance) is for her husband but he rules over her.)
● He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving
sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life.
(Gen 3:
●

Consequences 1. Being separated from God

of sins ● Adam and Eve were driven out of garden Eden after their fall —> sins is
the block which broke their relationship with god

2. Deprived of the original holiness (grace) and justice

● Garden Eden symbolised the graces humans inherited from God.
● Sins deprived humans from God’s grace.
● Human was then affected by a corrupted/ wounded/ weakened human
nature
● Leads to transmission of original sin (A sin “contracted”)
 3. Eternal death — the consequences of sins is complete separation from God
which is hell — death (God didn’t create death, it was through the devil’s envy
that death entered the world)

4. Punishment/ suffering — men need to toil for life & women need to be are
severe pain in pregnancy

5. Harmony destroyed — With others, with the creation

Result of original sin: wounded human nature

● weakened in its power, subject to
● Ignorance, selfishness, greed
● suffering
● domination of death

Human wrongdoing:
Refers to how we failed to dulfill our resopinsuviule as human on earth
● NOT be a steward
● NOT be benevolent (morally good)
● NOT obey God
● (for married couple) — NOT to be in union of love to procreate in
marriage relationship

Personal sin Consequence of a person’s own action — misuse of free will

Venial sin
● sin whose object is less serious matter
● committed without full knowledge & complete consent
● one does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law
● instead of acting in a loving way, one chooses to act in a selfish way

Venial sin & Purgatory

● undergoing purification
● to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven

Grave matters
● Grave matter is specified in the Ten Commandments (e.g. Do not kill, Do
not commit adultery, Do not steal,)
● The gravity of sins is more or less great (murder is graver than theft)
● One must also take into account who is wronged (violence against
parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.)

Unintentional ignorance
● can diminish or even remove the moral responsibility of a grave offence
● but no one is deeded to be ignorant of principles of the moral law, which
are written in the conscience of every man
● the promptings of feelings and passions can also diminished the
voluntary and free character of the offence, as can external pressures of
pathological disorders
● sin committed thru malice (the desire to harm someone, ill will), by
 deliberate choice of evil, is the graves

Mortal sin
● object is grave matter
● committed with full knowledge & deliberate consent

Mortal sin & hell

● to die in moral sin WITHOUT repenting and accepting God’s m,erciful
love means remaining separated from him forever b our own free choice.
This state of definite self -
Exclusion from communistic with God and the blessed is called “Hell”

Unforgiven Mortal SIn & Hell

● The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom
alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created
and for which he longs. (CCC 1035)

Responsibility to the sins committed

(even by others) When we cooperate in them:
● by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
● by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
● by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do
so;
● by protecting evil-doers.

The root causes of human wrongdoing

Selfishness — personal needs/wants & NOT considering those of others
Greed — excessive desire for thin & NOT bear relationship to actual needs
Ignorance — NOT knowing or understanding the difference between right and wrong or what
makes action wrong
Sin — behaviours which is against the law of God

Selfishness It is wrong to love money rather than God.

● An excessive desire for ● “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the
things, such as wealth, one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the
which beards my relation one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God
to the actual needs and Money.” (Mt 6:24)

The love of money (greed) is the root of evil and an

obstacle to a relationship with God.
● “For the love of money is the root of all evils, and
some people in their desire for it have strayed from
the faith and have pierced themselves with many
pains.” (1 Tim 6:10)

Not to trust Welty but to trust God and his providential

 care
● wealth (temporary —> no use after death)
● more important to gain spiritually than fiancially

Ignorance
● not knowing or
understanding the
difference between the
right and wrong, or what
makes actions wrong
Why?
A person might be morally
ignorant because they have never
been taught right between
—> they lack the capacity to
understand the difference between
right and wrong
Everyone has the capacity to tell right from wrong, thus
ignorance is not a valid excuse for wrongdoing
● it is a Christian duty to avoid being morally ignorant
Human beings are: (According to Saint Thomas Aquinas)
● Rational (one of the God-given nature of humanity)
—> can work out whether an action is right or wrong
by thinking about it logically, it was called
“conscience”
● Inclined to do good naturally — we are created in
God's image (shared His benevolence)
You cannot get away with breaking the law because you did
not know it was the law; in the same way, you should not try
to get away with acting immorally by refusing to think about
right and wrong.

HOWEVER
The conscience is not infallible, and can make mistakes
sometimes.
● Even Jesus did say 'father forgive them for they know
not what they do' (Luke 23:34) on the cross

Often the conscience might mistake an 'apparent good'

(something that seems good) for a real good (something
that is good).
● E.g. a person might support euthanasia because it
seems good as it relieves suffering. However,
(according to Aquinas) one of the primary precepts is
to preserve life so it is not an actual good at all.

We could minimise the risk of mistaking an apparent good

for a real good by educating the conscience by reading the
Bible, by reflection and going to Church

Why do we still sin against God from time to time:

● God has five human beings a free will
● Our free will has been weakened but not destroyed by sin
● God’s grace is necessary to restore and heal our weakened free will

How to overcome our inclination to sin? (Roman Catholics views:)

● Baptism frees us from original sin
● Conscience = an inner guide (inner voice) to determining right from wrong
 ● Must be disciplined and trained through time by — study the church teachings; receive
religious education/ spiritual formation; daily prayers; reflect on scriptures
● There are also individuals in whom the voice of conscience has become distorted, or even
silenced, because of habitual sin

Non religious view on sins

Some believed that ● Sinful = wicked/ characterised by the committing of sins
human nature is ● Choose to do evil
SINFUL ● All people at some point sin

Some believed that ● They can become good

human nature is GOOD ● Humans all have the feeling of compassion
● Becoming a good person is the result of developing our innate
tendencies toward benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, and
propriety.

The nature of Salvation in Christianity

● Being saved from sin — meaning to have eternal life with god (a union with god)
● Through the death of Jesus (sacrifice)

The death of Jesus on the cross:

● was a sacrifice for sin shows a victory of light over darkness, of life over death: God was in
Christ and triumphed over death in the resurrection
● shows that God is involved in creation and in the suffering of the world, not being remote
● shows the love of God by giving himself for others

Salvation from sin is important because:

● Without salvation, a person’s sin will prevent them from having a relationship with God in
this life and exclude them from God’s presence after death.
● Salvation from sin was the purpose of life, death and resurrection of Jesus
● Jesus is the saviour of the world whose death on the cross brought forgiveness of sins and the
assurance of eternal life.