Mortal Sin

Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 10:48pm
Originally there were 7 mortal sins. These were the nastiest of the nasty. The original deadly sins -- mortal sins that require absolution for the sinner to avoid hell -- are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. They have been vividly portrayed in literature such as Dante's "The Inferno" since the Middle Ages. Now apparently the Catholic church has seen fit to add a few more to the list. The good news is that there is room for a sequel to Dante's Inferno now. The bad news is that we're all pretty much %^*@ed.
One of my friends raised a very good question. She asked whether the people that are already in Heaven will be grandfathered in or will there be a mass deportation? Valid question, but one that I'm not going to address here just now.
Here are the new sins.
In the 21st century, he said, "You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your neighbor's wife, but also by ruining the environment, carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/13/new.sins/?iref=mpstoryview
To be honest I'm not clear on whether these are new sins or just further clarification of the existing sins to reconcile them with the modern world. But, whateva. I just finished reading a book called Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, the focus of which is immortality. One of the characters in the book mentions that churches are patently against genetic research into longevity because it threatens to rid the world of death. And a death free world would be very bad for the afterlife business. Thought that was an interesting take on why churches are so against things like DNA and stem cell research when the findings could benefit so many people.
That's all for now :