i might not make an actual point here...i'll be more or less surprised if i do, but hey, let's go for it, yeah?
i came to you today to talk about evil, the bible states that in the early days of mankind, satan took on the shape of a serpent, and tempted eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. is this an example of someone trying to pass the blame for eve's mistake? is this merely the product of free will?
the seven major sins are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. they are referred to as 'deadly sins', 'cardinal sins' etc, you get the point. they are referred to as such (according to my theory) because religion (all religion for the sake of this discussion) is merely a glorified personal development program, but with deeper philosophical implications about creationism, crime and punishment, and the like. the sins, the 'thou shalt nots', all of the morality of the world, all of it, comes from a religious institution of some sort.
i contend that satan has nothing to do with evil. i will not (in this blog) discuss whether satan exists, that is too large a topic. Satan tempting people towards evil to be later forgiven by the miracle of the atonement... sounds like much ado about nothing, to me. 'hey, you fucked up, but that's okay' is what that says to me. it is a little bit much to swallow for someone who actually thinks about it. i will assert that people commit 'sin' because they think they can get away with it. for example i have not left the couch i'm sitting on for the past two hours, have not gotten dressed, or showered today, and have done the same for most of the days this week, i'm clearly guilty of the deadly sin of sloth, yes? is it because satan tempted me to sit on my ass, or is it because i felt like sitting on my ass was a good course of action for the day?
it seems like religious morality is an exercise in passing the buck. i think it's time to own up to your own sins, and (really) determine if they are sins at all.