The concept of sin has been around for about 2,000 years, but even before the advent of Christianity, these concepts of greed, envy, lust, anger, sloth, pride/arrogance, and gluttony have been seen as vices or major flaws in society. The way that the Christian church divided up sin was that there were small sins that weren't so bad - ones that could be forgiven by confession to a priest (venial), and ones that would ruin your chances to get into Heaven (those were cardinal sins). As we'll discover after the presentation of the sins, each of them have their own destructive qualities.Anger tends to be the most destructive vice that can lead to war, genocide, and racism. Yet, anger can also be channeled into fighting against evil.
Greed is purported to be the worst of them all, the root of all sin, b/c if you did not desire more than you needed or wanted, then there would be fewer problems. Yet, that desire to improve ourselves (and this dovetails nicely with envy and gluttony here b/c what are envy and gluttony but forms of greed) comes from the desire to better ourselves.
Pride can also be seen as the root of all sins b/c when you see yourself as more important than others, especially God (as Pope Gregory the Great put it), then you are putting yourself above others. You are supposed to be a humble servant of God, and pride destroys that relationship. However, pride can be an important part of a person's self-esteem; it can also be part of a country's nationalism (as long as it doesn't turn into xenophobia). What about the pride of doing a job well? This builds confidence in the worker. So then there's lust. As we have seen lately with New York governor Eliot Spitzer and former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, lust has led people down the wrong path. I even hesitate to say that lust has led them, b/c those two guys got themselves in trouble. Love doesn't come from lust; I can tell you that from experience. My wife and I were friends first before we fell in love. Ours isn't universal, but it is an example of how love should come first. Lust, unfortunately, drives people to do insane things and I won't defend this with a flipside like I have the other vices.
10 years ago, lust dominated the headlines and cable news with the Clinton - Lewinsky saga and eventual impeachment in December 1998 and trial in February 1999. Fast forward to today, lust no longer dominates the headlines; it's greed and envy with news of the bailouts, economic scandals and political corruption as well as the looming depression.
Of these seven, which do you think can be the most personally destructive and why? Also, which of the seven is the most destructive for society and why?
Due Thursday, 1/8/09. 200 words minimum.
The seven deadly sins can all break down a person. But to me there is one sin that can be the most personally destructive. That sin is envy. Envy can really bring down someone. Envy is when someone doesn’t have another person’s quality that they wish they had. The quality can include an achievement or maybe a possession that another person has. It can be very upsetting to a person when they see another person achieve something or purchase something that someone really desires. In my own life it hurts to see other baseball players get singed because of their height or size. I envy many baseball players because they are tall, big, and talented. I think that envy hurts the most because it’s hard to not have what you really desire, and to see someone have something you want hurts very much.
ReplyDeleteThe sin that is most destructive to society in my opinion is greed. Greed is the sin that may kill earth one day. Being greedy, in my opinion, is the worst thing that a person can be in life. Greed means that you are never satisfied with your life and never satisfied with what you have. Whenever a greedy person receives something or earns something they just want more. It will destroy society because it won’t allow middle and lower class people to gain money or happiness. Everything will be gone if people are too greedy in life.
Jake B
4th Hour
Blog #12 – Seven Deadly sins
ReplyDeleteQ: Of these seven, which do you think can be the most personally destructive and why? Also, which of the seven is the most destructive for society and why?
A: In order to determine which sin is the most heinous of the seven. We must first examine the question of what is it that makes a sin, a sin? Is it the fact that the church listed them as a sin? Is because they have led men to their downfalls in the past? Or is it different for everyone? In all honesty the most likely answer is the third. So what makes a sin evil to me? At the base of every single one of these sins is that they cause harm to others, and that is how I define them. Having said that, I believe that lust is the most horrific of the personal sins. This is because most often lust involves the betrayal of someone that you trusted most be it a daughter, son, mother, father, wife, husband, sister, brother, boyfriend or girlfriend. Anyone who has experienced this, and I hope no one has, knows that there is nothing worse than having someone you trusted with all of your heart rip it out and stomp on it by messing around with someone else. On the societal scale, I believe that prides is the worst of the seven deadly sins, Pride has brought down nations and monarchies. Pride has started wars. Pride has caused millions of innocent people to die. Why is it that pride has unleashed all of these nightmares upon us? All because people take themselves too seriously and cannot have a good laugh every once in a while. It doesn’t seem worth it to me.
I think that all of the seven deadly sins can be personally destructive; it just depends on the person and what their problem is. Its different for everyone because someone could have major anger issues and that could be the sin that is most personally destructive but for another person that has no problem with anger at all and they heard that anger was the worst they would not think that it was the worst maybe its lust or greed for them. My personal one is sloth so that’s the one I think is the worst. I’m always like oh I will get it done later, I will finish it sometime. I need to just start getting things done when I think about them or I forget. Basically I think that all of the sins can be extremely personally destructive to everyone it just depends on what your week point is and everyone’s is different.
ReplyDeleteThe sin that I think is the worst for society would have to be greed. I think this because everyone is always going to want more, more technology, more money, more toys, more cars ext. and they will never stop. This goes for everyone I don’t think that if you went up to someone and asked them if they were perfectly happy with everything in their life and they would not like more of anything that they would say yes. Everyone will always want something that’s why I think greed is the worst.
Josh Williams
3rd hour
I believe all the seven sins can be destructive in one way or another personally but the one that I think is most destructive is envy. I am not a very materialistic person but I become very envious when something gains a skill in gymnastics or receive a higher grade. This envy can sometimes get me so frustrated to the point where I have break downs; not because I feel the need to be this person but I feel if they can do it why cant I? I studied or practiced just as hard why don’t I have what they have? I have been working on this sin for quite sometime now trying to not by envious of what others gain but it is not an easy one to overcome. I have caught myself saying things to others to try and lower their achievements when I should be congratulating or applauding their hard work. I believe that this particular sin can easily bring out some of the other sins such as anger, greed, pride, and ext.
ReplyDeleteI thought long and hard about what would be most destructive to the society, I came to the conclusion that greed can easily destroy a society. The reason for this conclusion is that greed easily leads to every other sin. Greed is can be materialistic or not but it is when one person is wants to be the best so they do anything they can to have to most. Today’s society is so greedy that they will do anything to be the best and have the most. If everyone is trying to get on top then eventually the world will be at war with each other. In conclusion, being greedy is probably the worst quality a person can have and this sin will eventually destroy society.
Anna Beaufore
3rd hour
Of the 7 sins I do not think that personally any of them are all that destructive to me. I guess if I had to pick one I would have to pick envy because on occasion I would look at what someone else had and I would want it. But that could also be a good thing because I causes me to get up and go work so that I can get what I want and what they have. I don’t really thing that it is all that destructive because it does not cause me to do things that I will regret, but if I have to pick one I guess that is it. But to society I think that either lust or anger are the most destructive. Lust can cause people to do some crazy things but it also falls into place with envy. If someone has someone that you lust over that can cause you to have envy for that person. It may cause you to want to be more like them but it also could cause anger. Anger is obviously the most physically destructive. It is what causes deaths, when one person gets angry at another person. Lust and envy however can be very emotionally destructive. This can also cause problems in society. It really depends on how you look at destruction.
ReplyDeleteChris 3rd hour
In my opinion, all of the seven deadly sins become a problem when they have reached a certain limit. And without them we wouldn’t know the difference between feelings like anger and happiness. Without anger you are always content or happy and you would never know what it felt like to be upset and angry at someone and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteI think that envy can be the most personally destructive because when you envy someone it’s because they have something that you can’t have no matter what you do. It’s something that will drive you to insanity. But any of the seven deadly sins can do that because humans express themselves in different ways. Sure you can buy material items to maybe make yourself feel better. But if you envy a certain person and buy what they have, you will never be satisfied because you are simply not them, and that person or thing will always have something that you don’t. You will always have that desire to have something, but in some cases it can cause you to kill.
The sin that can be most destructive to society is pride because when taken out of hand others look at you like you think to highly of yourself and causes someone to dislike you or maybe where you come from. Pride can make or break a person because someone who has too little pride is seen as unconfident, and someone with too much pride is seen as someone who is cocky and loves themself. We are supposed to have the perfect amount according to society otherwise others start to question that person.
All seven deadly sins tie into one another, and I don’t think that there can be one sin that is the worst because all of these can cause you to do something dreadful and end in similar results.
Nicole S.
3rd hour
Seven Deadly sins
ReplyDeleteAnger
Out of the seven deadly sins there is only one that is truly a destructive force. Anger in itself is not a sin but what it brings about is a sin. An example of this is when someone goes into a rage and kills another human being.
Anger leads to most of the current violent action which is why I think I it is the worst sin. If you think of it, most of the other sins lead to anger as well like greed, envy, lust, and pride. If a person is greedy and doesn’t get what they want, they get angry. Also, if someone is greedy and they take from someone else that person will get angry. If someone is envied that person will be driven angry. If a person commits adultery because of lust, usually, there is a lot of anger after it is figured out. If a person is arrogant they are usually not liked by their peers and they can become angry.
So if all the sins lead to anger, anger must be the worst of them all. There are only a few ways to release anger without sinning. This is why anger is the worst of the seven deadly sins.
Michael Blake
3rd Hour
Obviously all seven sins are destructive; but arrogance is the most detrimental personally. One of my main views in life is that everyone is equal and everyone deserves the same rights and sense of wellbeing. One of the things I hate most is when I feel like I am being talked down to or I see it happening to others. I would define arrogance as a feeling of superiority that usually leads to a perverted view of the world. For example, I see this person focusing all their attention on themselves and living their life for themselves, doing whatever pleases them. Albert Einstein said, “Only a life lived for others is worth living.” Being arrogant blocks the wonder from life and the ability to see the great qualities in others. I hope this makes sense; arrogance causes someone to be inable to see the wonders of the world because they are so focused on themselves—that is all they can see. This is in an extreme sense.
ReplyDeleteAs for society, I believe envy is the worst of the seven sins. As Americans we love money and our love for money drives our lives. For example, I was trying to get my mom to support a child in the Compassion program (you pay $30/month which funds a child’s school, health care, clothing, etc.). I would not say that her resistance to this program is greed, but it shows how attached we are to money. I believe our culture tells us that we need the newest gadgets, live in big houses and drive fancy cars. I’ve found that happiness does not come from how big your house is or how much money you make or what phone you use. Happiness cannot be bought. If our society would be less focused on buying happiness and making money, there would be less problems. For example suicide is one of the top 5 leading causes of death in the United States.
We also see commercials telling us that if we wear certain clothes or perfumes the other gender will love us. The advertising world basically says without this product you will not be happy, which leads to envious desire for that thing. Like I said envy drives us to think we should be a certain way. A society cannot function by trying to tell people what to buy to be happy. So, I think envy spirals into disaster in so many ways: wanting the coolest car, biggest house, newest phone, nicest clothes.
Megan M.
3rd Hour
All of the seven deadly sins can bring downfall into our lives. They can all push us to self-destruction, but I believe that envy can be the most personally destructive sin. The dictionary defines envy as a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another’s advantages, success, possessions, etc. Envious feelings can come from a sense of low self-esteem and can push us to want things that do not belong to us. These feelings can also push us to want misfortune to come across those whom we envy. To me, the reason why envying others can be so dangerous is because intense jealousy can make a person do some crazy things, especially in the world we live in today.
ReplyDeleteAs for society as a whole, I believe that greed is the most destructive deadly sin. Greed is an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth. Today, it seems as if most hurt and pain comes out of another’s greed. What is the real reason we are in Iraq right now? With all the money and resources this world has, why can’t we solve world hunger already? Imagine all that we could do if people just stopped wanting more and more of things that they don’t even need. Wars were fought and people have died because of this. I even know girls who go shopping every weekend, never use what they buy, and just throw whatever they are tired of looking at away. More and more material things do not automatically make you happy, but I guess people have to learn that for themselves.
Brittany C.
3rd Hour
The most personally destructive greed is lust because it can lead even the most virtuous person astray. As mentioned on the blog it has talked down from United States Presidents to Corporate Leaders to husbands and wives. Greed is our urge to have what we don’t have or our urge to have more and more. It is condemned by the Bible because people, instead of being humble and leading virtuous lives, start to become jealous and try to get more of something by any means necessary, which doesn’t exclude cheating and stealing. These actions lead, according to the Bible and many religions, away from God and to a sinful life.
ReplyDeleteGreed is also the most harmful on a global level (or society in general) because it can lead leaders to seek their own fortunes and corrupt good politicians. An example of a leader being corrupted by power is Nero of the Roman Empire, he was given command of the Roman Empire during a period of war and at the end of the war, and he didn’t forfeit his power. There are many instances where people are bribed and take the money over things such as family, country and honor. Another instance of great importance at the time was the British spy (whose name evades me) worked as a double agent for the Russians during the Cold War sold intelligence to them and before he got caught, deflected to Russia. These people sold out their country and family for money because they wanted more, because they got greedy. This happens nowadays as well in our society according to some, where they say our current president waged a war to get oil in the Middle East. If what they say is true, then we have lost many lives and the general public, billions of dollars, to fuel the greed for fuel for our political elites.
Of all the sins greed is the one that affect me the most. I don’t have greed for material things but I have greed to be better every time in everything I do. I hate having my own art work in the house because I see every flaw everything that I did wrong in that piece. It’s the same in everything I put my time into. It’s different for things I don’t really put my time into but if I invest myself into it ill be the best it is never good enough. It is really good in some situations but in others it can really screw me up. It is striving for perfection not a want of material possessions. For me greed is the most fine lined of all the sins because greed can go bad in a hurry. By comparison you have a good deal of wiggle room with the others. Where do you draw the line for being overly prideful? It’s a little harder to do so its my goal to always stay on the good side of my greed.
ReplyDeletenick e
All of the seven deadly sins can still destroy or break down a person, but for me personally I think that the most personally destructive one is gluttony. Gluttony is defined as having too much of something and I think that I have had way too much stuff given to me that I take for granite. All threw out my life I have grown up in a lifestyle where I have been very privileged growing up in a wealthy family where I take these nice things for granite. I have been on very nice vacations from spending my summers at my cottage in northern Michigan, skiing in Aspen, Colorado, and relaxing in the Dominican Republic. I have been privileged so much that I have sometimes forgotten what it is like for other kids who haven’t been so privileged. I then look at some of my friends who have lost parents and realized how hard it must be for them living without them until I realized that I take my parents for granite with my mom running the household and my dad sharing his wealth with us I used to just think like it was their job they had to to it until I also realized they don’t have to do anything. I think that I have been given too much in my privileged life that I take for granite too much. I think that the most destructive seven deadly sins for society is Anger. Threw out history Anger has caused many horrible things to happen such as the holocaust. Since Hitler was mad at Jewish people because of his bad childhood memories with a Jewish man, he killed 6 million Jews. Another example threw out history would have to be the Rwanda Genocide when the Hutu people killed thousands of Tutsi people because of there anger towards then for being the Europeans favorite ethnic group. As you can see in the past Anger has caused some serious problems which is why I think anger can be the most destructive in society.
ReplyDeleteTyler Howe 3rd hour
I would argue Wrath is the worst of the (manmade) “Seven Deadly Sins”, but I must admit that I arrive at that conclusion through a process of elimination, not because I think Wrath is a be-all-end-all of evil. To explain this decision, I feel the need to go through each sin and say why I either don't think it’s a sin, or mitigate the impact of the sin.
ReplyDeleteTo begin, Lust. Why is lust a sin? Coveting a neighbor's goods is a violation of the commandments, but what if you do nothing to follow through on your lust. What if you, in passing, admire your neighbor's new car? There is no harm to that. It is action on lust that produces sin (robbery, murder, etc), not lust itself.
Gluttony: Really? If you want to eat yourself to death, fine, so be it. While overeating (to an extreme degree) might be a sin because it is damaging to your body (which was given to you by God, and should thus be protected) calling it a cardinal sin seems to diminish the severity of other sins.
Greed: Why is greed bad? It drives our economy, innovation and productivity. It is the absence of greed which creates poverty and despair. If only more people had or utilized their drive to improve their situation (just a more politically correct way of saying greed) the US economy would be on better terms.
Sloth: is unfortunate, but again, it seems to be a personal decision, and rarely hurts others around you. It seems the "Seven Deadly Sins" list should be reserved for, minimum, sins which negatively effect people around the sinner (murder, warmonger).
Wrath: the anger and rage which Wrath includes does meet my standards. It implies that it is being done towards another. It implies and action, not just a personal thought. The world would probably be a better place without wrath.
Envy: See Greed, and try to explain the difference, or see lust. Both are responsive.
Pride: is it just me, but this seems to contradict with sloth. Taking both at level, it the Seven Deadly Sins list orders someone to use all their God given talents and abilities, but not to enjoy or take pride in their work. I’m sorry, but if I create a great work of art, why do I not have the right to bask in the glory of my creation? I’m not saying I should arrange parades for myself and pay people to ask for my autographs, that would be conceited arrogance, but having pride drives people to produce to their best of their abilities.
I think that all of the seven sins are things that can either make or break a person and his or her way of living\looking at life. I think the most destructive one of all of them is envy. Envy can turn someone into a totally different person. Yes, the other sins are bad as well, but I think that envy is one that can lead to one or a couple of the other sins. Envy can go anywhere from being jealous of a person with great grades or because they are better at a sport than you are. It can lead you to do completely wrong things. It can lead you to get angry and do whatever it takes to get what you dont have or want. It can lead to you becoming a greedy person, doing anything and everything it takes to get something from someone else. It can pertain to lust: if you are envious of , for example, someone that you are interested in that someone else has, it can lead you to doing something you will regret and getting it in any terms possible. Envy can make you angry and frusterated when you see people around you that are either much better than you , like at school or sports, or you think have a better life, like celebrities. You get angry that you dont have their life and you think that you are just a terrible person. It can lead to pride\arrogance, thinking too much about yourself to make yourself look even better and much cooler. In the end, I think that all of the sins are major and very destructive, but envy is the one that can lead to the rest and cause problems.
ReplyDeleteNicole M
3rd Hour
Of these seven, which do you think can be the most personally destructive and why? Also, which of the seven is the most destructive for society and why?
ReplyDeleteOf the seven sins, I think greed is the most personal and destructive. Greed, Greed, is a selfish desire for more than one needs or deserves. Greed can make honest men murderers. It has made countries with rich valuable resources into the poorest countries in the world. We are taught it is bad and not to practice it. But consider a world without greed, where everyone is as sharing as Mother Theresa was. The progress of humankind would be at a standstill. Greed has given our society faster travel, better service, more convenience, and most importantly, progress. Greed has created thousands of billionaires and millions of millionaires. But why is greed associated with evil? In their day, most capitalists like Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller were seen as pure evil. Vanderbilt stole from the poor. Rockefeller was a snake. But the name calling did not come from the consumers, it was the competing businesses that complained. Greed is all around us. Greed is sort of a love hate relationship. You have to be greedy if you want something in this world. The color of greed is green, more green more greed. Today see’s greed more than ever, I really hope that changes.
Rocky Shattuck
3rd hour
Blog#12
ReplyDeleteOut of all the seven deadly sins, I would say that the most destructive to oneself would be gluttony. Through gluttony, not only does one develop bad habits, but one also over partakes in an activity, such as eating. Too much of a good thing is never a good thing. If one over eats, then one will get fat, out of shape, and eventually die from their unhealthy eating habits. There is an obesity epidemic spreading across America. People are taking things like food for granted, when there are parts of the world where people don’t even have two meals or even one meal a day. When one is fat, not only does one have a low tolerance for exercise, but ones self-esteem goes down, and a lack of motivation is developed. Gluttony changes people from living beings to big bulges of nothing. I would say that the most harmful deadly sin to society is anger. So many bad things in this world are brought on by anger. War, violence, crime in general is mainly influenced by anger or distain for someone or something else. I’m sure Hitler was a very angry person. If the world was somehow to get rid of all its anger, it would be a paradise. Only peace and love would exist, and Jesus would love it.
TJ Hyland 3rd Hour
I feel that greed is the most destructive sin on a personal level, because when you’re greedy you don’t give to others and in the end it hurts yourself. I feel that greedy people are only looking out for themselves and in the end will never truly be happy because they just want more and more. On Christmas a greedy person wouldn’t get gifts for their family, but instead themselves, but in the end wouldn’t be happy with anything they have, because its not the gifts it’s the feeling of giving to those you care about and making others happy. Being greedy you desire more then you need, you want everything, but none of the things you get bring a feeling of happiness and you continue to want more.
ReplyDeleteI feel that anger is the most destructive to society. Being angry with life, people, anything, just makes things worse and tears people against one another. Racism could be the outcome of an angry person, or an angry president who wants war. Anger can cause accidents while you’re driving, make you say something to a loved one you truly regret, or even bring a good person to hurt or even murder another. Its destructive to society because very angry people are always on the edge and ready to do something hurtful to another, and the level of hurt varies on how angry that person is.
Katie Rothenberg
3rd hour.
On a personal level, sloth is certainly the most destructive of the seven deadly sins. Laziness and a lack of work ethic or drive cripple a person’s ability to succeed throughout their entire lifetime. Other sins may cause problems to the sinner, but do not effect a complete meltdown of their life. Sins such as greed, envy, anger tend to be directed at others, not hurting the wrongdoer. Pride can in some ways help a person succeed, though excessive quantities degrade character. Nonetheless, the outward effects of arrogance not nearly as negative as of sloth. The two remaining sins, lust and gluttony can lead to problems such as health or some social issues, but these are not as serious as those caused by sloth. These two are more of vices, activities considered to be evil because they are immoral, but from which the sinners derive enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteAnger is the most destructive sin from a societal level, as it causes violence, wars, and death. Other sins that affect many others, those such as greed and envy, and even pride, might cause displeasure and a decrease in happiness. For example, greed might cause the surrounding population to have less money or possessions, but this does not compare to the outright pain they would experience due to anger.
David Sherman
3rd Hour
Envy is most destructing to me. I know that what I have and who I am if great but I am constantly looking at others and wanting that they have. It doesn’t matter what it is, it can be money, clothes, or even family. Even if those things wouldn’t be right in my life, I see how well their life’s are with these things. This is one of my biggest down falls because with envy I find it impossible to move forward with my life. I am constantly living in what I want and not what I already have. If I could only be content with my life, I feel I could move forward and be such a stronger person. I think anger is most destructive for society. With anger you can’t possibly come to terms with things which create a distance from the rest of society. I feel like our society need to be one, and with anger none of this can happen. Everyone is different and I think anger is created because of those differences. No one will ever is the same to people need to come to terms with those differences that people have. If there wasn’t anger people would be way more accepting I feel.
ReplyDeleteerin 3rd
Of these seven, which do you think can be the most personally destructive and why? Also, which of the seven is the most destructive for society and why?
ReplyDeleteIt is really hard to answer this question because it depends on the circumstances. In moderation, most of these sins can be just fine. For example everyone gets angry from time to time. Is getting angry a sin? I don’t believe so…it is how you deal with that anger that makes the difference. The more anger a person has the more likely it is destructive. I would have to say that in excessive amounts, the worst for a person is greed. You hear about people working on their greed issues but you don’t often hear about a person working on their greed issues. It can become all a person thinks about or acts upon. When greed gets really bad you just want everything or something specific but you do not know when to stop. It can get as bad as taking from others. A person can lose thing because of greed including site of what is important.
While greed can be very destructive for society, I believe that at this point anger is the major problem with our society. So many people act upon their anger and do horrible things as a result. I bet that there are many people that regret things they have done out of anger that has made an impact on our society. Think of crime, don’t you think some of it was done out of anger? This would definitely be a hard problem to fix though….
Kaelin Roberts Hour 4
In my opinion, for society, greed has seemed to take over. It is slowly but surely corrupting the entire world, one country at a time. Mainly starting with America, Americans seem to be unusually greedy. Greed can lead to other of the deadly sins. For example, when people are especially greedy, it can lead to murder for specific things that they want that other people have. When people complain about maybe not liking some food, or something of that sort, a common response is “people in _________ don’t have anything!” we sit here, in our million dollar houses, eating our fancy food, and seem to not care about the third world countries that have no food, no water and barely any shelter.
ReplyDeleteFor the individual person, gluttony is the worst in my personal opinion. Over indulgence is what gets people in so much trouble. Drug addicts, over eating, things of that nature are things that contribute to the over all fatness of America, the many rehabilitation centers that have to be opened to house the crack addicts. Movie stars, who seem to be living the dream life, with money, cars and fame, are one by one ending up in rehabilitation centers because they get their hands on drugs once, and cant stop. They ruin their lives because of it.
The most destructive of the seven deadly sins on a personal level is greed. I am already very lucky to have as much as I do, but yet, I always want something more simply for my own pleasure. Most of the items I ask for are not even close to being necessary to live a good and healthy life. I may want a better car, but there are people and families who don’t have cars, let alone having their kids own one. I may want a new video game, but there are people who don’t even have homes to put a television in. Accepting what I have is an important lesson to be learned.
ReplyDeleteThe most destructive of the seven deadly sins for society is pride, in my opinion. Even though pride is a good quality to have, there are too many people that take it too far. If people believe they are better than everyone else and have more authority than anyone else, the world will be filled with dictatorship and chaos. An example of pride as a sin is the tactics of one Adolf Hitler. He believed he was the ruler of the world, and that he should say who lives. His actions left a countless number dead. This kind of person could come along any day and society would be in turmoil again. It is important that people realize their place in the world and the limits on their pride.
Carter Freeman
4th Hour
Louie DiVizio
ReplyDeleteOf all of the seven deadly sins, I believe that all are personally destructive, but how a person deals with their feelings dictates how destructive they can be. Anger for example, if handled incorrectly, can be the most destructive as shown in needless wars, gang violence, and revenge. Anger could also be one of the least destructive sins, because it can be used to do good. The phrase “Anger is a gift” exemplifies this fact. If a person’s mother were to be murdered in a robbery, the sinful thing to do, in my opinion, would be to seek out the murderer, in revenge, and kill them. On the other hand the person could channel their anger into something constructive like joining law enforcement while combating thieves and murderers like the one who killed that person’ mother. Pride is a sin that can also be used for either good things or bad. One must be able to take pride in one’s accomplishments, but at the same time reserve that pride when thinking of others, never comparing other individuals to one’s self. One always must respect others no matter what their situation or circumstances.
The one sin that cannot be used for good, and only for evil is greed. Greed has no importance or positive aspects for personally or at a societal level. It is human nature to desire, yet it is evil to put others at a disadvantage in an attempt to reach these desires. Everyone has realistic ideas of what they want to have or who they want to be, but the difference between good and evil is whether or not one is willing to take advantage of others to obtain these dreams.
All of the seven sins can be destructive if they are over indulged. If it is personal destruction, I believe that envy can be the most destructive. A human being will always be trying to better itself, which is why envy is such a common sin. If someone sees someone else with a more superior quality, than they can become very envious of that person and either work harder to obtain that quality, or hope that the other person would lose it. Being this envious is most likely rooted in low self esteem, or greed. These qualities may lead to anger if that person gets too envious. It may even lead to sloth if the person just gives up on obtaining that quality because they think they will never be able to obtain it. All of the seven sins can somehow manifest into one another, which in fact is probably the most destructive. Envy and anger seem to be the two sins that can lead into all of the other sins, which makes them the most destructive. Anger is more destructive in society, though, because if you are angry personally you can try and cope with it or talk with someone else about it in order to come to terms. If the society is angry, then it can lead to a much more dramatic effect, which may be a terrorist attack on anther country. Coming to terms with the society as a whole and making every person happy is impossible.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Connelly
Sloth is my most personally destructive sin. I always want to take things slow. It makes going to the gym and extra challenge. But even worse my ability to make decisions is completely sluggish. When people look to me to make choice I often find myself mulling over the different ways to think about it, trying it from every angle possible. I even read slower than most people do. It makes reading very hard for me because I read each word slowly and just take it all in. Greed is the most destructive sin for our society. I think it would be more fairly characterized as an excess of greed. Some of it in a society is good because with out it capitalism would pretty much fail to function. I think that the best illustration of what greed can do to a society is what went with Enron and its partner companies. They smudged their books and constructed a system that would artificially keep them afloat until they collapsed. This left a large hole in the economy while the CEOs walked away with large pensions. The rolling black outs that they created in California were another great example of who destructive greed is. People died in those blackouts and they caused the recall of the governor of California.
ReplyDeleteLeah Veronica Firestone
I think that envy can be most destructive on a personal level. If you are constantly looking at others and evaluating your life for what it lacks, your negative mindset could prohibit you from reaching your full potential. If you are constantly getting down on yourself about not being the best at something, it is difficult to regain the confidence required to succeed. Also, envy could lead you to want things that are not necessarily good for you. It can also lead people to make irrational decisions hurting both themselves and those around them. What envious people fail to realize is that just because someone has something you don’t does not give you the need or the privilege to it. Maybe a friend of yours seems to get everything they want at no cost and you see yourself working extremely hard and only getting halfway. You may become envious of their life and their “privileges,” but what you don’t know is all that is behind the smoke and mirrors. The “happy” housewife married to the CEO with three kids living in the suburbs, may have grown up in a single parent home, may have lost a sibling. The possibilities are endless, but envy interferes with peoples’ rational thinking and makes them want something just because they don’t have it, not because it would be good or beneficial to them. You end up hurting yourself more by seeing yourself as lacking, instead of looking at your life and realizing all the good things that you do have and that you love.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of society, I believe that anger is the most destructive. Much like envy, anger can cause people to become irrational and make regretful decisions. When people act or speak out of anger situations often become escalated far more than necessary. When people are angry it creates a hostile and often dangerous environment. The decisions made, often using emotion and lacking logic, can get out of hand and lead people to criminal acts. There are not many safe and appropriate ways to publicly express one’s anger, and therefore it is often translated into violence. A violent and angry society cannot function, making anger the most destructive and harmful sin for society.
Jordan H
4th Hour
I think that anger is the most personally destructive because hatred can destroy a person. Angry people are usually not satisfied with their life and they don’t know how to fix it. Since they don’t know how to make their life better, they can get depressed. Also, angry people lash out at others so most of them, lose friends and their relationships with their family isn’t so good. I think that greed is the most destructive for society. Greedy people want everything and it doesn’t matter how they get them. For example, it a country wants another country’s natural resources but that country doesn’t want to share, then the country that wants the natural resources might declare war. I agree that envy and gluttony are forms of greed. I also think that envy can come from anger too. The angry person might be upset because they see someone that has something really cool that they don’t have. Gluttony is bad too because people want all the food they can eat, even if it means taking it away from someone else. So greed is the worst because some thieves steal what they want because they were envious of other people having that thing, and people who have food don’t want to share it with people who don’t have anything to eat.
ReplyDeleteLoren Bailey 4th hour
The sin I find most destructive for myself is greed. I’m lucky to be born in such a good area and a lot of the time I take that for granted. It’s easy to want things that aren’t a necessity and I guess that’s one of my biggest weaknesses. I love to shop and this is where this sin really takes its toll on me. When you go to the mall there are so many things to choose from that it’s overwhelming. I look at all the different items and say “Oh I have to have this”; even though I know that I could use my money for a more worthy cause than a cute pair of jeans. If I instead took that money and donated it to charity, I would be contributing to helping many other people. By being selfless instead of greedy I would have made a bigger impact on others and in turn, my life would have a greater meaning.
ReplyDeleteThe sin that I find most destructive for the world is also greed. If no one was selfish or greedy, war probably wouldn’t even exist. Most countries go in to war because they want more land or think they’re entitled to greater things. If everyone was content with what they had, no one would go to war to try and make themselves a superior country. Also if no one was greedy, the world would be a much better place. People would focus on others as much as they focused on themselves. Instead of being greedy and buying useless items for themselves, they’d think about how they could benefit those less fortunate. The world would be a much better place if greed was nonexistent.
Samantha Paul
4th hour
Each individual sin has different destructive qualities when comparing said sins on personal and societal levels.
ReplyDeleteWith any individual I view anger as the most destructive sin. Acts carried out in anger are often regretted, easily avoidable, and coincidentally the most tragic. In the 2008 film In Bruges Harry, upset with one of his assassins, slams the phone on the hook several times, causing his wife to point out “it’s an inanimate object”, causing Harry to point out “You’re an inanimate object”. Harry didn’t mean to call his wife an inanimate object (he later apologizes for it), but in his impulsive rage he still insulted her, and decides to head to Bruges, where the story ends tragically.
On a societal level, I view greed as the sin with the most potent destructive qualities. Bernard Madoff, a current example, has been greedy for decades, allegedly making thirty to fifty billion, ruining the lives of thousands of families, charities, businesses. Former home owners took advantage of sub prime loans to live in bigger, more expensive homes. The greed of most of these home owners hurt the economy, resulting in banks selling homes at bargain prices losing money. The real estate market is still suffering a year later because of the sub prime lending shenanigans.
(on a side note, that’s a good movie, and I didn’t spoil anything)
Sean Turner
For me, the most intense personal destruction does not manifest itself in physical pain. A large majority of the time, mental anguish is more agonizing to me than physical discomfort. Relaxation or medication can significantly improve an injury, but psychological care can only improve mental anguishes to a certain extent. Therefore, the most destructive sin to me would be one that would cause me to be preoccupied with all the negative aspects of my life, which would lead me into a state of depression and hopelessness. The cause would be greediness. If I were not greedy, I would be content with all my blessings in my life, and only hope for necessities in no excess. If I learned to conquer greed, I would most likely not suffer from envy or gluttony because they are specific forms of greed. Greed creates dissatisfaction within me concerning everything I attempt: I always want higher grades, nicer clothes, healthier food, tastier food, a better face and body, more success, more time. My greed destroys appreciation for everything I am so fortunate to have, and causes my existence to revolve around acquiring more and more. This spiral of avarice is practically never ending, for if I fail to conquer my greediness, nothing will ever suffice and the slippery slope will devastate all my remaining satisfaction about what I have because it’s just not enough. I recall many recent and past experiences when I was utterly miserable because I craved something, either material or a representation of achievement, my self-esteem plummeted, and my vision of self worth along with it. Feeling inadequate, unworthy, and inferior is the worst form of internal, personal destruction, and therefore, greed causes me the most torment.
ReplyDeleteIt is extremely difficult to choose solely one sin that is the most destructive to society, because a combination is what creates controversies or devastations. Pride causes extreme nationalism in countries and societies, which causes depreciation of others and attempts to prove superiority. The most tragic examples are Nazi Germany, whose extreme pride in being “pure Germans” escalated to extermination of any other religion, ethnicity, culture, or anyone different, and slavery and white supremacy, where pride in being “white” created disgust, oppression, and torture in non whites. Anger causes physical wars, killings, homicides, genocides, but pride causes a deeper anger that personally insults and destroys the humanity, faith, and self esteem of others. Death is a horrible tragic fate, but a fate worse than death is destruction of the purpose of life, or living through hell and torture, which is what people endure when suffering crimes driven by extreme pride. Although confidence in oneself is a positive trait, an overabundance of pride is massively destructive to all who encounter it.
Laura Dietrich. 4th
The most destructive sin, by far, is anger. All the other sins are just selfish. Lust is one's sexual desire, gluttony is one's indulgence, greed is fulfilling one's needs, envy is wanting another's possessions, pride is one's dignity, sloth is one's laziness. Wrath is the only sin that is purposefully directed toward others. The intent is to cause harm to others whether passively or directly through verbal, mental or physical means. Anger is the cause of most deaths, rapes, and mass murders.
ReplyDeleteMany cannot or do not want to face the causes of anger. They refuse to resolve the source, resentment builds and reactions are bound to occur. Different people react in different ways. Those who cannot control or deal with their anger may lash out at others. These crimes are deliberately committed to hurt others, in an effort to ease their own issues.
Not only is anger a powerful emotion, the frightening part, is that we all experience it. This is not to say that all people who are angry go on killing sprees. Many learn to deal with their anger in a constructive manner. It’s the small, insignificant things that tend to snowball up. Perhaps a person of a certain race or religion hurts you in any way. Small resentment builds up and the next time a person of that same religion or race hurts you, assumptions rise. After many of these instances, stereotypes, generalizations, and hate overcomes reasoning and violence can easily occur. Anger is a subtle progression, a quiet threat, and a deadly sin.
Chelsea R. 3rd Hour
Personally I think the most destructive deadly sin would have to be envy. Being envious of someone can cause an individual to do some pretty crazy things. Sometimes it can drive one to do something good, but for the most part the result is negative. For example, we all know that in our society today skinny equals beauty. Whether or not that is actually true is arguable, but according to those who write the magazines that we read or the television shows that we watch if you are not skinny then you are worthless. I can think of so many of my friends who would do anything to be skinny because they envy the “gorgeous” models/actresses and their bodies. So many teen girls end up having a disorder because of how hard they try to be skinny, so that’s why I believe that envy is the most personally destructive of the seven deadly sins. As far as our society goes, I think that anger is the deadliest sin. When anger occurs at a bigger level than just an individual, then our society has problem. Different groups and organizations can form and do whatever it takes to spread their hate. Anger causes people to act inhumane towards other humans. It is the root of evil and it leads to terrible things like war and genocide.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth O'Donnell
4th hour
The deadliest sin for me personally is sloth. I feel it is the root of most failures and shortcomings in my life. It was present whenever I realize I had the capacity to do better or to achieve more. Whenever I throw together a homework assignment at the last minute or skip studying for a test it is because of sloth. I had the ability to do the work well, but chose not to because I was too lazy. Sloth also causes me to procrastinate. I put off a task until I absolutely have to do it when I knew from the time I received it I would have to do it eventually. The end result of procrastination is a less the excellent final product that had the potential to be excellent. Procrastination ends up wasting time because I am doing almost nothing except thinking about the task while I wait until I have to start working. In the world I see envy as the deadliest sin. Nearly every war ever fought was a result of envy. Whether it is land, resources, or other forms of wealth, leaders have started wars because they want to take something they don’t have. Crimes such as theft are a result of envy. For these reasons, envy is the deadliest sin for the world.
ReplyDeleteStefan R.
4th Hour
The sin envy I believe is most destructive to both personal and societal. Aristotle said that”the pain caused by the good fortune of others". Envy and greed are very similar in that they both are about not having a material object that someone else has and feeling jealousy toward that person. People often think bad thoughts about that person or hatred. I believe that envy goes a step further because not only you feel that way about material items but about emotions or talents. When you are envious of someone it could be for a particular skill, talent, personality trait, or even having love. Envy is destructive of a person because it can eat away at them and can make them become obsessed with something. The person can stop living a normal healthy life; because they can let whatever they are envious take over their life. Envy can be bad for a society because it can cause people to only think of themselves and their own problems instead of the great good for all. Envy can affect everyone, it is a universal feeling. It can create very unhappy people; people can become depressed and stop caring about important things. If everyone was depressed and unhappy no would be around to run society and nothing would ever get done.
ReplyDeleteErin Bay 4th
Kate Goforth
ReplyDeleteLate
The worst sin for a human’s personal health is pride. Pride can be good in moderation. It promotes a healthy self-esteem, and a sense of togetherness within a group. However, if not felt in moderation, pride can become self-destructive. Pride can make a person’s self-image become inflated. This can lead to a feeling of superiority over others, which as history shows, is not good. It can poison minds and effect how the prideful person interacts with others. If the actions are extreme enough it can lead to severed relationships.
The worst sin for society is greed. Greed pushes people do go to extreme lengths to achieve what they are striving for. These great lengths are not always good. A prime example of the power of greed affecting a society is the power of a totalitarian dictator. Dictators are usually people who greedily take their power by force. Greed doesn’t have to be in the form of a dictator to badly affect a society. Some large corporations are greedy for money. Sometimes the corporations are so greedy that they put local businesses out of business. This causes unemployment and struggles for families. These are just a few examples of how destructive certain deadly sins can be on people and society
Deciphering a more deadly deadly sin is like trying to find a more addictive addictive drug, slightly oxymoronic and they both can lead to other more horrific things and can cause a chain reaction. As an individual I think the sins that are most destructive are envy and greed. If you are envious of others, you are not comfortable or confident with yourself, and if you don’t have the self confidence, control and will within yourself, it would be extremely east to fall steep and slippery slope to the rest of the sins, if you don’t have the strength to say no, or the respect for yourself to be above the things that are wrong or handle situations that could cause you to react poorly. Also if you are envious it can drive you to do harmful things to those who have what you want or push you to do anything to attain them no matter the immorality of the action. If you are not happy with you life and you self you have no confidence and there for cannot being living you best life and thinking of others and their happiness if too concerned with your own.
ReplyDeleteThe most destructive sin to society is anger. The obvious effects of this emotion are violence and death, people become angry, become violent, become hostile, become harmful, and potentially fatal. The killing of people can spiral into all of the other sins via the people affected by the loss of the deceased creating more anger and killing eventually a perpetual cycle of hate and killing emerges. The things that people are driven to do because of anger are not limited to violence, occasionally positive things are done out of spite, but since they are done for the wrong reasons they lose most of their meaning. Anger is where all the wars come from which leads to more hate and anger. Anger is what causes people to beat their children which causes those children pain and again anger. All the sins are almost equal in their deadliness they are most always intertwined but I think anger is the sin that spirals into more of it self or other sins more than any other sin, and most certainly has the deadliest of consequences, death.
Ben Despard
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say that I believe envy is the route of all evil. Envy affects people on a mental level. It breeds depression, resentment, and low self esteem, amongst other things… These can manifest themselves in many ways, and can transform into any of the other sins. Envy over another’s girlfriend can lead to lustful thoughts and acts, wanting someone’s job can lead you to become greedy, or just envying someone for the respect others give them can lead to loathing and wrathful acts. There are many examples of envy, the popular tv drama Sex and The City, for instance, or Desperate House Wives. In these shows, women, mostly, are jealous of another woman for the husband she has, or the life style she lives. And they will stop at no means to get what they want. They will lie, cheat, steal, seduce or otherwise coerce what they want out of people. This ties in well with greed, lust, wrath, and maybe even a little bit of pride. Slothfulness or gluttony can be the cause of envy as well, when one is too lazy or fat to go out and get a job, or maybe the beautiful girl they see their friend with. Envy could also be on a more global scale, say for instance, country A has more resources then country B. country B sees this, and wishes they could have a thriving economy too. So country B attacks country A. country B has become greedy and wrathful because of their envy. As you can see, Envy is a dangerous thing, especially when it manifests itself physically.
The seven deadly sins are named very appropriately. Each of them leads to destructive and harmful behavior at a certain level. While all can be destructive on a personal level, I believe that sloth, gluttony, and envy rank in the top three. Sloth is more personally destructive because it is likely that the person most affected by one’s laziness is themselves. They don’t get anything done and their life will be empty from being lazy. Gluttony is another sin that I believe to be more personally destructive because again the person most affected is the one committing the sin. Envy is also in my top three because if one is envious of something or someone they are only feeling worse about themselves. Since there are sins that are on a more personal level, there are some that are on a societal level. Anger, greed, and pride are in my top three most destructive to society. Anger is more destructive to society because it can cause war, genocide, assault, and many other things that push society back. Greed can also set society back because it blinds people to what is really good. A person can get so obsessed with what they want that they forget what’s right and what is wrong so they’ll do anything to get it. Pride ties in with both of these because it has to do with one person believing that they’re better than others. Pride can cause a variety of horrible things to happen to society. Although some sins may reign over others in terms of what they’re destructive to, I think that each one is equally problematic to people and society in their own way.
ReplyDeleteLauren Lounsbery
3rd hour
The seven deadly sins are seven sins that were originally used by the Catholic church to educate followers on man's tendency to sin, and how they could lead to their downfall. The sins were as follows: lust, greed, wrath, gluttony, sloth, pride and envy.
ReplyDeleteSt. Thomas Aquinas wrote that greed was "a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things," claiming it to be the worst of all the sins. I completely agree with Aquinas. Greed is the most destructive of all the sins.
Greed is a sin of excess. It's what leads people to believe that their happiness is based on a need of material things rather than being emotionally satisfied. These feelings are what lead us to have envy for what others have and take an excess of pride in what we do have. I believe that greed can ultimately lead us to all the other sins, among other bad things that may not necessarily be categorized as a "deadly sin."
I think the best example of this is Enron. In California, we saw all of these office workers' morals slowly deteriorate simply because they were greedy.
Jackie V.
4th Hour
I think that all of the seven sins are equally destructive when they are to the extreme. I think that each sin can destroy a person. One sin that sticks out to me as being personally destructive would be envy. I think when a person cannot find happiness in themselves then they will never be happy with anything. An envious person always wants what others have and feels hatred towards the person they are envious of. Envy can also turn into other things such as theft, anger, or inflicting pain on yourself or others. Envy can eat away at a person and prevent them from having a happy, fufilled life. I think the sin that is most destructive for society is sloth. If everyone was lazy and didnt put effort into the things they do then nothing would ever get accomplished. There would be no point in living and everyones life would be useless. The reason we have so much technology and knowledge is because people put their minds to use and strive to do things. I think that all of the seven deadly sins can affect society negatively and many of them are today.
ReplyDeleteHilary B. 3rd hr.
Kristin T
ReplyDelete4th hour
i don't know why this came up as homegirl holms before....but its mine...
Deciphering a more deadly deadly sin is like trying to find a more addictive addictive drug, slightly oxymoronic and they both can lead to other more horrific things and can cause a chain reaction. As an individual I think the sins that are most destructive are envy and greed. If you are envious of others, you are not comfortable or confident with yourself, and if you don’t have the self confidence, control and will within yourself, it would be extremely easy to fall steep and slippery slope to the rest of the sins, if you don’t have the strength to say no, or the respect for yourself to be above the things that are wrong or handle situations that could cause you to react poorly. Also if you are envious it can drive you to do harmful things to those who have what you want or push you to do anything to attain them no matter the immorality of the action. If you are not happy with you life and you self you have no confidence and there for cannot being living you best life and thinking of others and their happiness if too concerned with your own.
The most destructive sin to society is anger. The obvious effects of this emotion are violence and death, people become angry, become violent, become hostile, become harmful, and potentially fatal. The killing of people can spiral into all of the other sins via the people affected by the loss of the deceased creating more anger and killing eventually a perpetual cycle of hate and killing emerges. The things that people are driven to do because of anger are not limited to violence, occasionally positive things are done out of spite, but since they are done for the wrong reasons they lose most of their meaning. Anger is where all the wars come from which leads to more hate and anger. Anger is what causes people to beat their children which causes those children pain and again anger. All the sins are almost equal in their deadliness they are most always intertwined but I think anger is the sin that spirals into more of it self or other sins more than any other sin, and most certainly has the deadliest of consequences, death.