Stop Hitting Yourself

Explicit content warning

05/20/24 • 71 min

1 Listener

If sin were ugly, the world would be a paradise. Sin has a lot of faces in religious traditions around the world, some more consequential than others.

Hamartiology is the study of sin, and it looks like some folk only want to define the line so they know how close they can stand. Sin is simply the misstep or error that divides people. Some people are more interested in listing sins than in uniting people. Ther principle that defines sin even exists in atheist philosophy, when appropriately defined.

Buddhist thinkers differ on the value of discussing sin, some deny the principle altogether, others recognize that harm begets harm.

In Shinto doctrine, sin (or tsumi) is the idea that bad things have lingering effects, this even includes personal ugliness in cultural manifestation. Harae is the process of cleaning up those things that get in our way.

Thinking about karma too much is bad, but doing bad things gives you more bad karma, so that's even worse.

The Decalogue (Ten Commandments) is a terrible misnomer, built on the cultural obsession with round numbers. There are in fact 14 individual commandments in the decalogue, that's why different traditions give different lists. The Torah actually lists 613 commandments, but they don't have the weight of the decalogue, not being written by the finger of God.

The Seven Deadly Sins are great, but poorly understood by many, we'll give you the short version.

As the Doctor says, "Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."

The sacrifice of Christ as taught by most Christians was a lot more than a rough weekend of not being alive, it included intense suffering beyond the comprehension of most, all to empower his demand that we orgive one another, just as we need forgiveness.

All this and more....

Support us on Patreon or you can get our merch at Spreadshop.

Join the Community on Discord.

Learn more great religion factoids on Facebook and Instagram.

If sin were ugly, the world would be a paradise. Sin has a lot of faces in religious traditions around the world, some more consequential than others.

Buddhist thinkers differ on the value of discussing sin, some deny the principle altogether, others recognize that harm begets harm.

Thinking about karma too much is bad, but doing bad things gives you more bad karma, so that's even worse.

The Seven Deadly Sins are great, but poorly understood by many, we'll give you the short version.

As the Doctor says, "Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."

All this and more....

Support us on Patreon or you can get our merch at Spreadshop.

Join the Community on Discord.

Learn more great religion factoids on Facebook and Instagram.

Previous Episode

Let's Build a Church

What is a church? How does a religious society really differentiate itself from any other kind of society? What does it take to become a priest of the Holy Watermelon?

Some people join self-help groups without realizing they've been trapped in a cult. We'll be up front about it: this is a church.

How can we be a church while also being secular and academic? Easy, the rules that define religion are extremely soft. Emile Durkheim and Clifford Geertz weigh in with their definitions, which are variably useless; James Martineaux is just wrong about what counts as religion when we look beyond the walls of the Abrahamic tradition; Friedrich Schleiermacher makes some sense of the matter, but it's hard to agree with him, too, even to the point that we have to agree with Sigmund Freud in pointing out the obvious flaws in his reasoning....

Church, worship, piety, and reverence each get a little bit of attention in this pursuit of useful definitions, too.

Ultimately, the San Lanatus Fellowship stands for humanity, education, and critical curiosity, welcoming people of all spiritual inclinations under the banner of undefined agnosticism.

All this and more....

Support us on Patreon or you can get our merch at Spreadshop.

Join the Community on Discord.

Learn more great religion factoids on Facebook and Instagram.

Next Episode

Cover Your Shame

Religious clothing is as varied as any other kind of fashion, but there are a few common themes that we will highlight:

Chastity is encouraged in modesty, and it's weird that covering your hair is more important that loose-fitting tops; weirder still when covering your hair with more hair has religious pressure on the cultural misstep.

Fancy hats are everywhere, in a wide variety of styles remind us to think of our gods, and tell others that we're focused on what's important to our grandparents.

Temples and priesthoods are also associated with specific clothing, including Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Catholic, and Latter-day Saint (Brighamite Mormon) traditions.

All this and more....

Support us on Patreon or you can get our merch at Spreadshop.

Join the Community on Discord.

Learn more great religion factoids on Facebook and Instagram.