Personal Narratives: The Seven Deadly Sins

C.S. Lewis calls Christian belief a ‘shocking alternative’ to other views because humans have free will (Lewis 52). People might wonder why the ‘almighty’ Christian God unable to prevent humans from temptations. Free will is a gift to humans; God does not force people to do anything because He wants them to love Him ‘whole-heartedly’ (Matthew 22:37). This paper will explain why Lewis is right based on the possibilities to do evil and commit sin, and yet also be forgiven.

According to the theologians, pride is the worst of the seven deadly sins. therefore having pride in what you do is all about motivation. Getting motivated and doing something you love to achieve full potential is in a human nature. Scientifically spoke, it all begins from the bunch of chemicals that is happening in your brain. While all animals produce basic emotions like fear and anger, humans have highly developed social emotions, such as shame, guilt and pride which involve an awareness of what other people think and feel about us. The serotonin is the chemical that produces happiness in your brain.

The sequence of temptation is the lust of the Flesh. The second is the lust of the eye’s, and the third is the pride of life.

The cardinal sins are “sins that characterize fallen humanity,” according to orthodox Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church in particular (ReligionFacts). While the Bible does include lists of sins, none of these lists align with the traditional “deadly” sins known today; the list of seven cardinal sins were actually created in the fourth century by a monk named Evagrius Ponticus (ReligionFacts). After several revisions, a list of cardinal sins fell into more popular use when poet Dante Alighieri used them in The Divine Comedy (ReligionFacts). According to modern interpretations of the list, the seven sins are as follows:

The sin Gluttony does not pertain only to food, it is the “desire to consume more than that which one requires” (Shannon). Therefore, it can be too much of sex, clothes, alcohol, toys, etc. The Franklin gluttonous, he liked to eat and drink copious amounts. He would always have cake for breakfast and his house was never out of

It is one of the most underrated troubles. For it causes many issues in the world, though the blame always seems to fall upon some other reason of cause. Laziness causes people to not want to fulfill their wildest dreams to refusing to do necessary duties. On the island of the lotus eaters, Odysseus faces laziness at its most extreme. The lotus flowers cause people to magically lose their longing for home. Sailors don’t have much control over their laziness, for it was forced upon them by way of magic lotus flowers from the natives. My troubles with laziness come from giving up because something is “too hard”, when really I just am being lazy. It causes me to not work as hard as I should to achieve my goal of having a happy and healthy lifestyle. Laziness in Odysseus’ story and mine are similar because we both lose the lust for our goal. Luckily we can both overcome laziness with hard work and determination, even if Pandora releases it from the box

When we focus on our own needs, and we ignore the plight of the people around us; then we are living in a way that is contrary to the will of God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to sin as selfishness, and Karl Barth said that the root of sin is pride.

These are three of the bible’s seven deadly sins that are ingrained in our society. Sins that our heroes are still fighting today.

In Dante’s Commedia, Dante the pilgrim travels through all the layers of Hell, then Purgatory, and finally Paradise. Throughout his journey, he learns of all the things that can earn a person a spot in Hell, and attempts to learn how to change who he is in order to avoid the same fate for himself in his life. Dante mainly works his way through the Seven Deadly Sins, which are all damning, although only if they are present in excess. Dante, however, believes that there are some sins that are worse than the others. In his eyes, the worst possible sin is pride, so horrible that it lands you in the innermost circle of Hell. Dante, however, fails to examine the different extents of pride, as there is a difference between pride that is earned and pride that is excessive and polluting.

The fifth deadly sin states, “Thou shalt not waste,” (Anthony and Chick 10). I am guilty of this because most of my paychecks are spent on extremely unnecessary buys, like useless items that I will only ever use once. Instead of thinking of better ways to spend my money before I spend it, I impulsively use it to buy junk. Think before you speak? More like think before you spend. “We… waste money because we’re too lazy… to sit down and consider better ways to use our money,” (Anthony and Chick 10). I have this awful habit of buying unnecessary junk only for the convenience, like going to a fast food restaurant to buy food during my breaks at work instead of bringing food from home for free. Wasting money is a sin I need to stop if I ever want to be satisfied with my finances someday. Additionally, the next debtly sin I commit also needs to stop. The third and final debtly sin I commit is the seventh. The seventh debtly sin states, “Thou shalt not be ruled by your social life,” (Anthony and Chick 12). This sin legitimately impacts my life at the moment and I'm afraid it will become worse if I do not stop it soon. I have never been part of the “in-crowd” and that is probably where this sin roots. I have always been on the outside, watching everyone else have fun without me and now that I have friends, I want to fit in and go everywhere my friends go, even if that means blowing more money than I should. If I want

While it is not the first thing that comes to mind when the sins are brought up, gluttony is a huge aspect of our society, referring to the overconsumption of goods and resources to the point of waste. Society today literally runs off of gluttony, where people on a daily basis are always after more, no matter how much they already have. This ties into greed on some levels, but it differs in that when people are gluttonous, they crave so much that things are being wasted or taken away from those who don’t have much. It is almost ironic to think that as much as we encourage giving to local food banks or volunteering at soup kitchens, we are so gluttonous and waste so much food everyday that could go to other people who have nothing and are dying of starvation. Gluttony is extremely present in the film, specifically Augustus Gloop, who practically eats his feelings.

1. There are many different sins not listed here. However, many of these great sins, like murder, adultery, stealing, etc., have root causes, like Pride. Pride was the devil's great sin, as he wanted to be like God, and rebelled. There are 7 basic kinds of sin that lead to all others, known as the Seven Deadly sins. It takes heroic virtue in most cases to overcome these. Most of us are afflicted greatly with at least one or two of these. And once you give in to one of these sins, the spirits of the other 6 will be only too glad to come into your soul also. All of these sins will lead you directly to hell.

Mistakes can either be titled as a sin or a flaw, the difference between them is a flaw turns into a sin. A flaw only turns into a sin when a person is getting punished for their actions. One sin can be people being greedy. The story “The fisherman and His Wife” develops the idea of those who are greedy, will never be satisfied and will be punished with downfall, demise, or death. In this story, the fisherman catches a fish who was once a prince. He let the fish go back to the sea, after he promised the fisherman what he wishes, but the fisherman had nothing in mind. However, after the fisherman’s wife learned about this fish, she desired a “snug little cottage”. The fish granted her wish, but she was still not satisfied with the result, “…why

The Bible classifies the seven deadly sins – greed, envy, sloth, wrath, gluttony, pride and lust – as the characteristics of people which will lead to unhappiness. One particular sin evident in our world today is greed. Greed is defined as an excessive desire to possess wealth or goods. The greed that exists in our world leads people to unhappy and selfish lives. Greed is evident through individual people, corporate companies and in our governments.

The Seven Deadly Sins have been around since the very beginning of religion and christianity. Many of the sins play a key role in numerous stories and epics and the moral of those stories usually focuses on avoiding those specific sins. One particular sin has a large role in three books. Greed is characterized as an intense and selfish want for things, such as money and power. People today struggle with greed on a daily basis. It's human nature to do anything to gain as much power or popularity as possible due to their personal greed. Lying and cheating are ways people indulge in their greed whether it be to make money or become more powerful. Greed shows itself in many ways throughout the stories of the Canterbury Tales, Dr. Faustus, and Dante’s Inferno.