The seven deadly sins,
also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins,
is a classification of vices that has been
used to educate and instruct people concerning fallen humanity's tendency
to sin. In the currently recognized
version, the sins are usually given as wrath, avarice, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Each is a form of Idolatry-of-Self wherein the
subjective reigns over the objective. These seven deadly sins are not
discrete from other sins, but are instead the origin ("capital" comes
from the Latin caput, head) of the others.
In the Book of Proverbs, among the verses traditionally associated
with King Solomon, it states that the Lord specifically regards "six things
the Lord hateth, and seven that are an abomination unto Him", namely:
1. A proud look
2. A lying tongue
3. Hands that shed innocent blood
4. A heart that devises wicked plots
5. Feet that are swift to run into mischief
6. A deceitful witness that uttereth lies
7. Him that soweth discord among brethren
At the core of the deadliest one amongst the
aforementioned seven deadly sins is Denial, a primitive human ego defense
mechanism that negates all realities that produce too much stress for the brain
to handle.
In ancient mythology, a hero in denial is the
ultimate manifestation of hubris and pride. No man is more 'prideful' than he
who believes himself immune to the dangers of the world. Dante Alighieri,
a famous Florentine poet and the author of The Divine Comedy, clearly agreed,
denouncing pride as the worst of the seven deadly sins and therefore, he
punished the prideful in the deepest ring of the 'inferno'.
Classification of the sins according to
Christian Ethics and their description at length in the mythologies provoke a
sane mind to opine that there might be some truth in them as they are the
backbone of the infinity of crimes and misdeeds our modern age humanity faces
at the moment.
On the importance of humility, the great Martin
Luther King is quoted here; "God creates
out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of
him".
The above text is an amalgam of the
inspirations taken from Dante's The Divine Comedy, Professor Langdon's dialog
from Inferno, quotes taken from somewhere-on-the-internet and description of
The Seven Deadly Sins from Wikipedia, published in the moral interest of
masses.
