The Vatican has added 7 new modern social sins - what pressures people must be living under these days... with 7 more sins - I'm sure that'll turn into higher ratings for Sunday masses and client T/O for confession staff.
Environmental pollution - this is, strangely, one thing the Church and I agree on. I have become more environmentally aware these days, after living in harsh harsh Australia. Back home in Malaysia, there's usually no worries on water supply. However, here in Aus, dry is the only word you can use to describe. The small things like turning off switches that aren't in use and recycling water are what I do most these days. If there's one thing I can add in the bible it would be "you have no rights to drill the earth, to chop a tree, to suck out crude oil etc". These are all god's creation according to them - but why are we destroying all of them? I would think this is more deserving for a place in hell than homosexuality. Men having sex with men or women having sex with women doesn't destroy anything except it might tempt some fathers into joining them.
Genetic manipulation - I'm not sure how the Vatican looks at GM food. Honestly, producing the next generations, be it animals (I'd like to think of human as mutated animals) or plants or micro-organisms, is a kind of manipulation of genetic don't you think? Genes combine and split and form new genes. If I'm not mistaken the Church takes a disapproving approach on cloning. I'm, in fact, not against IVF babies or genetic manipulation. I just think that if the Church thinks babies are god's gifts, they should by all means advocate the banning of IVF babies. Childless couples around the world spending big bucks (go doctors!) on creating a child. So they try and try and try with petri dishes and needles and swimmers and eggs - you're creating a life and are not given a life! Albeit they will argue that because you try hard enough, god finally gifts you with a god-send. You say po-ta-to I say po-tay-to. The greatest sin should be bigotory and the 8th sin should have been deceptiveness or undisclosing the means for truths and truths themselves.
Accumulating excessive wealth - human greed, can I say anymore? I must be one step closer to the Pope because we just found another common ground! Yes it's free will and human rights (Is it just because we are human, we have the rights to drill the earth a million miles into the core for petroleum?) - but lately I'd like to attribute much of the environmental pollution to those in high-tax brackets. How could I not? I love Madonna and Oprah. But the way they live their lives - flying charter/private planes all over the world and living luxurious lives that demands for imported purified water from Israel for Madonna or having stainless steel rims on china for Oprah. And they preach about saving Africa. When Africa is brought up to catching up with the world, what have they got left? More than 500 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere (contributed by the lighting in M&O's mansions), no ice poles left, prolonged drought and erratic weather. By teaching the orphans in Africa the way of so-called modern life and the means of accumulating wealth for themselves - can't anyone see that we're going in a no-return direction? Another comrades of theirs, Bono from U2 - How much pollution do you think all his sunglasses have caused?
Everything we have is taken from the earth without having to pay 1 cheapest-currency-on-the-earth-cent. We all pay each other to see how much we're worth. You think you pay $1.50 for a litre of petroleum? No, you pay $1.50 for the oil diggers, office staff of the drilling company, delivery drivers - all of those are human. We're ripping off the earth for ourselves. There's no opportunity cost whatsoever but how far one is willing to accumulate excessive wealth. The wealthiest person on earth is the greediest person of all and the one indebted to god the most. Virgin Airlines has this green ticket going on where you can offset greenhouse gas emission. But what does that translate to? More zeros in Richard Branson's Swiss bank account.
Inflicting poverty - I haven't got much to say about this one. The greatest inevitable consequence our thinking ability has brought us - capitalism. Poor means less capital and rich means more capital. I don't agree with the Pope in saying that inflicting poverty is a sin. If anything, poverty should be the most natural way, and hence shouldn't be eradicated, of wiping out a part of population on earth. Helping Africa? If I believed in god, if god loved the people in Africa, would s/he have put so much sand and harsh weather in that area? But human is wired in the way that we'd feel sorry for people who are worse off than we are. Do you think it could be because of guilt and sorry that you want to help people? I mean, it is quite predictable when one's sinned much by abusing the properties of the earth and now tries to de-sin through "charity".
Drug trafficking and consumption - oh well - human free will and human rights. What can you say? If people want to use drugs and be ignorant about their effects, can you really stop them?
Morally debatable experiments - if we say that cloning is morally debatable, why is organ transplant not? Church should at least ban plastic surgery. If god loves you so much, you shouldn't up your bust, tuck the tummy or do a gastro by-pass. How dare we deny what is natural to us? How dare we change what is given to us by god? If god wants us to die by giving us some diseases, who are we to defy that by spending so much for a cure?
Violation of fundamental rights of human nature - if anything, god teaches us to discriminate and use differences as a weapon to attack others. I don't really understand what I am saying here and more certainly I don't get "violation of fundamental rights of human nature". If human nature is the natural behaviour of homo sapiens, why is there fundamental or non-fundamental? If a part of our gene is wired in such a way that we would kill other living beings, should we or should we not go to jail/hell? That's why I said, the greatest sin is bigotry. And hell, I think that's part of our natural selves too!
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