Why do we pay more attention to mans transgressions than to his virtues?

Question

Peace and Love

Answer 1

Wry smile. My favorite saying is "The sins we see in others, are the faults we ourselves possess."

So many times you find the most upright, moral, pillar of the community, the one who comes down hard on wild teenagers, used to be a hellion themselves.

Pointing the finger at another's wrongs, deflects the spotlight from oneself.

Hmmm...another way of understanding the question you brought up is in the retail environment. Imagine you go to Target looking for a new music CD but are not sure about what group to buy.. The employee you encounter there is very helpful. Questions you about what your tastes are, and helps you find a great new group to enjoy. You go through the checkout, the cashier is helpful and out you go to your car a happy camper.

However, suppose you go to Target looking for a CD and the employee you encounter acts like helping you is an imposition to him. You finally buy something with no help from the employee, and after checking out, instead of going out to your car, you find the manager and tell him how awful your shopping experience was.

Now, tell me. In the first example you had a wonderful experience yet failed to seek out a manager and thank him for his wonderful employee. You just went out to your car, probably humming a happy tune.

In the second example you had a bad experience and let the manager, and any interested bystanders, know all about it.

Why?????

Because we have a feeling that things are supposed to be done a certain way, ala store employees providing good service.
we don't thank a manager for that good service because, to our way of thinking, good service is a given, and you don't thank a given.

However bad service is not what we expect when we walk into a store.Somebody was not giving me what I expect, and by golly gee I am going to let his boss and everybody within the sound of my voice, know it. I was sinned against.

Small kids are told to behave in a certain way. If the don't they get spanked. They are labeled "Bad" His peers who are probably guilty of the same misbehaviors giggle and tease him to deflect attention away from them, which goes back to my "the sins we see in others, are the sins we ourselves possess.

Of course man is also a jealous creature and praising others will make that person look better than you...which is not to be stood for. Pointing out all his bad points will make you look like superman in comparison...and that is good..

Writing this, I have come to the conclusion that there is a myriad of answers to this question. You have made me think, and I salute you for that :)

Answer 2

We pay attention the transgressions so that we may attempt to correct those in ourselves. But by paying attention to transgressions we magnify them and thus virtures are belittled

Answer 3

To quote Shakespeare's Marc Antony speaking about Caesar after the assassination:

The evil lives on after him, the good is oft interred with the bones.

(sorry if a word or two is a little off from the quote)

Answer 4

An insatiable need to drag others down to their level. Deep seeded desire to see others fail. Sad but true. Great question!

Answer 5

They're more interesting than man's virtues that's why.

Answer 6

What can you say about something good? It was... good.
What can you say about something Bad? It was bad, and why it was bad how it was bad and what was worse and how it could be better.

If they only showed good news on TV, then the newscast would be awful short!

Answer 7

Because his transgressions sell soap, my friend, and newspapers.

Answer 8

because joy rarely knocks you to your knees and crushes you.

Answer 9

people are more worried about going to hell than heaven
who cares if you're gonna go to heaven? who's worried about the good things that will happen to you?

i dunno 'bout you, but i'm terrified of hell