Can something be sinful by it's very nature?

Question

Can a stone by called sinful for being a stone? If christians say that all humans are sinful, then is it sinful to be human? This cannot be.

I am proud to be a human, with all my characteristics. I refuse to call myself sinful, just by the virtue of existing. What is your opinion?

Answer 1

organized religion seeks to serve a different purpose than philosophy, first of all.

nothing can be sinful unless it chooses to do what it knows is wrong. i believe that only human beings CAN be sinful, but not until they're old enough to know the difference between a sin and not a sin.

a gun cannot be sinful. a sword cannot be sinful. etc.

Answer 2

It's not sinful to be human, but it's sinful to be a human that thinks or behaves sinfully. Christians do not say that all humans are sinful. Christians say that all humans involved in or conceived after the Fall that are not Christ are sinful. That this definition includes all current humans on Earth is just incidental.

Answer 3

If everything was black, nothing can be known as black. If all are sinful, then sin is no sin.... it is merely a weakness to be redressed rather than punished. A deeper analysis of any apparently evil person invariably leads to identification of faults outside.... in the environment, the family, the society etc. A child not yet exposed to these outside influences is never sinful nor evil!! So, instead of sending a person to Hell for being sinful, we should try and mend the family and social environment and treat it like a weakness rather than a wickedness.

Answer 4

I deny the concept. Sin seems to be a construct by which the most base of men, the many, claim others of greater character also to be base thereby restraining them.

I feel no sin. I know only the failure to be excellent. Christianity must claim sin as a sort of metaphysical construct that we cannot know through any reason but know through "revealed knowledge". The best of Christian metaphysics-- that of the existence of a benevolent god --is possible to come by through discourse and is, therefore comprehensible, though not provable, through reason. Sin is an utter mystery, surpassed only in incomparability by the doctrine of the trinity, that utter denial of comprehension that marks Christianity out as one of the great feats of rhetoric.

I suppose if a lesser monkey in a zoo were capable of reason and also despised an alpha male in his troop for his unrestraint he could create a myth that said "the alpha male is lesser than us due to his unrestraint and one day soon the great zoo keeper will come and punish him for his unrestraint" and then proceed to circulate this myth among his base fellows he could actually convince the alpha male of his impending peril and bring him to supplant his greatness with a child-like nature greater than even those who profess to him.

Answer 5

Hi,

First of all let us be very clear about exactly what we are saying here. You start be asking, "Can a stone be called sinful for being a stone." And then quickly move to the conclusion that because a stone cannot be called sinful for being a stone therefore humans cannot be called sinful for just being humans but this is not a valid argument.

A stone is a lump of matter possessing a particular form, it is devoid of conciousness, choice and although it has properties it has no "nature" and it is bought in to existence by geological processes.

A human being, on the other hand, whilst also being a lump of matter possessed of a particular form also has consciousness, choice and a "nature" by which I mean it is disposed to act in certain ways. But nature of a human is at least in part down to their own choice. We are, at least in part, responsible for our own make up in a way that a stone can never be. It is this choice of ourselves, this responsibility for whom we are that is the crucial difference.Whereas a stone cannot choose to be other than it is we can.

All humans have sinned, in that all have fallen short of God's laws but that is not saying much since if all have fallen short of God's laws then no-one can keep them therefore that all humans have sinned is just true by definition, trivially true if you like.

That does not amount to saying that there is no sin rather that God's laws are a normative value a state to strive for, without such aspirations things slide and continue to slide


But in any case remember that the Christian tradition is one of hate the sin but love the sinner

Answer 6

In Christianity, God says all His creation is good so the existence of the physical world can't be called bad, not to mention sinful.
The doctrine of original sin, which you may refers to, explain why we are separated from God. Humans are created in in image of God so its very existence is not sinful. But humans are prone to sin and can't save themselves.

Answer 7

1st of all Thanks for this question
NOOOO ,there are nothing called Sinful by nature because God created every thing in its perfect form .
I agree with you on be proud that I'm human too ........
But sin is exist , so we are sinful because you know and can do any sins you want .
so at last i wanna say that I'm human and I'm sinful because i can kill i can hate i can be mad with others etc.........
i hope you could understand me

Answer 8

are you a christian?if not you will find this difficult
the bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,no matter how good a man is,if he doesnt accept christ into his life,he is a sinner,and yes by nature humans are sinful because we are born into a sinful world and its up to us to know our right from wrong,without proper study and understanding of the bible some things we think are actually cool may not be and thats what makes us sinful

Answer 9

No there's no such thing as 'sin'. There are morally acceptable and unacceptable behaviours.

But....Is 'sin' a topic of Philosophy?

I think you are looking for the Religion forum.

Answer 10

There is no such thing as sin. It's a man-made concept.