Doctrine of Sin Demeans Us!
I am more sure I exist than I am that anything else exists therefore any
doctrine of right and wrong that does not tell me to put myself first in
reasonable ways (rational egoism) is evil and demanding. The things I am most
certain of have to come first.
We are more certain of our existence than of God’s so he would have no right to
ask us to believe in his prophets who reveal his morality but we have to work
out our own without his influence. We cannot put the word of a greater
uncertainty before the welfare of the greater certainties. In other words, you
don’t refuse your patient who will die without an abortion an abortion just
because God forbids abortion totally.
The doctrine of sin, sin means an offence against God, contradicts the profound
truth that I should be my own God.
It says that since I have offended God the worst thing I have done is to offer
malice to God. That is the worst part of my sin for it is better to hurt myself
or another person than to hurt God. If I hurt my friend it is not my friend that
matters but God who does not approve.
Egoism implies that when you do wrong what is so bad about it is how you misuse
yourself to do wrong. What is wrong is the degradation to yourself.
Some find the suggestion that when Hitler did what he did to the Jews what was
wrong in this was that he demeaned himself to be totally shocking. But there is
no denying that it is true. It is true that the killing of the six million was
objectively wrong or should not have happened. We are not undermining that but
it is also true that Hitler like us all could only really care about himself so
it follows that he had to emotionally and mentally harm himself and degrade
himself to be able to do this terrible thing. If he hadn’t it wouldn’t have
happened. So what he did wrong was to abuse himself and we see from the
objective wrongness of what he did that it was wrong and it was self-abuse. We
are saying that Hitler’s thinking was twisted so badly that it could see mass
murder as justifiable and his feelings were also warped to produce this thinking
with such unspeakable consequences for the innocents he got killed. There is no
doubt that he was full of evil. The people died because he degraded himself in
these ways so much. Degrading yourself has bad consequences for others. Even an
altruist cannot do wrong without degrading his reason and having disordered
feelings. He turns away from health to sickness.
There is nothing shocking about saying when a person does something terrible
that what was wrong was they did not respect themselves. Not when respecting
yourself is the only way to be able to respect other people. We all take this
for granted. We are not saying it doesn’t matter about the harm that is done. If
the harm didn’t matter then the person would not be degrading himself by doing
great evil. Of course it matters. There is nothing frightening about saying what
we are saying for we cannot please others unless we please them to please
ourselves for they like us to help them because we enjoy it even if it is for no
other reason. They want us to be egoists no matter how much they may deny it.
If egoism is true we are here to please ourselves. Then there is no purpose in
suffering so God cannot exist. It can only be right to allow suffering if a
person could put others or God first of their own free will. But the nearest
they can get to doing that is learning to like to some degree helping others
more than themselves but since they rather like it they are helping themselves
for they are taking pleasure.
I have to live my life by the things I am most certain about. I am more sure I
exist than I am that others exist. I am more sure that others exist than that
God does for I cannot see or sense God like I do them. It follows that I come
first, my neighbour next and God last if he exists. The doctrine that I don’t
matter and other people don’t matter in comparison to God means that morality or
right and wrong should be all about God. I must work for God and not for me. If
God exists that would be only right for he is so great and perfect. Morality or
right and wrong will not attract me unless I see what is in it for myself so the
God concept then blocks the tendency to do right so any good done is done in
spite of belief in God not because of it. Therefore any evil done in the name of
God or religion is the fault of God or religion even if they say they condemn
the actions. Catholicism says you can sin terribly all your life and repent and
be saved on your deathbed meaning that you have no reason to be good until then
or near then.
The doctrine of sin commands me to insult and hoodwink my neighbour so it is a
violation of decency.
The egoist cannot believe in sin. Right and wrong yes but not sin which is a
religious idea meaning disobedience to God.