The Flawed Concept of Sin

The Flawed Concept of Sin

Deconstructing Indoctrination

For the billions of us that have been raised in one of the Abrahamic religions the concept of sin seems like an absolute, but what is it exactly?

Even atheists believe in things that are wrong, or immoral, although those of us who have been raised with hardcore indoctrination are often told that atheists are essentially amoral due to not fearing a god of some sort. Many Christians also ignorantly believe that atheists and anyone who isn’t Christian is essentially a Satanist.

Do other non-Abrahamic traditions have a concept of “sin”?

Hinduism has a concept of pāpa or adharma, that somewhat reflects the concept of sin, in the sense that it is a wrongdoing or lack of fulfilling one’s duties. This results in bad karma, which eventually will affect the person. But it misses the mark by not causing eternal damnation, or requiring a form of salvation to remove the “stain”.

Similarly, Shinto has the concept of Tsumi (罪) an action that violates social norms, and Kegare (穢れ) which is a “pollution of the soul”. These would require rituals to help purify the soul. They believe that it is necessary to purify this individual because a polluted soul can also bring about calamity to their society. This mirrors the concept of sin in Christianity quite a bit, however, Shinto diverges from Christianity in the fact that it doesn’t teach that humans are inherently sinful creatures and the fact that the soul’s pollution can be a societal issue rather than just against the individual.