Friday, January 25, 2008

Greatest Wrongs

What are the greatest wrongs people can commit? Why?

What punishments/ consequences should fit these wrongs?

25 comments:

samt said...

I think that according to our society some of the worst things people can committ would be things dealing with murder, sexual impurity, stealing, disrespect, so on and so forth. The other thing for me that I usually think about is that in the Christian faith, all sin, no matter what it is or what you did, can be forgiven.
Also, God sees sin as sin, not counting one higher than the other, so as a Christian I am called to do the same. In society we see that we have put levels of punishment and consequences depending on what it is you did. So, according to society, I would say that the probably most socially unacceptable thing to do would be something like being a serial killer or rapist. I would say that we, as a society, look down upon these people more than if someone were to steal a candy bar from a gas station. In my personal opinion, hypocrisy is the worst thing that you can do, because it can lead to so many more worse things that our society tends to put under wraps.

Kyle B. said...

Recently, I have been watching a couple movies dealing with sins and "uncleanliness" and the common factor between each of them is that the most socially unacceptable and downright horrible acts are those done deliberately against another person.

In the movie "The General's Daughter", an army criminal investigator is tracing the path of a rapist/murderer. At one point, a suspect tries to relay a message to the investigator, "What is worse than rape?" Betrayal was the answer. According to this movie, deserting another is the worst thing you can do. Healing wounds isn't always the only thing you can do, helping to repair someone's mind is equally important. Being prideful and selfish is also a theme of the movie. Job titles and decorations cannot justify desertion of a family member.

In the movie "Seven", two homicide detectives chase a serial killer whose victims are in the act of each of the deadly sins. I think that each act in this movie rank as some of the worst. This murderer not only toys with the lives of others to achieve his own ends, but he does so with relish and a personal satisfaction that is disturbing to the core. Any sort of murder, no matter the intentions, are of the worst acts of society.

I agree with Sam on several of the things but I think that disloyalty is highest on my list. Turning against friends, family, country, even against your own moral code cannot and should not be worthy of redemption. There are certain expectations of a person in this world and while some repercussions of disloyalty may not be punishible by law, there must be some sort of punishment attached to any incidence, be it in this world or the next. I am not fit to determine punishment for the acts of someone that I could not know and therefore I would not try to do so; that is not my job. God loves us each and everyone and he has a place for each of us in heaven, but I do not doubt that there is some sort of retribution for our actions in this life after we pass on.

CecilyJ said...

I thought it was really interesting how Kyle brought different movies into his response. I thought the movie "Seven" was really interesting, bucause even though the detective knew he was doing what the killer wanted, he couldn't stop himself. We can all agree that murder and rape is wrong so why do people do it?

I don't know what the greatest wrong is, I guess I would say betrayal because life isn't worth living alone. Your family and friends are what make like amazing and betraying them is unforgivable. They should always come first no matter what, however I agree with Sam that all sins can be forgiven, but only if the sinner wants to be forgiven.

EmmaL said...

I do not know that there is a greatest sin. Each person will consider one thing to be worse above all else according to their morals and how they were brought up. To a suicide bomber, they probably do not consider murder or suicide a sin. To a homeless person who needs to feed their family stealing food might not be a sin. It all depends on the situation a person is in.
I agree with Cecily and Kyle that betrayal is one of the worst wrongs. This can apply to many different aspects of life. You could betray a best friend, or husband or wife or a job or your kids and all of this would leave you with nothing. This could also be linked to many other wrongs like greed, dishonesty or almost anything else. People should figure out what is important in their lives and make sure stay true to whatever that is.

abok said...

What is man’s greatest sin? We have been presented with abundant examples over time, but for me the greatest sin that man can commit is being someone that doesn't care. A person that doesn’t care about him/ herself, others, or the general welfare of life. A person who is content with just amounting to nothing because they have no goals or aspirations, a person that has halted their future through their own demise is the wobble leg in society’s tripod stance.

michaelm said...

I truly agree with Kyle’s thought that the worst wrong a person can commit is transgression toward another person. From unfaithfulness to murder, selfishness to hurt someone else in anyway is the worst. Then Emma brought up a great point that some people don’t consider these “wrongs” wrong because of their own beliefs. Suicide bombers believe that they are doing the right thing and truly think that they will go to heaven if they kill the certain mass of people. Along with hurting others, I think another huge wrong is disgracing oneself. In the Christian faith, God created man in his own image, so hate toward oneself is like hating God. That is why suicide is a major sin someone can commit. These two statements may seem contradictory, but I am trying to say that there is a bad selfishness someone can commit to hurt others and then there is a good selfishness to benefit oneself. I think the punishments or consequences are built into committing these wrongs because if you hurt others then you will lose friends or respect, and if you hurt yourself, there is no benefit.

ryan said...

I agree with Emma, in that for each person, every sin has a different effect. Some people, like she said would be more, or less, affected by someone stealing or robbing someone or something where as others would not see it as too big of a problem.
This is why I believe that all sin, like Sam T. said, should all be accounted for as the same. Growing up in the church, I have always heard this statement, but have never known how to take it. And to me, it is still very confusing. But like Emma said, sin affects everyone in certain ways, and that's why all sin could be considered equal according to levels of right and wrong.
Obviously there will always be things that will affect people with a bigger impact, murder is something that will always seem like a bigger sin, but to someone who has worked their whole life to make a living, getting robbed may be one of the worst things that could ever happen to them, thus making all sin wrong, and not one worse than the other.

mattw said...

The bible states that all sins can be forgiven, but that any sin can prevent you from entering heaven. It doesn't matter if you're a murderer, a rapist, or a kid that just lies alot. If you don't repent you're going to go to hell. If you take the bibles interpertation, every sinner is equal so there really is no way to rank sins.
Personally, yes i believe that sin is sin so anytime yo do something wrong it's bad. But i don't think that they are all equal. The greatest sins are not particular ones like rape, incest, murder, etc. but just any general sin that brings harm upon other people. Anything you do that leads to pain on another person is the worst sin that you can commit.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Emma and Ryan about the affects that different sins have. Even though there are universal sins, there isn't one sin that everyone considers to be the worst.
But what would the greatest wrong be? I think that it would be one of the seven deadly sins to me. After committing the crimes, I think that a person should suffer as much as their victim did. Let them feel what they had done to others. But I do agree with Cecily and Sam that a sinner could be forgiven if they saw that their actions were truly wrong.

emilyl said...

I really liked Sam's idea that you can't really rank one above the other because a sin is a sin. If I were to rank them, I might have murdering or hurting others for personal gain, selfishness, and being close-minded. Murder just because a person is trying to help himself is one of the worst things I can think of. Each person affects everyone else they know, and for a family to have to deal with the death of someone they love just because some guy didn't like that the man had a good life and a good family bothers me quite a bit. I guess this specific example brings up another sin I would put at the top of the list: jealousy. There really isn't an excuse for it. Emma brought up a really good point about in certain situations, some things might not be sins, which kind of brings things back to what Sam said about how you can not really rank them. As for punishment/consequences, I can't really come up with any of those. I do not want to think about how I can make these people pay, because any punishment performed on Earth would be one more sin, and I think the quote "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" describes that idea very well. Punishment in hell should probably be painful enough for the person to really feel sorry for what they did, but not because they are being punished. Once they are truly sorry, they should have to watch their sin over and over again until the punishment time is over...

Dustin B said...

I believe the truly greatest wrongs any one person can commit are un-evoked hurt onto others. It seems that the general idea is that murder, rape, and stealing are some of the greatest sins. I do believe rape is one of the greatest wrongs any being can do. Although with murder and stealing I believe there is certain types within the two categories that are acceptable. Such as if a father steals food so that his family doesn’t go hungry. A more drastic scenario would be if the father had to kill or hurt someone to protect his family, like if someone was holding a family member at gunpoint or something along those lines. Any other sort of hurt onto others I believe is a great wrong. It also has come to my attention those events that have happened in ones life has a great effect on what you believe a wrong is. If someone is very sheltered towards what really is reality in our world i’m guessing there opinion on what is a wrong would be far different than someone living right in the heart of all the corruption and killing.
The punishments I believe should directly be affected by what wrong they committed. This may seem harsh but I think the punishment should equal if not surpass the wrong that they committed. For instance if someone committed un-justifiable murder they should in turn be murdered they same way they murdered. An Example of what I mean is all the people involved in the 9/11 attacks should be captured put in a building and than have a plane crash into the building making sure none survive. If someone committed rape he or she should have his or her sexual organs removed. So with out getting to graphic and getting myself in trouble I believe the punishment should be relevant to the wrong they committed.

Samantha E said...

I think the greatest wrongs a person can commit are ones against the church and ones that hurt others. If an act is committed against the church you believe you not only wronged God, but wronged yourself. Your faith is a part of you and to go against that is going against yourself. Also if a wrong act committed against another person that hurts them is on the lowest of the low. This is because if bringing down someone else is what it takes for you to feel good then that is using them and involving an innocent person. A punishment should be distributed that only effects the person doing wrong. It would be wrong to involve anyone else who does not deserve it. This however should never be a permanent punishment like holding a grudge or the death penalty. All wrong doings should be forgiven.

katherineg said...

I agree with Emma in saying that I dont think there is just one sin that is the worst. Of the many, I think that the top one is to inflict harm on anything that has been given the gift of life. It is something to be charished, and valued, and not given up. For these wrongs, I think that the person should have this inflicted upon them so they too know what it is like. Also, I think that these things can be forgiven, if you just ask for help. Also society is a punishment to these people because will have to live with what others think of them for the rest of their lives, and how they will live.

alliem said...

It's impossible for every person to agree on the greatest wrongs one can commit. I agree with Emily L that murdering, harming, or betraying others for PERSONAL GAIN is an ultimate sin. I put "personal gain" in caps because I believe there are situations when something such as murder can be necessary ( i.e. self defense), but when you intentionally bring pain to others for selfish reasons it is to me a great wrong .The problem is, it's extremely difficult to judge a deserving punishment for these kinds of acts. There are so many different levels of betrayal and harm to others both physical and mental that I don't think I could could possibly come up with a just consequence. Deciding punishments for these sins is over my head, it is up to God to do that.

MilendaN. said...

I agree with Samantha E. about hurting others and against the church as a greatest wrongs that people can commit. There are so many greatest wrongs people can commit. But I think that the greatest wrongs people can commit is to murder, and kill someone. The killer or the murderer doesnt own that victims life so what makes them have the right to take it away from them. Is it the anger? Is it the selfishness? Is it the grudge? I just dont understand anymore, why even the parents are now killing their own children. Its not even a new thing anymore because it has happened way too many times now. Yes, its true that God forgives our sins but do people like killers and murderers really deserve to have their sins forgiven?. Because I dont think so. But God does. And this is what makes me admire God so much more. Because no matter how great of the greatest wrongs people can commit here on Earth, he will still forgive them and accept them "if" they ask for forgiveness and be renewed as a new person and as a believer of God.
I think that the punishment and consequences for these killers and murderers like being in jail for the rest of their lives is not enough! But I do think that some murderers and killers can go back to being good if they ask for forgiveness and have faith.

Jackie.d said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jackie.d said...

I would agree with Sam T's post. In the Bible, God does not place any one sin worse or better than any other sin. Sinning is betraying God in any form, and can't be ranked in any particular order. These actions that have been categorized as "sin" are wrongs against God, and I believe that is the greatest wrong someone can commit. But because of God's good graces, and his ability to give forgiveness to those who ask for it, our sin can be cleansed and we can live with God in Heaven. The punishment for those who don't accept the idea of God and his forgiveness for their wrongs, is eternity in Hell. Therefor; because we all have a chance to accept Christ and ask for forgiveness, I believe the greatest wrong that people can commit is not accepting God's forgiveness for their sins, because that is bringing the punishment of Hell upon themself. I'm not saying that those who don't accept God's forgiveness are bad people, but for not accepting God they have done a great wrong for themselves.

Jackie.d said...

After reading Kyle's post with all the movie examples, that reminded me of the movie Untraceable. In the movie a boy creates a website that broadcasts him torturing somebody live, and the more hits that the website gets, the faster his victim is tortured and killed. The motive for these murders is that the boys father's suicide was broadcast on the local news and then posted on the internet so that millions of people were watching it daily. All the people chosen to kill in the movie were linked in someway to the leak of the suicide video, and therefor were chosen to be tortured and eventually killed. The murderer is displaying how sickly obsessed people have become to watching other people suffer, what people will do on the internet, and how quickly word of mouth spreads to others over cyberspace.
The idea of punishment in this movie was like Dante's, and like what Dusty brought up. these victims in some way helped leak the video of the suicide, and so their torture and deaths were broadcast online for the world to witness as well, and the more people who tuned in to watch, to faster they died. The movie was a pretty twisted story, but brings up a good example.

rebeccar said...

I agree that betrayal is indeed a very significant sin, however I wouldn't say it is the greatest. Like Emma said, this is almost an impossible question to answer because every situation is different, and everyone has a different set of morals or beliefs. Therefore, the greatest wrong man can commit cannot be defined in one word or phrase.

However, I want to bring up something that has not been mentioned yet: addiction. It is man's weakness; man's fault. I think addiction is a great word to describe the “greatest wrong” because it can include so many things... addiction to drugs, violence, theft, murder, rape, alcohol, even self-manipulation. If a person commits a sin once, that is one thing. Then they have the option of repenting or not, and then moving on. However, if they continue to do these wrong acts even they know they shouldn't be, they are committing the worse sin of all. Not only are they displaying a lack of self-respect, but they are completely going against their entire sense of morality. Isn't lack of self-control the fundamental reason any of us sin anyway? Self-control is a vital part of earning a place in Heaven because it is so easy to give into temptation, just as Adam and Eve did when they ate an apple from the Tree of Life. Today's society especially just sets us up to fall into an addiction of some kind. God gives us the opportunity to choose. Whether this is a blessing or a curse is your own decision. But going against what you know to be wrong and getting stuck in something so deep you can't get out is an extraordinary sin.

brooksk said...

I would say that the greatest sin but one of the toughest (as Ms. Smith noted) is not showing compassion or forgiveness towards those close to us who do sin. As friends it is our duty as followers of God to forgive others and their wrongdoings. I see it as our job to be a support system to others and the greatest sin is to not uphold that role. But, on the other hand, it takes every ounce of human will to bring ourselves to the point of being able to forgive others, especially if they have hurt us or other friends.

tuckerk2 said...

Though many of the aforementioned acts are surely terrible sins, I believe that the ultimate sin is to act inhumanely. I believe this is so because when one loses all compassion towards other humans, he has placed himself above the others. This is truly wrong because, as our founding fathers stated, “All men are created equal” so no one person or group has the right to refuse the rights endowed to all men. The principle right of these is the right to live, therefore those who involve themselves in genocide or any other method of murder of innocents should be faced with the ultimate punishment for their acts. Though death is a natural part of human life, as is taking the life of another such as in war or self defense, but the killing of innocent people is absolutely the worst possible offense one could commit. It is up to us as fellow humans to ensure that these most sinful of acts don’t go unpunished.

Courtney Walters said...

Everyone has been saying different things in their response to the blog question. The one thing that i see everyone pointing out is... people hurting other people. That is the greatest wrong anyone can do to anyone in my opinion. People hurting other people can be anything from emotional, sexual, physical abuse to neglect.... it goes on. Every single one of those things is wrong. They are not only wrong cause it hurts other people... it is wrong becuase the victim can't just get over it. (from personal experinece) Abuse and/or neglect is just a start of a roller coaster for the victim going through it and the people around them. I really don't know what the punishment should be. There should be one if they don't repent and not a punishment if they repent to God and the person they hurt.

afoyle said...

Ok, I want to clarify something. I have been seeing all of these comments that one of the greatest sins is to go against the church. So, I ask you: "Which church?" Though many ideals in different religions are almost exactly the same, there are many things that some religions (Like pantheistic and polytheistic religions) do that the Christian church fromwns upon. For instance, the worship of idols was something, as far as I know, that Christianity abolished but is kept by other sects. Would another's religion merit a punishment in a place that is part of a religion that they are not? Should those of another faith be punished at the hand of a Christian God? Most of all, why is it that when following another set of standards, we often times see their actions as "heretical" to ours?

JoeR said...

The greatest wrong in my mind would not being appreciative of what others have sacrificed that benefit yourself. People these days are not thankful enough of the simple things done by others and just don't say thank you enough. Those two simple words can make a person's day and make you feel better about yourself. People can base their lives to positivley affect anothers life and when the person is not willingly to say "thanks" and just takes everything for granted, that is very wrong in my mind. Parents sacrifice their lives to have their children grow up to become sucessful and are willingly to do anything to make that happen. As kids there is nothing more our parents want to hear or see in our stages of our lives than to hear thank you and just be genuinely nice to them. Those are the reasons why not being appreciative is the greatest wrong someone can commit.

iains said...

I believe that the greatest sin one can commit is to harm another person. This harm can be physical, emotional, or even psychological. Causing another harm shows a lack of basic respect for your fellow man, and reveals an unparalleled level of contempt toward humanity. No punishment is severe enough for perpetrators of this sin, because those who commit it are already severely detached from society and reality.