The 7 deadly sins has plagued mankind since the beginning of time according to scripture. The 7 deadly sins are the sins of lust, wrath, sloth, gluttony, greed, envy, and pride. We can all look at our life in section and find our own samples of these flickers of sins. However, in 2015 TED Talk decided to pursue the nature of these sins and the guilty pleasure of it in 7 Deadly Sins, which you can currently listen to online. In other words, are sins truly sinful?

So who voted in on this issue? Experts like Ken Jennings, Mick Cornett, and Christopher Ryan took on one of the deadly sins that fell into their area of expertise. Christopher Ryan took on the sin of lust. Mick Cornett took on the sin of gluttony. Dave Meslin took on the sin of sloth. Gary Sluthkin took on wrath. Nick Hanauer took on the sin of greed. Parul Sehgal took on envy. Ken Jennings took on the sin of pride. These experts not only came from different walks of life, but they all presented a unique collection of opinions on their sin. The most shocking is the majority of these experts says their sin isn’t truly sinful.

They blame the cultural situations pressed onto our lives. A great example of this is discussion Christopher Ryan had regarding lust. He analyzed our perceptions of monogamy and how our relationships have evolved over our human evolution. It truly is interesting to listen to, and has the potential to open our eyes in how we think about the sins. It personally changed how I thought about the 7 deadly sins.

Growing up in the Bible Belt in the south of the United States of America, I have heard too many sermons on the temptations of sins and that we should avoid giving in too such temptations. At the same time, I watched the barriers around the mysterious adult world fall down, and saw more of the sinful side of the real world. Each day the 7 deadly sins were embraced and weaponized by others. However upon listening to this Ted Talk, I have grown to understand that the deadly sins maybe aren’t the true tickets straight to hell they were preached as. We have the potential sin but it is our culture and society that drives us to view what maybe nature or not so deadly if not driven by our society.  I don’t want to ruin this invigorating shows so I will not say more, but please comment after listening to see what you think of the 7 deadly sins.

Photo Credit: https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/378567196/seven-deadly-sins