The Social Effects of Sin in America

Homosexual behavior and apostasyAs to my defense of the idea of homosexual behavior and apostasy as sins, I do not think it is actually important for our discussion to prove conclusively what particular acts constitute sins and which don't. For that we would have to take too specific a viewpoint. If looked upon from a Catholic perspective, for instance, contraception would be a sin; this is not the case from the perspective of most protestants or for Buddhist. The same goes for the eating of pork. Most religions are fine with this, Judaism and Islam, however, see it as something prohibited by God which it is a sin, therefore, to consume. What I will attempt to prove in this debate is that if sin is a valid concept its effects on society will always be detrimental.I will, however, defend my definition of apostasy. The dictionary does not take the viewpoint of a particular faith, so they opted to describe apostasy as the leaving of a religion. However, as it is religions that define sin and not Oxford linguists, it would be enlightening to see what different religious groups define as apostasy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines apostasy as "the total repudiation of the Christian faith" (1) Islam, however, defines it as the abandonment of ones previous faith by a Muslim (2). They disagree about the definition of apostasy simply because they disagree about which religion is true.Con is quite right to mention the fact that there are many different religions who all make truth claims. This, however, is not entirely germane to our conversation. For my side of this debate to be considered upheld it is enough to prove that in principle sin is bad for society, it is not necessary for me to prove which religious viewpoint on the matter of sin is the correct one. Whichever is true, the very fact that it is the truth makes it of greatest value to society."Judgmental" God and societyI fail to see how this is relevant. You mention bullying, which is also a sin, causes higher rates of suicide. This may be the case, but the case of a sin (bullying) against a person for committing a sin (acting on homosexual tendencies) causing a sin (suicide) -or if we do not accept homosexual behavior as a sin then the yet more terrible case of a sin against an innocent person causing a sin- is simply the very best example of my position. Sin is terrible for society.Truth MattersI do not see how my statement contradicts my logic. I pointed out there are reasons behind the belief that homosexual behavior is sinful, and then I say that whether or not it actually is sinful is irrelevant to the matter of the effects of sin on society. Con also mentions the statement that "a society which does not turn its back on truth but lives according to it will be better off" is ambiguous. Let's try to clear it up with an example. Let us say that my opponent is correct in saying homosexuality is not a sin. This would then be the truth. A society that accepts this as true, does not put undue pressure on innocent people for their sexual orientation and is generally accepting of homosexuality and homosexual persons would be a more just society than one which does not. On the contrary, if I am right and homosexuality causes harm to both the individuals and society, then it would be a mistake not to separate the necessary respect for individuals from the harmful promotion of an objective harm. In either case, the truth of the matter is of vital importance; were society to get it wrong it would create an objective injustice.It is true that a sin is a "bad choice", it is also a bad choice to listen to Britney Spears when you have the option of listening to Jimi Hendrix, but it is not a sin. "Bad choice" is also connotatively negative (it has the word "bad" in it, you can't get more negative than saying outright something is bad), the difference is that sin is rightly seen as something far graver than having bad taste in music. We are speaking particularly of the terrible choice of turning your back -by word, action or omission- from the ultimate Good. Sources(1) Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2089: http://www.vatican.va... (2) Apostasy in Islam: http://en.wikipedia.org...Fun experiment: Do a word search on the word "sin" on this page. This is getting ridiculous. Does anybody know of a decent synonym?