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Subject: Re: Antonym for "sin"
A quote I always liked, although I can't remember if it was Shaw or Wilde, is, "The only thing I can't resist is temptation."
On to the matter at hand...
I don't know that there is an antonym for sin any more than there is an antonym for crime. (A sin is a crime against one's god, goddess, or gods as the case may be. Or if one is an atheist, against one's core beliefs.) One can commit the crime of armed robbery (a specific event) but how many times does one not commit armed robbery?
As to why there seems to be an emphasis on the things not to do rather than on the good deeds (Mitzvahs (sp?)). It probably evolved from the idea that sins are the breaking of God's laws and laws are almost universally proscriptive in nature. For example, when dealing with my children, there are relatively few things I must tell them not to do in comparison to what they can do. Everyday, they come up with new things to do that I would never think of, yet still, the list of prohibited actions stays relatively short (my perspective of the LIST, not theirs).
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In reply to:
Mitzvahs (sp?)
It would be 'mitzvot' actually, 'mitzvah' being a feminine word, as indicated by its '-ah' suffix. This is theologically somewhat surprising, given that it was Eve who originally sinned. I wonder what gender the Hebrew word for 'sin' is.
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Carpal Tunnel
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given that it was Eve who originally sinned.
Oh, really?
Depends on the point of view, I guess.
She only picked the fruit, he was the one who bit!
Now, you gonna' bite?
Don't let me scare you, I'm really a pussycat! And a big WELCOME to the Board
P.S. for RouseP : It was Oscar Wilde ... and I thought it was "I can resist anything but temptation."
And, "The only way to resist temptation is to yield to it." (I think?)
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The Oscar Wilde quotation I like best is the one about Niagara Falls being the first but not the greatest disappointment in American married life. Of course when he wrote this, Niagara Fall was a very popular place to begin honeymoons. And of course his views were undoubtedly colored by fact that he was gay. (Hate that word.)
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And of course his views were undoubtedly colored by fact that he was gay. (Hate that word.)Well then, say homosexual! That leads my damaged mind to wonder if we might ask, "Was Oscar Wilde?" Indeed he was. And we might ask, "What would Dan Rather, and than what is Morley Safer?" This almost fits in with the redundant names thread, but not quite. Now, more to the point: "Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others." Our Wilde man, Oscar 
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I always thought the closing quatrain from William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" is the best "take" on this dilemma as discussed:
"God appears, and God is Light,
To those poor souls who dwell in Night;
But does a Human Form display
To those who dwell in realms of Day."
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Committing a virtue
The problem with this concept is the peculiar use of 'commit' with 'sin'. It's also used with 'crime' and particular words for crimes, like 'murder', but not with positive concepts or acts. But you can substitute a word, like 'perform' for use with positives.
This raises the question whether sin, or sins, have an independent existance of their own, or if they are only a perversion of virtue, or good. C.S. Lewis took the position somewhere in his writings (I forget where) that this was, in fact the case; that good exists on its own, but evil does not -- it is merely an antonym, as it were, of good.
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"The only way to resist temptation is to yield to it."
"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it." Oscar Wilde.
Rod
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"I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations with myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying" - O.Wilde
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In reply to:
C.S. Lewis took the position somewhere in his writings (I forget where) that this was, in fact the case; that good exists on its own, but evil does not -- it is merely an antonym, as it were, of good.
Not original to C. S. Lewis. Augustine also took this view in his Confessions, that sin was a turning away from God and an absence of virtue rather than something that exists in its own right.
Bingley
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