| |
We as individuals are free to do whatever we want. But we commonly do things which we think make us happier and give us peace. What make us happier and at peace has a lot to do with survival. We get happy when eating sugary foods, we get afraid when a dog come towards us barking even if it is caged etc. And we lose some of that freedom when we group together. Then each one of us will have to behave in a commonly agreed upon way. Despite it individuals group together for protection, availability of resources, companionship etc. It ensures better chances of survival and more chances of being happy.
Some things we do in a group have favorable outcomes and some other things have unfavorable outcomes. Behaviors with favorable outcomes when considering a group as a whole gets more acceptance as good and becomes the commonly accepted law for that group. And if that group has a god, then the wishes and emotions of god might get mixed with it. Also when a religion form in that group, it might take up some of these laws, modify it or discard some, and make it god's laws. Religions may tell that god asked you to skip a meal on Tuesdays and if you do that he will bless you with happiness and wellbeing. So religions may tell about action and reaction pairs which are fully true, partially true or false and claim all of them to be true. Such ideas establish and spread with the support of a lot of imagination, ignorance and twisted facts.
When we look around we can see a lot of suffering among us. There are children born with deformities, genetic disorders or chronic diseases. People with influence and power commit crimes and get away with it. People may believe in different reasons as to why it happens. Religious people explain sufferings as due to the crimes of our forefathers or our previous lives or our current life. In the case of crimes we commit in this life they tell that we will definitely get punished in this life or our afterlife or our relatives will suffer. They felt like they had to believe in previous life, spirits or afterlife to account for what happened around them. But it cannot account for what really happens. What actually happens is that every action has an outcome and it can be a favorable one or an unfavorable one. If we know what the outcome of a particular action is, we prepare against it and does a good job of dealing with the outcomes, then we are absolutely fine, however bad our action is.
Suppose somebody committed a murder. When he was committing the crime he had to deal with the kicks and punches that gets thrown. After he killed he had to deal with the problem of somebody finding out about it. Then he had to deal with his doubts about the chances and the probability that his crime gets found out. After all this, what we will see is that, he is going to lead a normal life, after he deals with the outcomes and his own doubts and fears. And that is the end of that incident. Such things should not have happened if a higher power is looking after us, who treats everybody equally. But the truth is, if somebody commits a murder and nobody finds out about it then he gets away with it. To accept the reality, just look around. You will see everything as actions and reactions. You will see laws of nature taking its course. Everyone getting equal units of happiness or sadness or something similar doesn't happen in reality.
If an action having a desirable outcome in a family, a society or a group is done by someone, then people will see him as favorable to others not doing it. If an action has a good probability of having a favorable outcome in a society then it will be seen as a part of the qualities of a good person according to that society. Every society will develop its own classification of good and bad behavior. Over generations actions with favorable outcomes might become virtues, and actions with unfavorable outcomes might become sin. Later if a religion form in that society, it may partially or fully absorb the sin and virtue concepts of that society along with its own invented ones. So sin and virtue concepts can result from an observation of groups and group interactions.
Suppose in the earlier days there was an outbreak of a highly contagious disease in a society. It didn't go away and troubled the people for generations. The only thing they could do was to isolate the diseased individual and let him die alone. If somebody couldn't let go of the diseased, and accompanied him to what should have been his isolation then they also caught the disease. The spread of the disease was a matter of huge concern to the people. Clinging on to the diseased became a highly undesirable trait. People who took care of the diseased were viewed as very negative or evil. After some generations it might became a sin to take care of people having that disease. So in this way something can becomes a sin or a virtue.
There is another situation when somebody claims that god told me not to do something because it is a sin. There may not be any logical favorable or unfavorable outcome for it in reality. It is their imagination which is behind it and it comes from the limitations to our logic, fear and ignorance. Since we all have such traits, there can be people who will believe him. So it is not only observations that can lead to sins and virtues but also imagination. Then it may get passed onto younger generations and when a religion take it up, it spreads along with it.
It is us who classify things as sin or virtue based on observations and its outcomes or by using our imagination or using both. There are actions with favorable outcomes and actions with unfavorable outcomes both in reality and in our imagination. It is the basis of the concept of sin or virtue. If there is a god who cares about us and suppose god had a list of good things and bad things, do you think he is so powerless to stop you from doing bad things. There is no absolute good or bad, sin or virtue. It is the truth, accept it and bring yourself closer to reality.