Sin and Immorality (Index Post)

Previously on this blog I’ve written about morality, but in a highly abstracted, mathematically-inclined way.  This week I’d like to take a more personal tack.  I think I’m unusual among most atheists in that I see a great deal of truth in Catholic and Christian teaching about original sin, some worm at the heart of the apple.  It’s why I’ve found some parts of Christian ethics extremely helpful in my own life.

1. Opening Myself to Sin – Treating moral questions as economic ones
2. Dirty Hands and Drone Strikes – What happens when we remove ourselves from the consequences of our decisions?
3. Dirty Hands and Drone Strikes (Part 2) – Why immoral actions can be explained, but not excused
4. Why is there Evil? – I have sympathy for the Christian use of the word “Fallen.”  Here’s why.

Still coming up:

• why I see people as intrinsically flawed
• compromises, callousness, and sins of omission
• Horcruxes, murder, and the Vietnam war
• how organized religion can weaken people’s morals
• can fiction help us be more moral?