16 SIN


Sin is no more than the breaking of the laws of a religious
institution.

Sin is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "a violation of some
religious or moral principle."

It is not against any law to kiss your children in public. But if a society
of which you are a member enacts such a law, then it would be a crime
to kiss your children in public. If a religion dictates such a law, it would
be a sin to kiss your children in public.

Before you can have sin, you must have a religious law prohibiting some
act. Therefore, if there are no religious laws, there can be no sin. I
repeat if there are no religious laws, there can be no sin.

If there are no religious laws then the only laws that are left are social
laws. The breaking of social law is criminal and socially punishable but
it is not sinful and certainly not damning to the soul by any definition.

God may, in fact, divinely inspire the writing of social and religious laws
to better order society. But it is nonsense to believe that God would
waste one moment writing a law, the violation of which would mean the
potential unmitigated, eternal damnation of the soul of the lawbreaker
who is truly an immortal, infinite part of God and of every other human
being who ever existed.

Inner peace comes in knowing that religious laws are written by men
in order to perpetuate some religious institution and that one can only sin
against the religious institution, not against God.

Inner peace comes in knowing that God's love for us is unconditional
and we can never sin against God because we are always at one with
God.