Why did you have to make me preach???

To have a better understanding of the Bible one must understand that the words Sin and Evil have the same meanings.

Sin/Evil

1. The humanist meaning- That which causes harm
2. The Godly meaning- What ever pisses off God. This can be arbitrary, and can change passage to passage.

It may mean one or both. The important thing to see here is that the Bible is so inconsistent that you are completely correct. The meanings do loose credibility all together.

Sin is a religious construct, as well as karma, but I do believe that there is a universally inherent understanding of right and wrong. Just as there is a universally inherent impulse to lie because of fear of punishment and/or retaliation. My rule: Be good to yourself and others.

The concept of sin is strictly man-made, and does not exist outside of organized religions.

Sin is a religious construct, yes. However some sins are bad and deserve punishment in some form. For example, adultery. I'm not saying someone should be drawn and quartered but there should be consequences for doing something you shouldn't do. Stealing is bad, et cetera. Sin was created to give people a fear of God and be scared not to enter Heaven. With anything that someone does or says, that person must accept the consequences of those actions.

I think the concept of error from a moral standard (one definition of sin) is fine on the base-level.

The problem is what moral standards? And when you look at the religious ones you realize how arbitrary some of them are, and how inhumanely draconian others are, with a few remaining ones which are fine (like don't murder... no complaints there). Erring from impossible expectations should make you double-check your standards. This is why half the ethical-social prescriptions of the bible have been already completely tossed away and another half of the remainder are the ones that mostly exist to help religion maintain it's present power.

So in other words, do I think cheating on a partner (spouse or business) is sin in the above sense? Yes. But is it some meta-physical, eternal failure that warrants the death of a perfect divine human being to fix it? Nope. Which is why I don't like the term "sin" anymore, even though it captures an important idea in some ways.

I think sin was just the word people used to designate actions whose consequences were known to be physically or psychologically damaging to one's self or to others, or that were unfair. That it was thought of in superstitious terms is a separate issue. There clearly are actions which have unfair or psychologically damaging consequences. Those sins that are unfair to others, like stealing and murder are usually encoded into modern law. The ones that are merely damaging to our own selves, like jealousy, envy, or gluttony, we are now free commit without restraint, however damaging to ourselves or society they may be. Call them whatever word you prefer, but a claim that they are meaningless might be difficult to defend.

Agree.
Religion is a multi faceted scam that's had thousands of years to perfect itself.

I agree. Humans are apes and apes tend to be violent, territorial, and ruthless. Why feel bad about it? If we examine these behaviors with a desire to learn from versus feeling bad about we could evolve in amazing ways.

Yes, sin is meaningless... Silly, in fact. Laws, on the other hand, need consideration; but some of them are as silly as sins. We don't need a list of sins to avoid, in order to have a working, moral compass.

That is heavy

Of course! Like ''race,'' sin IS a social construct...another way to control us. Read the O.T....lots of ''sin'' going on there...without any punishment from Big Sky Daddy!

Completely truth! No mankind should become great only due to a fear of hell if not following a set of rules. Being awesome comes naturally if you have a great heart n head on your shoulders that u utilize!

The invention of ‘sin’ allows someone else to judge you.. F that.

Yes, it's total bullshit.

There are just harms and boons and the actions that tend to promote one or the other.

In practice, "sin" is constantly morphing. In the 1920s, fundamentalists railed against listening to the radio (and later, movies and TV) and unchaperoned dating. Today, fundamentalist youth and their elders indulge in all of them without a second thought. Hems above the ankle were once lewd, then the calf, then the knee ... it's all just random rules to keep people off-kilter and self-loathing and guilty so they need the church to mediate repentance / forgiveness / absolution.

Also, even fundamentalists do not want to be TOO out of step with current societal mores and customs or it will put them at too much of a disadvantage. A few (Amish, Mennonites, etc) are out of step on purpose specifically so they can have a separatist enclave but most of them don't want to go that far.

I never met a sin I didn't want to commit. lol kidding. Sin is something religious "leaders" invented to keep their people in line. When I was a kid "fishing on Sunday" was a sin. So was playing pool. I like the song "Heaven's just a sin away!" yep!

Sin, and the accusation or pronouncement of same is all part of the control mechanisms inflicted upon us by the religious establishment. It's all horseshit, as far as I'm concerned. Don't give 2 fux for it.