Mind Control for Fun and Prophet (or "Why I don't believe in Sin Part 1")

Recently I wrote a blog about the Jewish High Holidays that mentioned that I do not believe in sin. A commenter asked why. There are two explanations to this: a long one and a short one. I gave the short response in a responding comment, promising a blog to detail the long answer. Since I have nothing better to do at the moment (it's unwise to wander around in the rain looking for a job -- especially if you've got the plague), this is that blog.

When I was growing up, I was pretty much surrounded by "sin" propaganda. Whether it was the 3 years I spent in Catholic school (that's a story in itself -- suffice to say, the school district I lived in was pretty bad, and my mom wanted me to have an education... the Catholic school was the closest and best alternative to the local public school), the Evangelical Christians who lived next door (with 7... no 8... no 10 children), or the general propaganda from my family: talk of so-called sin was all around me. I didn't believe it. I can remember being 7 years old, sitting in church (cause you had to go), and wanting to question everything that was being said. "Don't do this, because it's a sin." But why is it a sin? I wanted to ask.

As I got older, and started getting more into Judaism, (as well as Buddhism a few years later), I started to wonder about this "god" character. When I was 10, looking out the car window at some reeds on the side of the road it dawned on me: god's not a person, "god is those reeds and this car, and everything in the universe". I hadn't yet connected that idea to the idea of sin, because I still didn't really have that much of a concept of it. For several more years, I continued to think that god had some sort of persona that could be upset, take revenge, and command others not to do things.

Then I read Leviticus. Everything is a sin, according to some interpretations of Leviticus. And yet, even those who are supposed to have followed G*D's word the closest -- the one and only Chosen People -- were nearly annihilated at the hands of, not god, not monsters, but other human beings. The Holocaust (and I feel obligated to mention that Polish intellectuals, Gypsies, the mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, Catholics, random Czechs, and 5 million people as well as 6 million Jewish people were murdered during this tragedy), caused an entire generation of Jews to abandon their faith in a G*D that would protect them so long as they did what he said.

As I began to understand more about Judaism and the history of my people, I started to joke about the Covenant being more of a mob deal: we pay protection to G*D in the form of offerings and abstaining from sin, and G*D protects us. Yeah, well, so much for that. It was at that point that I realized that the concept of sin was invented by religious leaders in order to scare the people into doing what they were told.

Concepts like sin, sacrilege, and blasphemy were invented as a means of mind control over the religious masses. Sure, back in the bad old days of "Moses" (who, many Jews these days acknowledge, probably never existed), it was necessary for the Chosen People to follow certain rules. As a desert people who looked the same as all the other desert people, it was necessary that we have a dress code (one fabric at a time, people!); the ancient world, as the modern world, was also fraught with Red Tide poisoning so eating shellfish became a no-no; circumcision is incredibly widespread amongst desert people because, as Robin Williams put it "you don't want to get sand in there". But because, like me at 7, the people were asking so many questions ("why will G*D kill us if we eat shrimp?"), and the leaders had no explanations the old stand-by authoritarian answer was given.

Because G*D said. I talked to G*D in my tent and he said no; it is not our place to question G*D.

Originally the concept of sin was meant to protect the people from themselves. Unfortunately, as the centuries went on (and as the Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire, and eventually the Catholic Church -- whose one claim to fame for the last 2000 years has been mind control of large percentages of the world), the concept of "sin" became something that was used in order to gain power, silence dissidents, promote racism, slavery, prejudice, steal land from Native peoples, and basically fill the coffers of the religious leaders with gold that was stained by the blood of people who were "savages", "infidels", "blasphemers", and "sinners".

Certainly if anything could offend G*D it would be the twisting of his commandments to make the rich richer. And yet, over the course of human events, no concept has remained as strong as the concept that if you "sin", you will be "punished"; but not by G*D alone, because you must be punished in the corporeal world so that others know not to do as you did.

The Inquisition.

The Crusades.

The Spanish Conquest of Central America.

Manifest Destiny.

The Salem Witch Trials.

The Holocaust.

All of these events were begun and carried out with the idea that all those people, the "witches", "infidels", "savages", Jews, Polish intellectuals, mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, freedom fighters, communists, terrorists, ad infinitum; had sinned against G*D and so it was the duty of whomever happened to be in charge at the time to purge those people from the world in order to protect "God fearing Christian men". (Not to mention take all the gold, property, ideas, et cetera and use them to enrich whomever the sovereign at the time happened to be.)

This is how I have come to the realization that the concept of "sin" was created and exploited for personal gain and profit of persons who would dare twist the Commandments of G*D, all the while claiming to act in zeal and good faith for the benefit and glory of the Creator.

By now, this blog has become very long. I think it's time we all took a break and considered what has been written. Obviously, this is a very incomplete history lesson, and I invite facts to be added in the comment section. However, I will ask that there be no debate over the existence of god brought into this. There are plenty of places to debate that, this blog is not one of them. Also, no admonishments of others for their "sin". It's freaking annoying. This is not a sermon, it is a discussion of ideas. No one is to be condemned or berated for what they believe: because it's what you actually do that matters, whether there is a god or not. 

Affectionately,
Rachel