Seven Deadly Sins

(shoot, I should be studying for my urban test tmr, but it's one of the days when I have no mood to study, and I almost always give in to myself when I have no mood to study, the argument being I'm too much a nerd most of the time, anyway.)

So yeah, just remembered that I want to write about what I read in the newspaper this morning: the Vatican has revised the list of the Seven Deadly Sins! I can't pinpoint my exact reaction when I read that, but it's somewhere between unbelief, amazement and amusement..
(For the online article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/vatican-updates-seven-deadly-sins/2008/03/10/1205125819939.html

F.Y.I, the old Seven Deadly Sins are: pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and sloth. (Sloth was originally "sadness" but was replaced during 17th century. Dang I can't imagine sadness being a deadly sin..)

And on the new list: *drumrrrrroooooooollll....*
1.polluting
2. genetic engineering
3. obscene riches
4.taking drugs
5.abortion
6. pedophilia
7.causing social injustice

Hm....well...I'm sure the intention is good and all, and the revised list does show that some thinking must've gone into the list to "keep up with the times"... but hm... polluting as a "deadly sin"? Well actually it's quite true, we're slowly killing the planet and each other by pollution..but would labelling an act a deadly sin deter one from doing it? Especially since polluting is so much more easily done compared to, say, fornication... Turn on the air-con, light up a smoke, et voila, you've condemned your soul!

Regarding genetic engineering...hm...it's also a difficult matter to discuss... since quite a lot of products now are the product of genetic engineering without the public being aware of it.. but I'm sure inside the document containing the clauses for the new Seven Deadly Sins they must have some sentences saying that experiments with existing cell lines are ok, they just don't approve the use of human embryos but approve the use of adult stem cells..bla bla bla..

And obscene riches?? Hm...how obscene is obscene..? And isn't the Vatican...uhm..rather wealthy?

Aside from all that, I have to applaud the Vatican's decision though, if only for their determination to view things in black and white when the issues involved are very often classified as grey areas. And well...if we think again...the old deadly sins are things that affect every human being - pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and sloth...we've all experienced those at times and they symbolise the human weakness.. In a way, the new deadly sins also affect almost everyone these days.. *except perhaps paedophilia... though I'm very convinced that they put it on the list just to deter members of the clergy from doing it.. *

And I quote from the online article, "New sins have appeared on the horizon of humanity as a corollary of the unstoppable process of globalisation."

Surreal....