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ETHICAL CONUNDRUMS

Which deadly sin is most prevalent?

Tim Campbell, Wigan, England
  • Lust.

    Bee Lewis, Swindon, England
  • I think it's envy - it sustains most economies in the world and is found in most families.

    Mary McGrath, Dublin
  • I see nobody could be bothered to suggest "sloth".

    William Barrett, London NW10
  • There are at least three forms of greed (or avarice):

    1) an obsessive desire for ever more material goods and the attendant power.
    2) a fearful need to store up surplus goods for a vaguely defined time of want.
    3) a desire for more earthly goods for their own sake.

    Greed - as a manifestation of the survival instinct, borne to excessive quantities by the isolation of individuals in our modern society. Justified legally by the Tories.

    James, Valencia, Spain
  • It has to be lust as this is the one that has been promoted to virtue. Modern society expects us to live in a constant state of lust (though I am not saying we wouldn't anyway). Thousands of dedicated individuals work tirelessly in the media to keep us contantly aroused and to admit to being anything other than bursting at the seams with lust is to admit to being half dead.

    Matthew, Xabia, Spain
  • According to CS Lewis, Pride is the most deadly sin. His reasoning is that pride allows us to tolerate and excuse the other 6.

    Hugh, Edinburgh UK
  • CS Lewis' opinion on this, though astute, was not his own, but the standard position of the church. On this theory, pride is not only the most deadly sin but the most prevalent too, because without it you'd never be arrogant enough to disobey God and commit any of the others. There's an interesting exploration of this in Lewis' novel "Perelandra": for those who don't think an Oxford double-first is intellectual enough for them, they could always try Dante, especially Il Purgatorio.

    Hermione, Rostock Germany
  • Ignorance

    David Hodgson, Brighton, UK
  • The Daily Mail

    Tom, luxembourg luxembourg
  • I don't know about the deadliest sin, but I read once that the one thing that is unforgivable, even by God, is blasphemy.

    Cassie, Coventry UK
  • Sending in serious answers to the notes & queries page.

    Richard, Nottingham, UK
  • Definately Greed. Think of anything wrong with the world today - poverty, environmental concerns, goverment apathy, war, they all stem from the desire to take and hoard and then take some more. Though the CS Lewis thing is spot on too...

    Lindi, Durban South Africa
  • Lust. It's the only truly enjoyable one.

    Aleks, Minneapolis US
  • Gluttony.

    Gern, USA
  • People's reliance on black and white concepts such as good and evil and sin rather than being honest about underlying causes and reasons?

    Will, Sheffield, UK
  • Was the question not about which sin has caused the most deaths ie the most prevalent DEADLY sin?

    Antonia Simpson, Manchester, UK
  • Corporate greed.

    Max Brown, Clareville, Australia
  • There is no such thing as sin. Ask anyone today. If there is, should there not be lively sin? And if there is, which lively sin is the most prevalent?

    Yin Sung, Montreal, Canada
  • I'm sure she read it somewhere, but the most oft quoted unforgivable sin isn't blasphemy, but despair. The concept being that God has given us free will, i.e. the will to make our own choices, and if we choose to give up then he must honor that or there is no free will, hence to despair that God is forgiving or that we are not worthy of forgiveness, if we make that choice, is unforgivable by God who gave us the right to make that choice.

    Mike Turvey, Overland Park, Kansas USA
  • The consumption of foods high in cholesterol

    Kyle, Olney USA
  • The classical answer is pride, because all the other deadly sins stem from it.

    Ben McPherson, Oslo Norway
  • None of these are sins: they are merely human nature in the eye of a cynic. Pride is self-esteem, envy is desire for self-betterment, gluttony is taking pleasure in satisfaction of hunger, lust is sexual desire; anger is self-assertion, greed the desire for possessions or status, and sloth the perfectly normal desire to desist from labour. Properly understood, they are just as well called the Seven Human Virtues

    John Bennett, Glasgow Scotland


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