Are all bad acts/sins equally bad? Do all get/deserve equal punishment?

[Lori]

Do you believe that all bad acts or sins are equally bad in a metaphysical sense or in the eyes of God, or do you think that some bad acts are inherently more bad than others?

Do you think that there is any sort of divine punishment for bad/evil/sinful acts, either in this life or the next? Do all bad acts get or deserve the same punishment, or does it vary?

[Lori]

I think that all sin comes from the same metaphysical source--from our alienation from God--but I don't think that all are equally bad. So the most basic cause of doing harm to someone else--whether that harm be just gossiping or actually murder--is the same, although obviously a lot of other factors would lead to one act rather than the other. But I don't think that God sees both as equally bad, because I think the amount of suffering each causes is much different, and God is responsive to how acts affect the world. An act that causes more suffering, I think, is considered worse by God than an act that causes less. The Holocaust was wrong, and students cheating on tests is wrong, but I personally have to believe that God is far more deeply grieved by genocide than by cheating. I think that God works to persuade us away from either act, but when we do go against what God would have us do, sometimes we'll be doing far more evil things than other times. I think that God understands the full effects of every act in the way that we can't, and so will understand the full evil of our acts in a way we don't (we may see our greed as relatively innocuous but God is aware of all of the suffering it causes around the world), but I do think that God's concern with sin is the effect it has on the world, and sin that causes more suffering in the world grieves God more.

[Lori]

I've been thinking about this question more (I'm still reading that book about God's power and theories of theodicy, and this keeps coming up for me), and I think that maybe part of the issue is why a bad act is bad. Is it bad because it causes harm, or is it bad because it goes against God's will?

Personally, I'd say that sinful acts are sinful because they go against God's will, but I also think that God's will isn't rooted in a fundamentally different morality than our own. God wills only what is good, but I don't believe that means that something is good because God wills it. Theoretically, if God were to will a genocide, that would be evil. God's willing it wouldn't make it good. I believe that God would never will a genocide, because God only wills what is good. And I think that God has a higher and better and more perfect sense of what is good than we do, because God's sense of the good is entirely unlimited and not in conflict with any egoism (what's good for the world is good for God, and there will never be any conflict in that), but I don't think that "good" has a different meaning in reference to God than it does in reference to us. If doing something would be evil for us, like genocide, than it would be even more evil for God to do it.

So in that sense sin isn't bad because it goes against God's will, but it's bad because it goes against God's will and God's will is always good. The transgression is doing something that is going to cause more suffering and harm, not in just doing something that God didn't will. If God were to theoretically will a genocide, then I think it would be evil to follow God's will. Sin is only sin because God only wills what is good, and because in God as he actually exists (rather than as he could theoretically be), we find goodness in its most perfect state. But since some acts cause more harm than others, those acts would, while not necessarily being more sinful (although they might be, if they were rooted in a deeper alienation from God's will), are more evil and more harmful.

But, if someone believes that an act is sinful because it goes against God's will, period, and whatever God wills is good, then I can see why all sinful acts would be equally bad, since the moral value of an act doesn't come from the effects it has on the world, but from whether it is God's will or not.

[Desirae]

Obviously muder is worse than cheating on a math test but when it comes down to it sin is sin and a lie seperates us no less than murder from God's perfect plan. It's hard for me to understand but I take it as God's ways being higher than ours.

[Christine]

I believe that all sin separates us from God, which is the ultimate punishment - so they are all equal in that sense.

I do believe that murder is significantly more sinful because you're sending someone into eternity and that's up to God and God alone.

Also, the Bible says that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the only unpardonable sin, so clearly God holds that one above all the rest.

I believe that all sin carries the punishment of eternal separation from God, but sin carries different consequences with it. So while they all have the same eternal consequence, they all lead to different paths here on earth. Obviously murdering someone has a greater punishment in the physical world than stealing a pack of gum, but they are all sinful behaviors.

[Desirae]

Well put Christine.

[Polly]

Do you mean a la Dante's Inferno? Different rings in hell for gradiations of sin? Or karmaically speaking?

Blessed Be,

Polly

[Kristen]

I have to look it up, but I think the Bible speaks of degrees of suffering in hell. I'll try and be back later when I have two hands.

[Lori]

Obviously muder is worse than cheating on a math test but when it comes down to it sin is sin and a lie seperates us no less than murder from God's perfect plan.

I do agree that sin is sin. I just tend to see the cause-and-effect in the opposite way. I don't think that sinful acts separate us from God, but that our separation from God is, in itself, what sin is, and our evil acts and intentions come from that. But sin is more of an existential condition, at root. So sin is what separates us from God, but I think that it's in the sense that sin is a condition, rather than an act.

So I don't think that sin is punished, because punishing someone for an existential separation serves no greater good. I think that sin can only be healed, and so God responds to sin by drawing us toward reconciliation. I think that can absolutely be painful, but I don't believe it's punishing.

[Shana]

I'm going to answer this before I read any of the other responses.

I think that God sees sin as sin. All sin breaks God's heart -- be it a lie, or a murder. IMO God sees these as equally wrong, evil, bad.

Now I do understand that as HUMANS we tend to "grade" sin, so if I tell a lie, of course -- I do not think it is as "bad" as say, knifing someone to death. However, I'm not God ;)

I think that punishment for sin, in God's eyes, is equal -- it seperates me from him. As a Christian, I believe that Christ died one time, to cover ALL of my sins, for all time and eternity. So yeah. I do believe that I could technically murder someone, and if I sincerely repented, I would be forgiven.

However as a Christian, I would hope that the whole scope of murder will never enter my own arena.

I am of the school of thought that those who do not repent for their sins (the teeny ones and the huge ones), and live with a prideful stubborn heart, will all go to hell.... but again, not up to ME to judge these actions. I let God take care of that. Thankfully!