The Joy of Sin
(2012) by Simon Laham
I’ve experienced moments
when people misunderstood me especially from the books that I read. Close
mindedness is the enemy of intellectual life. Once I read Richard Dawkin’s The God Delusion, I was accused as experimenting
with atheism; I read Who Speaks for
Islam?, some of my students thought that I wanted to convert to Islam; and
when I read Yuval Harari’s Sapiens: A
Brief History of Humankind, a well-meaning minister questioned my believes
in the existence of God and the doctrine of creation (and many other
controversial books that I’ve read). I just finished reading The Joy of Sin, do you think it’s
because I enjoy sinning?
This book is written from
the perspective of experimental social psychologist not from religious
authority. As such, the definition of ‘sin’ here is not thoroughly Biblical but
‘sin’ in a sense of human social behaviour. Even so, Simon acknowledges that “we all ‘sin’ and we do it all the time.”
(Confirmed what Paul wrote in the Letter to the Romans). This book is divided
into 7 chapters which follows Pope Gregory the Great’s 7 lists deadly sins that
was written in AD 590, entitled Morals on
the Book of Job. He writes it for the purpose of “maintaining the social order within [monk] ascetic communities.”
For Pope Gregory, these deadly sins can literally lead people to hell. “In psychology,” Simon differs, “pride, lust, gluttony, greed, envy, sloth
and anger aren’t considered ‘sins,’ or morally wrong, or even uniformly bad,
but rather complex and largely functional psychological states.”
This is the classic
example of psychologized sin. Simon continues, “When it comes to the seven deadly sins, the picture is a complex one.”
It can be useful and of course it have its downsides too. As for these sins’
usefulness, the author suggest that “the
seven deadly sins not only feel great but are actually good for us.” To be
fair, Simon focuses is on the ‘good’ sides of each sin and at the same time
warned his readers against extremism approached. This book is packed with array
of physiological research. From a non-religious view, these sins are just “seven psychological characteristics of the
human species.”
In summary, #1 Lust, Laham says, can jolt our
creativity; #2 Gluttony can help us
to connects with others; #3 Greed
breed happiness; #4 Sloth can make
us smarter; #5 Anger can make us
fearsome negotiator; #6 Envy can
actually bolster our self-esteem; and #7
Pride can boost our confident and will to success. “A sinfully delicious tour of human nature that reveals the bright side
of our dark side,” comment Daniel Gilbert.
I read this book because
I’m interested in how we humans think and behave. I believes that there is such
a thing as ‘sin’ because I believe that our morality is define primary by God’s
Law not only through our consciousness and social construct. I disagree a lots
with how Simon Laham defines ‘sin’ and I also sceptic in how Pope Gregory
defines it too. But I learned a great deal about the complexity of sin and why
it is so ‘joyful’ to do. To me, reading this book enable me to understand social issues around me (and
in Malaysia, generally) from the psychological perspectives.
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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