Re: Would the life be diff if the 7 deadly sins did not exist?
Well, the reality is that if these 7 sins did not exist than life would be meaningless. Take greed...if there was no greed what would be the incentives for us to work beyond our daily survival needs? There would be no need for innovation, discoveries and building civilizations b/c life will be fulfilling as it existed. Same goes for other things as well. Take for example gluttony or over-consumption. That helps create jobs & entire industries depend on it and millions of people are employed because of it.
Peace Shamraz
No you are mixing things up and getting yourself all confused.
Greed is an extreme position. Greed is always wrong - Let me explain this another way ...
1) Pride is the extremity of the axis of identification - we should aim to be honourable and dignified through humility before God and pleasantry towards others - Pride is an extreme form of self-worth or self-importance and is always problematic.
2) Envy is the extremity of the axis of competition - we should aim to be increasing ourselves in goodness and admire others in their successes to motivate ourselves - but those who do not wish to be motivated, do not want to put any effort in and still require the successes is always an extreme position. Not a slight bit of envy is healthy ... but competitiveness can be healthy.
3) Gluttony is the over-consumption of food - it is on the extremity of the scale of nutrition. Although it is virtuous to seek nutrition and pure foods - this is never called gluttony ... gluttony is when the imbalance of calorific value is present when our needs are not requiring of it ... even if it is a little over it is still gluttony and never a good thing. Eating less than our appetites and sufficient for normal operation is never called gluttony.
4) Lust is not the same as sexual need ... Lust is a run away affect of sexual thought processing even a little of it is harmful ... Sexual thoughts should be curbed and bridled, harnessed and controlled. Above the clue resides in the term "inordinate" - it means imbalanced.
5) Anger is the extremity on the scale of temperament ... Our temperament should remain calm - anger is never a good thing - passion can be either good or bad - but anger infers a loss of mental control - we must use our passions as impetus to act, but we must never allow them to take control of us subduing our intellects - that is anger.
6) Covetousness - is an extreme position on the scale of self-preservation. It puts too much emphasis on things and creates a false notion that they can provide goodness for the individual. Although it is virtuous to seek out things to meet our needs, it becomes a sin when this act eclipses our understanding that God provides for our needs and the things are mere vessels ... we start to hoard and accumulate beyond our needs and deprive others of taking benefit - even a little bit of this is harmful. We should be prepared to part with all of our wealth without any attachment to it if and when the need arises.
7) Sloth - This can never be a virtue ... It is the state of laziness. It is on the axis of action ... The acts of conformity are virtuous, the acts of struggle are better still, but to be sloth is to be totally disaffected for work of any kind and this can never be good. Even if a person is doing work and hates it inside this is a blameworthy state ... he should generate the passion and love for it in himself, but to conform to the sloth inside us is worse.
So really you are not talking about the sins ... you are talking about other things these sins lie on their axis/scale of ... these are extremes in their own axes and can in themselves never be virtuous.
good idea