Friday Fun: Can you sin on a deserted island?

Well, as you can see, I'm taking my obsession--the "Can you sin on a deserted island?" question--to the people. For some pre-weekend theological madness cast your vote! Both the question and the value of the question is up for debate. And I'm expecting to get creamed on this. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for thinking this question has any theological value.

So let me just argue my case for posterity's sake.

First, can you sin on a deserted island?

I say no. Now, undoubtedly people will say you can sin. Examples I've heard are:

You can kill yourself.
You can harm the environment.
You can lust.
You can blaspheme God.

Even if we were to accept these as sins, these examples are all a little weird and forced. I mean, I suppose you can run around cutting down trees and killing all the monkeys. Or commit suicide. Or sexually fantasize about someone not on the island. Or, finally, scream awful things at God.

But are these things sins? Probably, but I bet you could get a decent theological debate going that they are NOT sins. That is, these things, or other things you could dream up, don't seem to be prototypical sins.

Further, if you did see some of this behavior on the island I doubt your first thought would be "That is a sin." Rather, I bet you'd think that the person had lost his mind. Went crazy. And if that is so, it weakens any strong notion of sin.

But now let's imagine the critical Gedankenexperiment. Imagine that there are TWO people on the island. Can you sin with two people?

Well, now the floodgates open! We can imagine all kinds of sin: Lies, stealing, violence, murder. It all comes rolling out.

And that is my point. The whole point of the question is to make this hidden feature of our sin categories painfully obvious: Sin is a social event.

Now, on to the second question: Is this insight valuable?

I think so. I think one of the worst mistakes in lay theology is to consider sin to be a God/Human issue. The island Gedankenexperiment is trying to point out that if it is just God and You--alone--well, your sin repertoire is pretty crazed and anemic. But sin categories abound when we find ourselves in human community, when we see sin as a Human/Human issue.

This is not to say that, ultimately, our sin doesn't involve God or God's judgement. It's just to say that God's judgement isn't about a God/Human infraction but about God's wrath at Human/Human infractions.

See, I think this is what Jesus was getting at in the Sermon on the Mount. That is, before you offer your sacrifice to God (that is, before you make the mistake of thinking sin is a God/Human rift) go be first reconciled to your brother (as the real issue is a Human/Human rift), THEN come sacrifice. It's also the theme in 1 John. You can't say you love God (tout a healed God/Human bond) when you hate your brother (a Human/Human fracture). Love your brother first and then you can say you love God with authenticity.

As I see it, if you think Sin is a Condition then you are always wandering around thinking there's this rift between you and God. And that focus, in my mind, is the wrong focus. It leads to guilt, shame, and religious paranoia. Let me be even more bold: THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN RELIGION IS THE FOCUS ON THE GOD/HUMAN RIFT. ALL THE EVILS OF RELIGION RESULT FROM THIS FOCUS.

But if we see sin properly, as Human/Human rift, then my eyes and heart are focused on the right things: Before I go to church today, is my brother offended by me?

Because if he is, well, what's the point of going to church?

Well, that's my argument. Now it's your turn. Vote. Debate (here or there). And have a merry Friday and a wonderful weekend!