ramble through the bronx
yes, this here is ramble through the bronx, the continuing musings of a graduate student* who should be writing her dissertation, but honestly, living in new york city there's really so much else to do...* and her commenting friends. And guest blogger.
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
another reason not to be a Christian
I was reminded today that in Christian belief it's possible to sin in thought. (please correct me if this is just a Catholic thing)
Now, wherein does moral action lie if it is not in choosing upon which thoughts to act? If I think, "Hm, I could screw over my friend in not repaying her the money I owe her," the sin/wrongdoing does not lie in that thought, but in the action of not repaying the money. If I never even considered the possibility of not repaying the money, repaying the money wouldn't be as strong a moral act.
This is not such a good example, since I don't generally contemplate mistreating my friends -- I pay them back more by habit than by morality.
But what's the point of having our little private consciousnesses if we can't entertain thoughts that we would never act on? (The example of having naughty thoughts about people we could never have, for instance, comes to mind, as does imagining bad things happening to boring professors). Conflating thought and deed leads to unfortunate and even nasty conclusions, like saying that it was OK if a woman was raped who'd previously had rape fantasies.
Certainly if thoughts become obsessive then there's a problem, but in that case the problem is with the obsession, not with the thoughts per se.
Anyway. Things that randomly come up in discussions in the grad student lounge.
jane 5:50 PM [+]
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