Missing Our Target and Losing Focus — Sinful Behaviour?
The origins of words can reveal a lot
I’m not a religious person but I’m certain that organised religions bring a great deal of joy and comfort to those who follow them. In my darker times I’ve wondered if life might have been easier had I possessed a little faith.
Some of the greatest atrocities and the vilest of behaviors are committed under the banner of religion too of course, but for that’s how life goes — no single force is universally good or bad.
Religious or not there’s much about our lives, our conventions, customs and the things that we do and say that have been shaped by religion and spirituality. One of the most striking is its influence over language and the origin of words.
For instance, who’d have thought that losing sight of our goals could be described as sinful?
The original sin?
It was a podcast discussion between Jordan B. Peterson and Jocko Willink, exploring the idea of focus that introduced me to this fascinating idea — that the ancient origin of the word ‘sin’ isn’t what I’d originally thought.
To sin evokes ideas of straying from the path and violating a moral code set out by religious doctrine. Sinful actions, behaviours, utterances and…
