# How common is sinful thought? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983 "2015-11-19T15:54:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983/41 "2015-11-21T03:02:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Is thinking about having an orgy with a room filled with 60 people one sinful thought, or 60? The orgy is just one thought; you have to visualize sixty different conjunctions of orifices. It’s easier to do if you focus on one particular feature, and move (mentally) from one to the next, to the next. In reality, more variability would be desirable. That’s the great thing about the imagination: an unlimited special effects budget! ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983/42 "2015-11-21T04:24:28Z")
Thoughts about sinful acts are not necessarily sinful. Here’s the traditional Catholic view from [CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Sin](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14004b.htm) . > [@](#): > > Internal sins > > That sin may be committed not only by outward deeds but also by the inner activity of the mind apart from any external manifestation, is plain from the precept of the Decalogue: “Thou shalt not covet”, and from Christ’s rebuke of the scribes and pharisees whom he likens to “whited sepulchres… full of all filthiness” (Matthew 23:27). Hence the Council of Trent (Sess. XIV, c. v), in declaring that all mortal sins must be confessed, makes special mention of those that are most secret and that violate only the last two precepts of the Decalogue, adding that they “sometimes more grievously wound the soul and are more dangerous than sins which are openly committed”. Three kinds of internal sin are usually distinguished: > > ``` > delectatio morosa, i.e. the pleasure taken in a sinful thought or imagination even without desiring it; > gaudium, i.e. dwelling with complacency on sins already committed; and > desiderium, i.e. the desire for what is sinful. > > ``` > [@Czarcasm](#): > > If there was a god and he loved me, he wouldn’t have come up with this “Sins of the father/Original Sin” crap to begin with. _That’s_ what I mean by a stacked deck. It’s not God’s fault. It’s Eve’s fault! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983/43 "2015-11-21T13:18:39Z")
> [@](#): > > How common is sinful thought? It depends on if you _believe_ that something is a “sinful thought”; the more you believe it is, the more you will dwell on it. It’s the same principle as making someone think about purple elephants by telling them “don’t think about purple elephants”. If someone \*doesn’t \*think that, say, sexual thoughts are “sinful” they’ll see someone good looking across from them on a bus, think _“Ooo, nice”_ and then probably think something else. Someone who _does_ think such thoughts are sinful is likely to get themselves into a loop of _“mustn’t think about how sexy they are mustn’t think how sexy they are mustn’t think how sexy they are”._ This makes such a doctrine a very effective tool for generating guilt. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983/44 "2015-11-21T18:06:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If there was a god and he loved me, he wouldn’t have come up with this “Sins of the father/Original Sin” crap to begin with. _That’s_ what I mean by a stacked deck. Apparently it is _now_, but it hasn’t been what you’ve been talking about throughout this thread. So your goalpost-moving is duly noted. But goalpost-moving or not, it’s still worth responding to. What you’re saying is that if God really loved you, he would have created you in perfect conformance and obedience to him. Gotta say, this is about the last thing I would have expected you to want God to do to you. Hell, I wouldn’t want him to have done it to _me._ But to each his own. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983/45 "2015-11-21T18:34:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If there was a god and he loved me, he wouldn’t have come up with this “Sins of the father/Original Sin” crap to begin with. _That’s_ what I mean by a stacked deck. You’re welcome to your opinion, but I think you’re missing the point. If God loves you, then why do you think a not-you would be an acceptable substitute? Wouldn’t it be better to make you you and then provide you with a free and easy option to be forgiven? If God wanted not-humans, he could have stuck with angels and called it good. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983/46 "2015-11-21T18:43:44Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It depends on if you _believe_ that something is a “sinful thought”; the more you believe it is, the more you will dwell on it. **Der Trihs**! It’s good to see you back! I see what you’re saying, but I don’t think it matches my own experience of having “sinful thoughts.” I don’t remember the details of any specific example (which may give support to the “not dwelling on it”), but here’s an example _like_ those that have actually happened to me: I’ll be driving down the highway, stuck behind someone going slow in the fast lane, and I’ll think (or even say, in the privacy of my own car), “Hey asshole, what the fuck is wrong with you?” And then I’ll realize that it’s uncharitable and wrong to be thinking that way, and I’ll repent and resolve not to indulge such thoughts in the future, precisely because I do believe they’re sinful and don’t fit with the kind of person I want to be—and recognizing that is what helps me break that train of thought. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983/47 "2015-11-21T21:52:17Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > If God wanted not-humans, he could have stuck with angels and called it good. Have you forgotten the whole kerfuffle with Satan and his friends? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-is-sinful-thought/737983.md?page=2)