How are mortal sins interconnected?

The synodal translation of the Old Testament contains a list of God's commandments - their 10. Mortal sins are two less. Here they are: pride, vanity, anger, despondency, sadness, adultery, avarice, gluttony. In some cases, the notion of sadness and despondency is united into a single whole, although these are somewhat different concepts.

Mortal sins are called so because the lack of will and desire to fight them leads to spiritual death.

As a rule, their list, contained at the beginning of any prayer, begins with pride or pride, which sometimes try to distinguish. Indeed, very often the expressions "we are proud of our country" or "proudly flies on the mast the flag of our native land ..." are used very often, etc. Like any sin, pride derives from feelings typical of most people, called advantages. There is even a very expressive and imaginative comparison of such emotions with a dog that is good when it guards the house, and becomes harmful if it bites everyone in a row or commits outrages in the house. Deadly sins are related. A person who believes that his homeland is beautiful, and happy with the fact that he lives on his native land, should not consider all foreigners to be second-class people, whom he has the right to urge. Otherwise, he will fall into the sin of pride, and then of unrighteous anger, that is, anger. An example of this attitude to the world around us is the actions of the leadership of Nazi Germany, who considered themselves entitled to humiliate and destroy "racially inferior" peoples.

Pride is the sister of vanity

Other mortal sins are also separated from righteous deeds by a fine line. The need for nutrition, laid down by human nature itself, sometimes becomes a hypertrophied desire to eat as many of the most refined dishes as possible and grow into gluttony.

A completely natural instinct of reproduction becomes an excuse for promiscuity (multiple sexual relations without feeling, only out of lust).

Sadness, experienced with the loss of loved ones, can cause a complete loss of interest in life.

Thrift and economism are sometimes transformed into avarice, because avarice is peculiar to people greedy.

There are other "cross" links, by which mortal sins feed each other. For example, a glutton quickly enough begins to feel the desire in other pleasures and becomes an adulterer. The proud man does not tolerate objections and usually responds to any criticism of his own outbursts of anger. Excessive sadness grows into despondency. Greed is often a consequence of vanity and the desire to prove to others their superiority and to show wealth and luxury.

An interesting approach to this problem is the well-known philosopher and biologist Konrad Lorenz. In his book "The Eight Deadly Sins of Civilized Humanity", an Austrian scientist examines theosophical concepts from a rational point of view, bringing the social and scientific basis to the motivation of human actions and establishing parallels with the behavior of animals. In his opinion, Christian concepts of good and evil, at first glance abstract and abstract, have deep rational roots, containing recommendations, the observance of which is necessary for the survival of all mankind.