7 Deadly Sins vs 7 Cardinal Virtues; a Philosophy Take

This is a really well put together chart.

So I wish to discuss the white wolf vs. black wolf:



It isn't that too often we all just feed the black wolf, it's that too many people are focused on starving the black wolf. This version also has a great explanation of why that focus bothers me. Simply starving the black wolf isn't the point. Moreover, it acts too much like that white wolf isn't capable of being stronger than the black wolf on its own. By focusing purely on deprivation of the seven deadly sins, it doesn't necessarily further the end of engaging in the virtues. If the goal of religion is to bring us closer to God, then trying to back away from the seven deadly sins is like looking at them and trying to walk backwards towards where god is. But instead, if we turned around, we'd see the virtues and be able to walk towards them.

The object isn't to constantly refrain from sin, it's to run towards those good things as quickly as possible. If you believe that good > evil, then simply feeding the good in itself makes it so that the evil doesn't matter. It's much smaller and less important, it becomes distant simply because of how far you've run. In the Great Divide by C.S. Lewis, he goes from Hell into Heaven and at the end of the book, he watches someone from Hell shrink back into nothingness, because Heaven is infinitely "big" while Hell is but a tiny speck and anyone coming from Hell to Heaven has to get stretched and thinned out into a shadow in order to try to fit in Heaven.

In that sense, those are the bad things. They simply don't matter when compared to the good things that are so much bigger and better. So I'd rather not focus on those bad things at all. So long as the White wolf is the one fed, he will always be bigger and stronger. Both wolves will always exist. This isn't a struggle that ends. Because the black wolf isn't strong enough to kill the white wolf, and the white wolf won't kill the black wolf because he knows it is unnecessary. Don't bother trying to starve the black wolf, just make sure you feed the white one.

Or to put in a more modern perspective; gluttony. Gluttony alone isn't the most terrible part, and as Thomas Aquinas tried to explain, it is that gluttony as a vice leads to other problems. Someone who is so obsessed with food it can become much more important to them than other more important things like love. In our world there are people who starve, and while I can't take half of my ice cream and mail it to someone in Africa, likewise, simply not eating half of my ice cream won't feed them either. However, if I buy a medium instead of a large, I could save the extra fifty cents and put it in a charitable fund to feed people in Honduras. This, is the difference between trying back away from the sins, and looking towards the virtues. Charity, generosity, temperance, and so forth.

Indeed, "being fat" is not the sin at all, and judging someone else for their size is realistically a much bigger sin that can directly hurt someone. The opposite of "gluttony" isn't just restraint, it's an attempt to make sure that others are well fed and healthy too. Indeed, in early Greek philosophy (where a lot of this actually originates) it wasn't even being overweight, it was the rich eating extremely decadently. So a better comparison might be someone who eats gold flake truffle bagels on a binge, only to throw it up. Mah, or more specifically, depriving others around them of food as well.

So simply focusing on "eating less" doesn't help. Instead, turn it (and yourself) around! Eat better. Share it with others! Good food is nurturing and should be shared! Spread it around to help others.

I guess really the best way I can say this too, is that you aren't put on Earth to avoid sin. You're put on Earth to do good. Go do.