Sin is a complex concept that has
religious, moral, philosophical, psychological and social implications, which
will be discussed separately below. In the most general sense, sin is a single
or multiple violation of a moral ethical-social standard, or a continuous state
in which sin is regularly committed. It is mostly used in religious contexts as
it has religious origin. The violation of standard is primarily an act that the
existing system of socio-religious-moral norms considers to be bad, such as
prostitution and fornication, which religions generally regard as serious sins,
but it can also be the very opposite of it, non-action deed, that is, omission,
but it also applies to non-deeds that are present only as thoughts. The
judgment of sin is generally determined by religious social standards, as our
contemporary societies have built moral values into their system of value
from their religion, but these may change from time to time as society itself changes,
e.g. the omission of Sunday worship in medieval Christian society was
considered as serious sin, but in the present materialist Western world it is
not at all. The issue of prostitution falls into a similar category, which
antique societies did not regard as sin at all, since their gods were quite adulterous
(just think of the great god Zeus, who often even raped his human or divine
sexual victims). On top of that, at the early times of antiquity, promiscuity
was socially accepted at the so called Bacchanal festivals, where sexual
debauchery and prostitution were a common occurrence.
