The First Sin Is Ego

The ego is seeing the world only from your viewpoint. The ego says, you are not me therefore I will try to make you into me as much as possible. I will try to control how you talk, what you think, how you act, how you dress etc. If you do not conform, then I will punish you for not being the way I want you to be.

We are programmed for self preservation so we always view things from our own perspective first and foremost and act from that standpoint. We come into the world as selfish children who only think about ourselves. This guarantees that the adults in our lives will take care of us. We need that selfishness so that people will do all the things for us that we can’t do for ourselves. As children get older they learn how to share things with others, how to think of other people besides themselves. They change their perspective from me, me, me to us.

The ego makes us want to be like a god. This means we try to make everyone and everything into our image. We want to make the rules for their lives. Be the colour I want you to be. Have the hair I want you to have. Weigh what I think you should weigh. We do this for everything. We think that we are the most important beings in the universe and everything else comes second. This is the reason we treat animals the way we do. It's the reason we think nature doesn't matter.

The ego makes us feel safe. The more like us other people are, the safer we feel. If people are like us, we can predict how they will act and we won’t have to keep our guard up all the time. The more control we have over things, the safer we feel so we try to control other people, animals and nature.

Most people think the ego is bad. They think it’s something we have to get rid of. The ego isn’t all bad. We need it, we just don’t need as much of it as we think we do. We have to be conscious of wanting people to conform to our beliefs, our way of life and our needs.

The first sin is ego. It is the most dangerous sin. It is leading us into a dystopian future where the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. It leads to a society where everyone lives in fear of each other. It leads to a society in which each person is afraid to be who they are.