"I'm Against It"

That's what Mark Twain said when somebody asked him what his position was on sin. I think he was being a smart aleck. Religion was a bigger part of American culture in those days, and not many people were likely to publically proclaim that they were in favor of sin, so it was like, "Duh!". I'm not so sure about Uncle Ken. First he makes a big deal about defining sin, and then he refers to  "superstitious things like sin". So let me ask him straight out: Uncle Ken, what is your position on sin, are you for it or against it? My definition of sin is, "the violation of a religious rule". If you are not a member of a particular religion, you are not bound by their rules. If you don't believe in God or any religion, then you are incapable of sinning. You can be a criminal, a scalawag, a scoundrel, or just a mean prick, but you can't be a sinner.

Forgiveness of sin is the very cornerstone of Christianity. With the Jews, not so much. They used to sacrifice animals to atone for their sins, but they haven't done that since the Romans demolished their temple in 70 AD. Moses had told them a long time previous that they were not to conduct their sacrifices in "the high places" like their pagan neighbors, but only in their temple in Jerusalem. Well, in the time of Moses, the Israelites were living on the road and their temple was a tent, but that was understood to be only temporary. In Christian theology, Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice, rendering animal sacrifices unnecessary.Forgiveness of sin became a free gift, if you repent and choose to accept it. This led to another definition of sin: "living apart from God". If you do that, you are a sinner, regardless of how many rules you do or do not violate.

I am also confused about Uncle Ken's reference to "world culture". We don't even have a national culture anymore, if indeed we ever did. So how can we have a world culture? I suppose we all have some things in common with the rest of the human race, but I doubt that it's enough to qualify as a world culture.

I'm not surprised to hear that the Red Chinese are investing in construction projects all over the world. They probably hold more U.S. money than we do by now, and they have to invest it somewhere.

I heard about that global cyber attack. I don't think it was political in nature, just a scam to extort money from people. Last I heard, it's been brought under control, but the perpetrators have not yet been identified.