Sins for the Modern Age: UK Poll Results
The seven deadly sins (originally devised by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century) are out of date and should be replaced by new vices more appropriate for our times, such as adultery and bigotry. This is according to a new Mori poll of 1001 adults commissioned by the BBC's "Heaven and Earth" Show.
The poll found that most people thought that, of the seven ancient sins, only greed has survived the ages. Anger, gluttony, sloth, envy, pride and lust have been replaced by cruelty, adultery, bigotry, dishonesty, hypocrisy and selfishness.
Only 9 percent of those polled said that they had never been guilty of succumbing to any of the ancient sins. Lust is the sin that most people - 41 percent of men and 26 percent of women - say that they would enjoy indulging in, according to the survey. More women (20 percent) than men (15 percent) would enjoy committing gluttony. Of the ancient sins, anger is committed most, followed by pride, envy, gluttony, lust, sloth and greed.
Of the new sins, 39 percent of people thought cruelty to be the worst, followed by adultery (11 percent), bigotry (8 percent), dishonesty (7 percent), hypocrisy (6 percent), greed (6 percent) and selfishness (5 percent).
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