I once saw a wise person write:

"Perhaps we are not punished FOR our sins... Perhaps we are punished BY them."

As much as I'd like to say that was my thought - I found this idea to be absolutely brilliant.

God it's so good.

Stick with me for a second.

What if...

For those of us who were raised religious,

were given the 10 commandments.

And we learned that they meant "YOU MAY NEVER DO THESE, OR ELSE"...

BUT what if these actions called "sins" that we "committed" were a little bit different -

What if all of the Commandments were just a "Hey heads up, if you covet your neighbor's stuff and compare yourself to him, you'll probably end up feeling pretty shitty"

"Oh and by the way, if you lie or hate your parents, that's bound to cause some discomfort in you and your life over time too..."

They weren't so much Commandments ("You MAY NOT DO THIS"), but were moreso Advisements ("Heads up, doing this might end up leading you to feel kind of shitty")

The problem is...

When most people learn the 10 commandments, they were given the idea that for their Sins, the punishment was going to come from an external source. So they constantly lived in fear of some Externalized entity that would come punish them at any moment.

If however, the warnings were more similar to the Advisements style...

This would mean that there is no "punishment" coming from some faceless nameless vengeful deity in the sky. There are simply certain activities that when undertaken will end up hurting you subtly or not so subtly THROUGH THE ACTION ITSELF.

Through this lens, sins become a much different thing... The "punishment" for them seems much more natural, and there is no angry Universe about to punish you if you ever take a misstep.

The knot in your stomach after you lie may not be from fear of some angry diety... It might just be the side effect of lying.

Food for thought.