Dante The Sin Of Fraud example essay topic

Overtime peoples opinions tend to change, as well as their views on situations. The waythat we view sins today and the way that sins were viewed around Dantes time hascompletely changed. My beliefs are that something is a sin if it is against God's will, or breaking theten commandments. According to Dante one of the worst sins is being a pagan. I believethat all sins are measured equal in God's eyes.

That may not seem fair to think thatmurder is equal to a lie, but God says that if we ask for forgiveness, he will cleanse all ofour sins. (taken from Ps 51: 2) Dante puts sins in ranking order. Being a pagan should notbe ranked as a higher sin then not being obedient to God, because they are all equal. (Dante, 267) Dantes ranking for each sin also does not seem to be logical. He ranks beinga giant one of the highest sins because of how they act, and because of how their generaltraits are. I don't agree with his theory, because I don't feel someone should be punishedjust for their physical make-up. In Dante's works they are sentenced to guard and care for the ninth and lowestlevel of hell.

This punishment seemed unnecessarily-necessarily harsh for some of thecharacters in the book. For instance, Antes who's only sin was to be a great warriorshould never have been sentenced to this torturous after-life. (Dante, 257) The grafterswhose sin was considered to be not as bad as the giants, were still harshly punished fortheir thefts. Dante refers to their plight as having to live in the pitch, and remainconcealed there or have there bodies shredded by the talons of the demons.

I do not agreewith Dante and his views on how the grafters are to be punished for their sins. (Dante, 190) It is not fair for anyone to measure the punishment of someone else's sins. The sin of fortune telling and divining was considered appalling in Dante's timebecause, it was an attempt to see into the future and lessen the powers of God. Icompletely agre with Dante on this, because God does not want us to play the devil sgame, and fortune telling is his game. Really what the fortune tellers were doing wascommitting fraud. According to Dante the sin of fraud is one of the worst sins of all, youare punished for this sin in a sheet of ice.

The fortune tellers were punished by havingtheir heads put on backwards and watching where they have been, rather then wherethey are going. I think being frozen in ice would be allot worse. (Dante, 266) No matter what sin you commit or what punishment you get none are easy andnone are good. Those are just some examples of Dante's conception of sin that areportrayed throughout the novel.

Although our views of sins and Dantes views of sins mayhave similarities, they also have there differences. Just because someone believes that thechurch has all the answers for lives inadequacies and temptations it does not mean theycan be lead astray or duped into forsaking the straight and narrow path and become evilsinners, doomed to one of Dante's chambers. Icompletely agree with Dante on this, because God does not want us to play the devil sgame, and fortune telling is his game.