Given that we are all struggling to get through living here on earth together, there is no reason we should sit in judgment on anyone else. We all need to find a way to walk our path in a fashion that offends as few people as possible while enjoying our own personal lives. Everyone seems to have an opinion about just about everything. Take toilet paper. There are toilet paper retailer/wholesalers who offer all types of toilet paper. They sell thin, one ply, rough toilet paper you often encounter at rest stops on the highway as well as the plump two ply, soft quilted variety of toilet paper you get at a five star hotel. There are “green” consciously made toilet paper and then there is the commercial types of paper. Which is better for our environment. Which is better for our pocket book, and which is better for our bottom! Can a salesman of toilet paper take pride in the quality of his product? Should a toilet paper retailer/wholesaler feel pride when he/she has outsold every other competitor. Is one form of pride acceptable and the other type of pride a sin?
We have talked about the positive way of thinking about pride, and it seams to make sense according to old philosophers who considered that pride was an important quality to reach success in our personal and professional life.
However, we cannot avoid the fact that pride is one of the seven deadly sins known in Christianity, also known as the capital vices, or cardinal sins. But many religions also consider pride as a forbidden sin.
In Christianity, seven are an abomination unto the Lord. The seven capital vices are : Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. The Roman Catholic Church also recognizes seven holy virtues which correspond to each of the seven deadly sins : Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Forgiveness, Kindness, Humility.
Judaism shares the Old Testament with Christianity, but it is not known as the Old Testament, but under the name of Written Torah or the Tanakh. There are 606 other commandments, called Mitzvot, in addition to the 7 deadly sins. Also, they are not listed as sins, but more as statements and principles of law and ethnics contained in the Torah.
Unlike Judaism, Islam sees sin, not as a commandment, or like a principle, but more like anything that goes against the commands of Allah (God). A list of 70 sins that are interpreted by the canon of the Coran.
Hindu, Buddhist and Shinto also have their view of sin. For example, Buddhist ethics is founded upon compassion for all beings and upon the duty to cause their happiness ant to prevent their suffering. These are simply what Buddhism recognizes as a natural principle of Karma, better understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.
But religion is not all. Atheists simply make a distinction between what is right or what is wrong. Sin has a strong religious connotation, so atheist just call it a moral or ethical code.
It does not matter if you view it one way or the other. The simple fact is that pride is not a good thing. Not because of some overwhelming ideal that an all knowing being is tracking your actions & thoughts in order to be ready for judgment when the time comes & not because of some invisible moral code of values that one should live by. The fact of the matter is that we should live in a manner reflecting our human nature at the best it can be not at its worst.