Sinning on accident

[Razanir]

Just making sure, it’s not possible to sin on accident, right? HugeLOL tends to be a safe site to go on, but people occasionally and rarely post porn (which gets deleted within minutes). If I see it, but wasn’t intending to because that’s supposed to be against site rules, I didn’t sin, right?

 

[Gorgias]

Just making sure, it’s not possible to sin on accident, right? HugeLOL tends to be a safe site to go on, but people occasionally and rarely post porn (which gets deleted within minutes). If I see it, but wasn’t intending to because that’s supposed to be against site rules, I didn’t sin, right?

Many people have mentioned things here that suggest that you can’t sin unintentionally, and I’ve resisted answering until now, but here’s my take on it: when we’re asking this question, we need to distinguish between ‘sin’ and ‘imputability’. That is, we need to distinguish between the objective question of ‘is this thing sinful?’ and the subjective question of ‘am I in a state of mortal sin?’ (or, alternatively, ‘have I committed a venial sin?’)…

My call? Yes, you can sin unintentionally. You cannot sin mortally if it’s unintentional – mortal sin requires full knowledge and consent. You can sin venially without intent – but venial sin doesn’t strictly require confession (and remission of venial sin can be take place through properly disposed reception of the Eucharist).

 

[Pilosopo]

My take… I think there are two ways of looking at this.
One, if you did something which you regret, or in retrospect, you could have done better, then it is something for careful review, in hopes that you don’t repeat the same mistake.
Two, there are levels of awareness and knowledge. if you were quite clueless that emptying the flowerpot from the second floor is causing breathing problems to the people below, then there’s a “sin by accident.” If you are contributing, say via taxes, to government action that is immoral, there’s a “sin by accident.”
To summarize, learn from mistakes (me, too.). Be informed (me, too).

 

[UncleBill]

Many people have mentioned things here that suggest that you can’t sin unintentionally, and I’ve resisted answering until now, but here’s my take on it: when we’re asking this question, we need to distinguish between ‘sin’ and ‘imputability’. That is, we need to distinguish between the objective question of ‘is this thing sinful?’ and the subjective question of ‘am I in a state of mortal sin?’ (or, alternatively, ‘have I committed a venial sin?’)…

My call? Yes, you can sin unintentionally. You cannot sin mortally if it’s unintentional – mortal sin requires full knowledge and consent. You can sin venially without intent – but venial sin doesn’t strictly require confession (and remission of venial sin can be take place through properly disposed reception of the Eucharist).

Here is a link to an article by Fr. Maximos from Holy Resurrection Monastery a Byzantine Catholic Monastery. It is an Eastern Catholic view on Involuntarily sin. Well worth the read.

hrmonline.org/PDFs/Sins_voluntary_and_involuntary.pdf

 

[Razanir]

Perhaps I should have been more clear. I know it’s just mortal sins that can’t be accidents. I was just making sure that if a site’s supposed to be clean, but someone posts porn there anyway, I’m not mortally sinning.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Perhaps I should have been more clear. I know it’s just mortal sins that can’t be accidents. I was just making sure that if a site’s supposed to be clean, but someone posts porn there anyway, I’m not mortally sinning.

You would not be mortally sinning, but visiting that site would not be prudent, since you might be tempted into sinning. It is a near occasion of sin, and thus, to be avoided.

 

[Gorgias]

Perhaps I should have been more clear. I know it’s just mortal sins that can’t be accidents. I was just making sure that if a site’s supposed to be clean, but someone posts porn there anyway, I’m not mortally sinning.

Razanir,

I can’t answer this question for you. Here’s the reason why: Jesus said, “I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28). Your question doesn’t cover all the possibilities: when you look at the porn ‘inadvertantly’, are you looking “with lust”? (If so, then you have some serious questions to ask yourself!) When you go to the site, if you know that there’s the possibility that you’ll encounter some pornographic material, do you go to the site “with lust”? Or, at the very least, do you go there in the near occasion of lust? If so, then again, you and your confessor need to have a serious conversation.

The fact that you’ve posted your question here leads to an obvious conclusion: you know that there are posts at that site that are contrary to your spiritual health. Ask yourself – is it to your (spiritual) benefit to go there? Does it help your relationship with God? Does it have the (reasonable and foreseeable) expectation of hurting your relationship with God?

If your answers are “yes, yes, no” – and your confessor agrees – then there’s likely no problem. However, if you answer otherwise, then you need to think about whether it’s to your benefit to browse there…

 

[Offdoodykcrn]

Razanir,

I can’t answer this question for you. Here’s the reason why: Jesus said, “I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28). Your question doesn’t cover all the possibilities: when you look at the porn ‘inadvertantly’, are you looking “with lust”? (If so, then you have some serious questions to ask yourself!) When you go to the site, if you know that there’s the possibility that you’ll encounter some pornographic material, do you go to the site “with lust”? Or, at the very least, do you go there in the near occasion of lust? If so, then again, you and your confessor need to have a serious conversation.

The fact that you’ve posted your question here leads to an obvious conclusion: you know that there are posts at that site that are contrary to your spiritual health. Ask yourself – is it to your (spiritual) benefit to go there? Does it help your relationship with God? Does it have the (reasonable and foreseeable) expectation of hurting your relationship with God?

If your answers are “yes, yes, no” – and your confessor agrees – then there’s likely no problem. However, if you answer otherwise, then you need to think about whether it’s to your benefit to browse there…

I agree with you. I have seen numerous posts questioning sin, people wrestling with (the Catholic definition of) scruples, & I feel sorry for those that seem tortured by obsessive thoughts of what may or not be mortal sins. A dear friend of mine started to have that problem in high school, and it got worse in college. Her sophomore year, she was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. She’s doing better on medication, but she still has hard days. I was in nursing school and she said she couldn’t do that because she might see naked bodies - which might be pornography and/or lead to lust. I reminded her mortal sin is about intent. Temptation can present itself in many ways - it’s how you react to it that matters.

So, (to the OP) lets say you are browsing anywhere on the net and a dirty picture pops up. This is not a sin. You didn’t put that picture there, & you had no intention to look for those kinds of pictures. Now you have a choice. You can close the window & notify the powers that be about the problem so this doesn’t happen to someone else (which would be choice not to sin), or you can entertain lustful thoughts (which would be the sinful choice).

Good luck to anyone struggling with ‘scruples’. Get help from your priest and / or doctor if obsessive thoughts are interfering with your ability to get through the day.

 

[JoyfulRC]

Razanir I don’t think that what happened to you was a sin unless you entertained lustful thoughts after seeing the image. I don’t agree that you need to stop going to the website unless you already have a problem obeying the sixth commandment. In that case, you will have to decide whether the rare inappropriate posting that you might see before the mods remove it is dangerous to your purity of heart. (I don’t know anything about the website you referred to, so I am assuming the very best about it and what people use it for.)

 

[MattofTexas]

As I understand it, you cannot commit a mortal sin by accident, because awareness of the sinfulness of what you’re doing and doing it willfully are conditions for a sin to be mortal. I think something that is inherently wrong, but done on accident, could still be a venial sin.

 

[Thomas_Casey]

Good post for moral theology forum.

You guys know the rules. If you post something on TC that does not belong here, it will be closed.