Would being alone in the world make you sinless?

[joecap]

Imagine that for whatever reason, you were alone.
Not so much “end of the world, last person alive on earth” alone, but say, stuck on a deserted island, or lost in the woods somewhere.

Say you are able to survive, the weather is good, you are able to find decent shelter and water, and are able to survive by foraging.

At this point, it would seem that… barring turning against God in rebellion, or sinning against your body…you would become sinless.

The Ten Commandments, Christ’s command to love one another (as well as St. Paul’s) all focus on how we treat each other. If there are no other people in the world to sin against, it would almost seem that from that point on, you would never commit another sin for the rest of your life (if that is how long your isolation would last).

If I were in that situation, I would pray to God daily, praise Him, keep my thoughts pure, and regret not getting the Eucharist…
It would almost seem that I could stop being a sinner for that time.

If I were alone in the world, doing God’s Will would be relegated to honoring God, and treating my environment with respect.

What do you think?

 

[SawGodThere]

It definitly wouls seem that way, but I think that humans would still find a way to sin. No matter how hard we try, we do not concentrate on God 24/7 and we would not even being stuck as the only person in a certain place. Thoughts would eventually creep into your mind, and you would sin, but definitly less than living in today’s secular world

 

[cheeto1]

I have thought of that before, then decided it would still be too hard. I think the better way is, “love covers over a multitude of sins”. Because as much as people give you a better chance to
sin, they also give you a chance to love.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Sins come from the heart, not other men, so yes you could sin.

Mentioning being deserted on an island reminds me of the classic book by Daniel Defoe, "Robinson Caruso.’ Its one of the greatest stories of religious conversion, that I’ve ever read. If you read it back when you were in grade school, you probably didn’t realize that it was a book about religious conversion, but the fact is, historians believe it is a work of fiction based on Defoe’s own religious conversion.

Its worth reading again in this context, and I thought I’d mention it.

Jim

 

[water]

add to the above posts, you will never be alone in this world unless you also suppose that no satan around.

 

[AveSantaMaria]

Nope, unless you were alone without any devils or demons. Look how Eve was alone with the devil and she ate the fruit and sinned… Didn’t need anyone else around.

 

[glenaitken]

Imagine that for whatever reason, you were alone.
If I were in that situation, I would pray to God daily, praise Him, keep my thoughts pure, and regret not getting the Eucharist…
It would almost seem that I could stop being a sinner for that time.

If I were alone in the world, doing God’s Will would be relegated to honoring God, and treating my environment with respect.

What do you think?

Well, i think that you could keep it up for a while, but there are more traps and pitfalls in the spiritual life than resisting the temptation to skip mass once and a while and the temptation to kill, committ adultry and steal. there are deeper spiritual temptations that come regardless of where you are or who’s around, and i don’t think that any one of us could withstand them without the guidance of those wiser than ourselves, the Sacramental life of the Church, and good friends who offer good advice in bad times. maybe there might be a few people who could, but i haven’t met them though.