Humanity is born pure, and some may try to run from sin, but no matter how far you run sin will always catch up to you. The 7 cardinal sins have been renowned for hundreds of years as the worst sins someone can commit. But I have always wondered, out of the worst sins man can commit, which is the most dangerous and how do each of them rank against each other? 

Let’s start with the least dangerous cardinal sin of gluttony. Gluttony is the overindulgence of food and drinks, and to me that is the least deadly sin compared to all other ones. This is represented in Dante’s Inferno by the punishment received by people who commit this sin is to be uncomfortable and covered in filth. This punishment is light compared to the other punishments such as endless labor or being blown by strong winds.

I think the next one after gluttony should be lust. The danger that lust can pose really depends on the degree of lust. If it is very minor it may just be a small desire which is where lust usually happens, however when lust is too strong it can be deadly to not just the person committing this sin, but also the things around them.

Sloth is usually seen as a very inconsequential sin, it is simply defined as the reluctance to work. Now this may not seem dangerous in the sense of sloth just being laziness, but when seen as ignorance it can destroy society. The dunning kruger effect portrays ignorance by stating the fact that we know what we don’t know and don’t know what we don’t know. Sloth and dunning kruger effect are especially present within Shakespeare’s Othello because although Othello doesn’t seem like he is being lazy, he in fact is the worst culprit of sloth in the story. This is because he does not try to confront Desdemona himself and tries to know what he doesn’t know. His sloth keeps him from confronting the problem himself which leads to him making Iago find out for him. This contributes to his downfall since he didn’t know that Iago lied which portrays the idea that we don’t know what we don’t know. So even though sloth doesn’t seem dangerous to most people, when under the influence of others it could lead to someone’s downfall.

Some would consider the worst sin to be the most demonic sin, and if that is true then pride would be the worst sin. However I personally believe that pride is the borderline sin that divides the sins between being more situational and sins that are dangerous no matter who it is. That does not disregard the fact that pride is still a dangerous sin. Pride can lead to being short sighted and irrational due to the fact that people consumed by pride will believe that they can do no wrong which is dangerous by itself, but if someone in a leadership role gets consumed by pride then everybody around them is at risk due to a possible tyranny.

Greed is pretty much the same as envy however it is more limited to worldly desires, usually in the case of greed it is money. Wrath is defined as extreme anger, and like greed they both are dangerous no matter who hands they are in.

This leaves the last and the most dangerous sin. Envy or jealousy is not necessarily a dangerous sin since envy by itself is just a dissatisfaction with one’s self which is bad. What makes envy a truly deadly sin is the fact that it is what I like to call a gateway sin which is a sin that can branch out from sin to sin until that person goes out of control and ends up destroying everything around them until they have nothing left. In “Othello” Envy or more accurately in the story “jealousy” is the main villain, the “the green-eyed monster” that haunts the characters in the story and uses people as “meat it feeds on” this monster is always there and constantly “dotes, yet” inflicts “doubt into the minds of anyone who is controlled by the monster called envy.

Although each cardinal sin has its own unique dangers that no one should disregard, even minor sins like ignorance could lead to destruction of everyone around you. The simple fact that these sins all start off as something small, but just like how envy branches out, the other sins can eventually do that as well. The best way for anyone to deal with these sins is to stop trying to outrun these sins and instead try to defeat