Short Stuff: The S7VEN Deadly Sins | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[music]. Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm. Josh. Jerry's here for Dave and we're. talking today about the Seven Deadly. Zins. >> Seven Deadly Zins. >> Did I say Zins? >> That's a wine brand. >> It is. I was thinking it's pretty bold. to to label your wine as deadly. >> Uh yeah, good point. Never thought about. that. But I think what they're I think. they're able to because the seven deadly. sins are so widely known.

>> Yeah. >> That people don't normally stop and. think it says deadly on this wine label. Uh because they know that they're. talking about something else. >> That's right. Uh it's a pretty. widespread thing. If you've seen the. movie Seven, obviously very prominent in. that. Uh it's just a big thing in pop. culture. It was even a a sort of. interpretation of Gilligan's Island, which I had never really been too. acquainted with. Oh, you haven't. That. it's a it's a fan theory. >> Yeah. That apparently Sherwood Schwarz. is kind of backed up in some ways, but.

that the professor is pride. And of. course, we're also going over the list. of the sins with this list. Uh professor. is pride, the skipper is anger or wrath. Uh Ginger obviously lust. Uh Mr. How. obviously greed, Mrs. How gluttony, and. um partially sloth is what this says. Maryanne is envy. And then of course. Gilligan is sloth and he's the one that. is keeping them trapped on the island. through his sloth. >> Yeah, there are some really great fan. theories around Gilligan's Island, not. just that one.

>> Yeah, I love that stuff. It's fun. >> I do too. Um but yeah, that's the seven. deadly sins, the the skipper and and the. rest. Um that's they haven't always been. called the seven deadly sins. And as a. matter of fact, seven is a trim down. version of the original eight. They've. been called everything from the capital. vices, cardinal sins, capital sins. >> Yeah. >> Uh vice sins, I think, if you want to. combine everything together. And the. Roman Catholics are nuts for this kind.

of stuff. Um and over the centuries, as. the church has evolved, um the the the. whole thing has just kind of been. whittleled down or changed. There've. been different names. I think um pride. used to be called van gloriousness or. van glory. Um instead of sloth they had. melancholy like basically don't be sad. Um but regardless of how totally. associated it is with with Catholicism. and Christianity in general, it actually.

doesn't appear in the Bible. >> Yeah, that's right. Uh by the way, I. think Vang Glory is probably already a. band name, but that would be a pretty. good band name. >> Metal for sure. Oh yeah, absolutely. Or. unless it's Yeah. Or Yeah. Or I was. going to say probably like a Nickelback. type of thing. Maybe. >> whatever that is. Whatever kind of music. [laughter] that is. I don't even know. what category that is. >> I don't either. I poor Nickelback, but I. think they're one of like the richest. bands on the planet. >> Oh, I'm sure. Anyway, Vang Glory coming. to a theater near you. Uh or a concert.

venue near you. >> Okay. >> Which you could also call a theater. [laughter]. >> I'm getting sidetracked. Uh, oh, speaking of theaters, everyone. should uh should uh go out and get. tickets for our live tour this year, right? >> Oh, good one, Chuck. Yeah, you can get. tickets on stuffyounow.com. All the. links are up there. We're going to um. Denver. We're going to Seattle. We're. going to San Francisco. In April, we're. going to Chicago, Madison, Wisconsin, Akran, Ohio, and then we're doing a.

whole tour of every single city with a. population over 5,000 in Canada. That's. not true. We're sorry we couldn't go. everywhere in Canada, but we we did our. best. Some theaters on the East Coast. didn't work out, but we tried. Everybody. >> Yeah. I think we're doing six six uh. cities, though, which is, you know, it's. pretty good. It's going. >> be fun. Yeah. >> Can't wait. Uh but go grab tickets. It's. going to be fun. Happy to be back out on. the road. And back to the seven deadly. sins. I believe he said if you look in. the Bible, you're not going to find. them. >> And that's because they're not really in. the Bible. uh the original sin um when.

you know old Adam and Eve there in the. garden of Eden in that book were. described as disobeying God and. establishing the sinful nature of. humanity. >> Uh but there's not a list of like the. ten commandments are in there but the. seven deadly sins are not in there. The. seven deadly sins came to be because of. a particular writer who was a monk in. 345 CE named uh Evagrias Ponticus. >> which means Evan the Pontiac in English. Oh, okay.

According [snorts] to me, at least. >> That's right. But he was he was the guy. that gets credit basically as the first. person to uh kind of write these things. out and get it out on mass. >> Yeah. But he had eight of them. The. eight evil thoughts, right? Um he was a. theologian, a monk who really put his. money where his mouth is. The last. several years of his life, he went out. and wandered around the desert in Egypt. and lived on herbs and barley. essentially he prayed, he fasted, he. meditated, he did his best to not think.

any unholy thoughts. >> I'll bet that was more difficult than. you'd think. And he wrote a bunch of. this stuff down in the antiicus, um, which is his celebrated master work. And. this is where the eight evil thoughts. first appear. >> That's right. Uh, gluttony, lust, and of. course, we're not talking just sexual. lust here. It's kind of um lustly. desires for worldly things. uh greed, which was avarous at the time, anger, sloth, uh sadness, vain glory, and pride.

are all in there. >> Yeah. And although it we now think of. the seven deadly sins as as applying to. everybody, that's not at all um what. Evan was was doing, at first he. basically was creating this this list of. um what to avoid if you're a monk. essentially. That's who it applied to. initially. >> Yeah. Like if you really want to walk. the walk like me, this these are the. things you need to avoid. And I promise. I'm not thinking of them. I'm just. writing about them. >> That's right. You want to take a break?

>> Yeah. >> Okay, we're going to take a break. >> Just like the number of stars in the. sky, [music] there. you know. [music]. All. >> [music]. >> right, Chuck. So, Evagrias Ponticus.

basically created these seven deadly. sins or eight deadly sins as a road map. for monks. Uh, and then some other. people came along a couple centuries. later and like this is great. like how. can we um upscale this and really uh get. the most out of it in our corporate. world. Uh and one of the first people to. do this was St. Gregory the Great who. later became or no I guess probably. first was Pope Gregory the first.

>> Yeah. Oh, and he became sainted later. >> Has to be. I don't I don't think. anybody's ever been sainted. Yeah. You. can't be sainted while you're alive. because you have to perform at least two. miracles after your death. >> Yeah, that's right. Oh, boy. You really. remember that stuff? >> I do. I do remember some of it. >> Yeah. Nice work. [laughter]. >> Yeah. [gasps]. >> Uh, so Pope Gregory the 1, uh, before he. was a pope wrote his masterwork and it. was basically um sort of a a real.

dissection of the book of Job called. Moralia in Job. >> And it was a very influential book. Um, and this is where his seven principal. vices were laid out. And we're not going. to read all the sort of gobbledygook, but it was, you know, vanglory, envy, anger, melancholy, aberous, gluttony, and lust. And then sort of deeper. definitions of what all those meant back. then. >> Yeah. And like all the terrible. behaviors that that come out of it, right? So like um like like reing in. your neighbor's misfortune kind of thing.

like like these are the these are what. you want to avoid, right? Um, and a few. centuries after that in the medieval. era, other Christian writers that come. like Thomas Aquinas um really latched on. to this. They're like, "This is great. Like, why didn't we think of this stuff. earlier?" And one of the things that. that um kind of became popular to to get. this across as a conception is called. the tree of vices. It's an icon with. pride as the root of this tree and then.

the rest of the this deadly sins kind of. coming off as branches. And it became. very familiar because you you would. paint this on the wall of your church. somewhere. >> Yeah. >> The reason you were painting it on the. wall of the church is because the you. had to confess these particular kind of. sins at least once a year and then do. whatever penance the local priest told. you to do for them. or if you didn't do. that, uh they're deadly because they. were deadly for your mortal soul. Uh and.

after after that, you would um after you. die, you would go to hell. That's why. they're called deadly sins. It's not. like they kill you here on earth. They. kill you spiritually after you die. Um. so to confess those sins though, you had. to know what they were. And that's why. they would paint the tree of vices on. the church wall. >> Yeah, that for some reason struck me as. funny. Uh it was the fourth Lateran. Council in 1214 where the you know you. got to confess two times a year. That's. where that came from. And uh I just love. the idea of people like well all right.

What are the sins and I'll let you know. if I did any of them. >> That's [laughter] right. That Yeah. You. just go up and like trace your finger. and be like, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess I. did that. I did revel in my neighbor's. misfortune. That time you stepped into a. bear trap. Oh my god. I thought that was. hilarious.". >> That's right. The Germans would have a. name for that one day. Uh so people were pretty obsessed, you. know, during the black death of what. happened after you die. That's I mean. people were already heaven and hell. wasn't a brand new thing, but that's. when it was like people are dying all.

over the place and like where are we. going? Like we're we're really kind of. worried about this. So it became very. ubiquitous talking about sins, talking. about life after death. Sermons became. obsessed with it. It was in the the. Canterbury tales in the form of the. Parson's tale. And so it was just kind. of really latched on. um these seven. deadly sins in particular is uh kind of. the the hot thing in Catholicism. >> Yeah. Um and it's still around in. Catholicism. Apparently in 2008 the. Catholic Church were like, "Hey, we've. updated some more seven deadly sins.".

>> Um for for the as I guess is probably. how they put it. Genetic modification is. one. >> Yeah. >> Carrying out experiments on humans. >> Okay. >> Polluting the environment. I get behind. that. Causing social injustice. Sure. >> Heck yeah. >> Causing poverty. >> You know, >> becoming obscenely wealthy. >> Yeah. >> And then, of course, taking drugs. >> Yeah. >> That doesn't seem like a deadly sin. >> Yeah. Well, you know, >> they were on a roll. >> So, those are the seven modern deadly.

sins. Is that how they're framing it? >> That's That's what they tell me at the. Vatican. >> Fantastic. >> Uh, well, I guess that's about it. Um, go forth and look out for the seven. deadly sins, I guess. >> Yeah. I don't do those. >> Yeah, short stuff is out. >> Stuff you Should Know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts, [music]. iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. listen to your favorite shows. [music].