Until you see that sin is real you will never come to terms with the need for a Savior.
Kathy, you keep using the phrase "sin is real". Exactly what is the point of that? Is that as opposed to "Sin is fake" or "Sin is imaginary", or even "Sin is integer". Have you even thought about it, or is it some drivel crammed down your throat by some preacher?
Sins are nothing more than things religions make up to justify their existence. The point of most sects is to claim "You are a sinner because you do xxxx, and the only way to be saved is to follow our magic instruction book.".
Religions have to keep convincing their suckers that sin is real and some magical being can see them when they sin and read their thoughts when they commit sins in their minds. They have to keep pounding it into the heads of the flock or they will lose their hold on them. What good is a new religion if it doesn't offer a way to save your eternal soul? Why would anybody choose a new religion if it doesn't offer a "New and Improved!" way to salvation? This was the whole point of John in writing Revelations. He must have thought "Nobody is joining our cult, what we need is a New and Improved way to get to heaven. I think I'll tell everybody that you don't have to follow the old laws anymore. That'll get me some followers."
The result of all of this is guilt. People can't live within the ridiculous prohibitions of any religion, so they are made to feel as if they are inadequate or that they are failures. This is very similar to the self esteem issues that children of abusive parents or victims of abusive spouses develop. "If only I were a better kid, my mom wouldn't scream at me and call me stupid." or "If I were prettier/a better cook/a better wife, I wouldn't make my husband angry and he wouldn't hit me." You transfer the guilt from the mean parent/abusive spouse/vengeful deity onto the victim.
Religion is one of the greatest evils that exists. The greatest proof I can offer that there isn't a god is that if there was, he would smite all of the preachers and self-righteous religious nuts to the deepest, hottest recesses of hell the first chance he got. That would make the world a better place. You people are responsible for almost all of the bad things in the world. Wars. Unrest in the Middle East. Hatred of homosexuals. Bombings at abortion clinics. Oppression of non-believers. All of it in the name of religion, and none of them are any better than the others. In my eyes you people are as bad as the radical Muslims, maybe worse.
Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in physics says it best:
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
The only real sin that I know of is religion.
I'm certain you won't respond to this. Certainly not in a meaningful manner. You will do one of the following:
A) Disappear for a few weeks then come back and ignore it.
B) Make some tangential comment about a trivial part of the post, and recommend reading some idiotic book by some fringe preacher who makes his living peddling books to desperate people looking for something to grab onto.
C) Make a personal attack that has very little to do with this post, then change course by pretending that I said something I didn't. (Like the time I said you were self-righteous and you changed in mid paragraph from god warning us not to be self-righteous to claiming that we should all be righteous)
My guess is A.
