Sin and Synapse by Douglas C. MacLeod Jr.

Seven Deadly Sins:
The Biology of Being Human
By Guy Leschziner
St. Martin’s, 2024
$30   384 pp.

On August 1, 1966, after killing his mother and wife, Charles Whitman walked up to the observation deck of the clock tower at the University of Texas–Austin and randomly started shooting at bystanders. He was an expert marksman, so he hardly missed a target. In the span of 96 minutes, he killed 15 and injured 31. Another victim died in 2001 from wounds inflicted during the shooting.

Although a frighteningly regular occurrence in the contemporary zeitgeist, mass murder was uncommon prior to the 1990s. This made Whitman an anomaly, even as political assassinations were prevalent at the time. He was deemed a monster, the epitome of pure evil. After an autopsy was done, however, it was revealed that Whitman—who had confessed in a suicide note that he felt something was wrong with his brain—had a cancerous tumor pressing on his amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates fear, anxiety, and aggression. Would Whitman, a practicing Roman Catholic, have become a mass murderer if he did not have a tumor?

Much of Guy Leschziner’s book Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human speaks to the conundrum of how the workings of our brains and bodies influence sinful transgressions. According to Leschziner, the answer is quite a bit. He claims his views on human nature “have undoubtedly been guided by [his] clinical practice—by meeting patients with these traits, not caused by inherent moral weakness or evil, but the consequences of disease or injury, where abnormal function of the body results in a medical disorder.” In other words, Leschziner argues, brain disorders, genetics, environmental shifts, and biological and psychological changes can lead to gluttony, lust, wrath, pride, envy, sloth, and greed: the whole catalogue of the seven deadly sins, all considered amoral, “shameful selfish acts” that go against God’s will.

Each chapter of Seven Deadly Sins is devoted to a particular sin, dozens of case studies, and medical reasons as to why these subjects are seemingly sinning of their own free will but instead are suffering from anhedonia (the loss of ability to feel pleasure), cognitive disfunction, dementia, impulse-control and obsessive-compulsive disorders, and numerous other afflictions. In the book’s final chapter, Leschziner employs the studies of American neuroscientist Benjamin Libet to debunk the concept of free will and claim “that processes in the brain are making decisions long before we are making them.”

According to Leschziner, Libet’s results (which are too involved for the scope of this review, and which were not intended to deny the existence of free will) were “earth-shattering,” “the lighting of the touchpaper, the key finding in support of the deterministic view,” proof that “everything is predetermined.” Science, then, trumps faith, even if we do not want to believe the data. Leschziner himself has doubts: near to the end of Seven Deadly Sins, he states that to “consider free will as simply an illusion runs contrary to every fibre of my being” and acknowledges that religious belief, which includes moral or ethical codes, can provide a solid balance between free will and determinism.

Leschziner’s gesture toward religion, although well-intentioned, feels like a feeble attempt to show respect for Christian doctrine. Perhaps this is just a function of the book’s focus, since most of Seven Deadly Sins is directed toward proving that the human body, brain, and mind are more in charge of emotions and behaviors, nefarious or otherwise, than belief.

Certainly, Leschziner has much more experience in the study of body and brain than most, being a neurologist at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals in London and a professor of neurology and sleep medicine at King’s College. However, one major issue remains unaddressed in his writing: that faith is intangible. The concept is not clinically based, and there are no observable phenomena associated with these deadly sins. As Saint Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Hebrews: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb 11:1).

True, the aftermath of these (at times heinous) misbehaviors may be tangible and scientifically evaluable. But faith comes from within, and it is up to those who have committed physical sins to reconcile with themselves, with God, and with their own understanding of what faith is. Like Charles Whitman, many sinners have not been diagnosed with a disorder, disease, or affliction, so what else do they have to keep themselves centered and focused in their moments of despair and depravity? Sometimes God is the answer, regardless of biological, psychological, and environmental factors, and sin is still sin regardless of whether it is deliberate or not.

Even though Seven Deadly Sins makes a compelling argument, it lacks in fully understanding the counterargument, that sin does not cease to exist if a person is riddled with illness. Charles Whitman may have had a cancerous brain tumor, but he still murdered and injured dozens of victims, and the same can be said for anyone who suffers from an affliction that may lead to what are deemed to be sinful behaviors. In the words of Saint Peter himself: “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1 Pet 4:1). ♦

Dr. Douglas C. MacLeod Jr. is an associate professor of composition and communication at SUNY Cobleskill. He has written multiple book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, and book reviews throughout his almost 20-year career as an academic and teacher. Recently, he has had essays published in Childhood and Innocence in American Culture: Heartaches and Nightmares (Lexington Books); Holocaust vs. Popular Culture: Interrogating Incompatibility and Universalization (Routledge); and Film as an Expression of Spirituality: The Arts and Faith Top 100 Films (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). He lives in Upstate New York with his wife, Patty.

Image: Alina Grubnyak / Unsplash