American Vice: Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins

American Vice: Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins

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We're gluttons for infographics, and a team at Kansas State just served up a feast: maps of sin created by plotting per-capita stats on things like theft (envy) and STDs (lust). Christian clergy, likely noting the Bible Belt's status as Wrath Central, question the "science." Valid point—or maybe it's just the pride talking.

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I thought this was pretty slick. The area of America toying with abstinence only sex education, seen in bright red under Lust
Wrath centered on the bible belt is also telling! And I like how high areas of gluttony are shown, but no lows; it just goes from fat to really really fat. Sloth looks pretty random, I was expecting a lot more from the east coast, close to New York.

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Lol, I see a poster of this everyday since I'm now a Graduate student in the Geography department that made that (K-State). This made a big splash at the National AAG meeting last March (in Vegas none the less) and these guys have been getting hounded quite often for what amounted to just an exercise in GIS.

It is weird though to see it mapped out as it is. Something I keep noticing is how this sort of keep reinforcing the idea of the "Moral Midwest." I also have to laugh when I look in the BosWash metropolitan corridor and how many of the 7 sins are expressed there.

If I see them in their office later I'll point out that this has made ATS.

Hey, New Yorkers aren't lazy! You try taking 3 trains and a bus twice a day and then see if you feel like doing anything when you get home.

All in all, NY did pretty well. The greed stats were obvious though, New York is Mammon central.

Wrath, Pride and Lust all seem to be strongest in the south and "The Bible Belt". Interesting that some of the areas considered most religious are also some of the most sinful

reply to post by ZombieOctopus



Yup - but it looks like the NE coast & CA have the bible belt beat on greed (except for FL).

Interestingly it looks like the mid-west or the heartland as its sometimes called has the lowest scores across the board.

Edit -

Maps got me thinking to see if I could find a map of church attendance by state for compairson purposes. Found it at the link below...

Church or synagogue attendance by state

If I'm reading it right the most of the mid-west with the least sin according to the sin map are 2nd to the "bible belt" in church attendance.

Wonder what the causes the difference?

One area is the highest in church attendance and has the "most sin" - however the other area is 2nd highest in church attendance and has the "least sin".

[edit on 29-9-2009 by Frogs]

IMHO - To simplify matters for everyone - there is only one deadly "sin".

To intentionally harm another person. [Harming yourself is not sinful, just stupid and eventually a self correcting issue.]

All other "sins" are excess baggage or religious adornment brought about by an attempt to legislate morality.

IMHO.

reply to post by Shadowflux


Some of these sins were hard to define as far as what to denote as the statistic that represented them. I had a talk with one of the professors that oversaw the students that did this project, and he said that all of these could be argued simply because we don't have boxes marked "Greed" "Lust" "Envy" on forms to make them fall into the different sets.

Without looking at the paper and formulas I couldn't tell you what the relationship is between the employment and the recreational/art expenditures. Those guys aren't in today sadly too. I wonder if its on their poster...

Aha! Sloth was deliniated using expenditures on arts/recreation compared to expenditures on employment per capita (I'm pretty sure this is scientist for "Per Person Average Salary" or something close to that).

[edit on 9/29/2009 by Sir Solomon]

Originally posted by Sir Solomon
If I see them in their office later I'll point out that this has made ATS.

You know you've made the big time when your stuff makes ATS lol

Note to self: Never ever travel to Florida. That's where the devil lives.

i love the irony in that the bible wearing south did the worst in most of the categories. i surprised that new york did so well.

reply to post by Chad_Thomas89


Huh...I think they need to contact the guys who wrote "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

They were so close, yet so far.

I couldn't catch them in the office, so I may just email them the link and see if they want to discuss this any. I don't know if they will since we're all wading through the muck that is graduate school.

Edit: I found the March 26 article in the Las Vegas Sun that was what got this ball rolling. I thought maybe you might like it since it also goes into the math a little more and has some other graphics, along with the quick debate it stirred there:
One Nation, Seven Sins--Las Vegas Sun

[edit on 9/29/2009 by Sir Solomon]