Sloth — Some say it's worst of the 7 deadly sins

In 1967, actor Dudley Moore wrote "Bedazzled," a movie featuring the Seven Deadly Sins in which he portrayed Sloth, a lawyer who dozes all day long and ignores his wife, Lust, portrayed by the then-young and beautiful Raquel Welch.

Despite her beauty, her husband never opens his eyes. He doesn't notice his gorgeous wife.

According to many theologians, this is why sloth is the worst of the seven sins.

While the other sins grab at life and gobble it up, sloth just doesn't care.

What could be more sinful than apathy, religious leaders ask. What's worse than ignoring God's amazing world? What's worse than being ungrateful? Than not making the most of the life you've been given?

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"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." — Psalm 118

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At first, sloth seems to be a straightforward kind of sin — sloth equals laziness, nothing more, it seems.

But when you talk to religious leaders, when you hear the philosophers, you realize that sloth takes many forms.

In modern times, when religious leaders talk of sloth, they usually refer to "lack of spiritual discipline," says Steve Goodier, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Salt Lake City. By spiritual discipline, Goodier means prayer and church attendance. He also counts service as a spiritual discipline. After all, God tells us to help each other.

But let's say you are an atheist and don't feel an obligation to pray or go to church. You can still fall into sloth. Because you do feel compelled to help other people, you too are vulnerable.

At the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake, Imam Shuaib Din says prayer is an obligation and "the point is to fulfill the obligation."

If you feel lazy and aren't concentrating when you begin your prayers then one of two things will happen. First, you may draw closer to God anyway and become rejuvenated. On the other hand, you may pray the entire time without concentrating and feel no closer to God than you did when you started.

But still it is better to have prayed, the imam says, because praying is the right thing. "Not praying is a victory for the devil."

The early Christians also saw prayer as an obligation. They used the Greek word "acedia" or "lack of care" to describe the soul too sleepy to bother.

In the fourth century A.D., when the monk Evagrius made up his list of deadly sins, he actually had eight sins on the list. He listed "acedia" and also "tristia" or sadness. Evagrius called acedia "the most oppressive sin of all."