Admitting You're a Sinner

[Whateverist]

What's up with this?

It's the first step in the ABCs of becoming a Christian (Admit, Believe, Confess) but I always saw it as a rather unhealthy way to reflect upon one's misdeeds. Personally, I think something like "I made a mistake" or "That was terrible of me to do" is a much more beneficial as it is directed toward the action itself. It doesn't make the assumption: I did a bad thing, therefore I'm a bad person. 

What does it really even mean? 

Admit that I'm capable of moral transgressions? Sure, I'll admit that. But that doesn't mean I am anything, does it? 

Does it mean admit that I've commited moral transgressions in the past? I'll admit that too. And while you're at it, I'll probably fail in my moral responsibilities in the future too. I admit it.


Theists: Have I admitted in this post that I'm a sinner? Or is there more to it than that? If so, what's the difference?

Atheists: What do you make of all this "admit you're a sinner" stuff? What do you think motivates it? Is it a good, bad, or ugly way to reflect on moral transgressions?

The only positive spin I can give it is to equate it with recognizing our fragile position as rational agents who exist in electro chemical bags of flesh subject to eons of conditioning which call forth responses we can only sometimes control.    Our bodies have a will of their own.  If we tried to entirely subdue the will of the flesh, we would most likely snuff out much of our enjoyment of life with it.  But when living with others in a similar predicament whose happiness is part of our own, it just gets really really complicated.  So perhaps sin and forgiveness is about accepting our failures and maintaining hope that we can do better going forward?

Dividing the story we tell ourselves about this into a benevolent God who cares about us (and everyone else) who will judge but also forgive us might be one way to deal with our predicament. It gets around the difficulty of playing both parts ourselves -sinner and benevolent god- which makes it harder to forgive since why didn't we, in our capacity of benevolent god, just do better in the first place. Atheists need better tales to tell about why we fuck up in spite of taking ultimate responsibility upon ourselves alone.