The world isn't sinful or innocent, it is nothing!

The world is nothing. Therefore anything that it seems to be is neutral, or meaningless.

This means you cannot assign ANY attributes to it. It cannot be said to be sinful and guilty. But it also cannot be said to be holy and innocent.

Many people think that in order to forgive things in the world you have to find them innocent. If you take the sin and guilt away, doesn't this imply that you end up with something innocent?

That would apply ONLY IF the world were a real thing. Because the world is UNREAL, it is really nothing at all. So it can't BE anything. It is not a creation.

So you can't say it is guilty or sinful. AND you can't say that it is innocent or holy. It's a mistake to think that forgiving the world is taking an attitude of regarding it as innocent and holy. It can't actually BE those things because the are attributes of real things, not illusions.

The world and body must be recognized as NOTHING, just a dream, just a meaningless void. You can't say it is sinful or hate it or attack it or want to destroy it. You can't project guilt onto it because it can't actually BE guilt or sin.

But in the same vein, because it is NOTHING, you also cannot say the world is love, or light, or real, or true, or innocence, or holiness. It can't BE any of those things because it is really an illusion and not actually there to attach those things to.

We're actually meant to FORGET this world and focus squarely on the Kingdom of God - heaven, beyond this world. We're meant to RECOGNIZE that this world is nothing at all - effectively that there IS NO WORLD AT ALL.

There is no world because the world is not ANYTHING real. It's not positive, or negative. It's not lovely or ugly. It's not true or false. It's not innocent or guilty. It's not sinful or holy. It's not anything you say it is. It is nothing at all, and it is not really there. It's an hallucination - and you wouldn't assign real attributes to something fictional.

To forgive the world therefore, yes, you need to stop projecting sin and guilt and hate onto it. But you ALSO must not flip to the opposite and start trying to project innocence and holiness onto it. It can't BE that either. It's just a dream. It doesn't have the presence, reality, substance or truth to house or hold or LIVE these attributes. It's just a puff of smoke drifting away in the wind.

"To see a SINLESS body is impossible. For holiness is POSITIVE, and the body is merely neutral. It is NOT sinful, but neither is it sinless. As nothing, which it IS, the body cannot meaningfully be invested with attributes of Christ OR of the ego. EITHER must be an error, for both would place the attributes where they cannot BE. And BOTH must be undone, for purposes of truth." UrT20H4

"The only effort you need make, to give this world away in glad exchange for what you did NOT make is willingness to learn THE ONE YOU MADE IS FALSE." UrT12G3

"The world you see is an illusion of a world. God did not create it, for what He creates must be eternal as Himself. Yet there is nothing in the world you see that will endure forever. Some things will last in time a little while longer than others. But the time will come when all things visible will have an end." UrU5A1

"The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold upon it are your wishes, acted out so you can look on them and think them real." UrW132L4

"There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach." UrW132L6

"There is no world because it is a thought apart from God, and made to separate the Father and the Son, and break away a part of God Himself and thus destroy His wholeness. Can a world which comes from this idea be real? Can it be anywhere?" UrW132L13

"Without the idea of death there is no world. All dreams will end with this one." UrM28A6

"He does NOT realize that HE MAKES THIS WORLD, for there IS no world outside him." UrT11D6

"The world you see does not exist BECAUSE the place where you perceive it is not real. " UrT28F7