What is the difference between the idea of sin today and in the time period of The Scarlet Letter? Are the consequences the same?

The idea of sin and the consequences are drastically different from the time period of the Scarlet Letter to today.  Today, many people deny that sin even exists.  In the Puritan era (the timeperiod of the Scarlet Letter) sin and the law were one and the same.  The first few chapters of the novel talk about the ideas of Puritan law, sin, and punishment.  If a child were disobedient in those times, the parents could hand them over to the magistrates to be publicly whipped.  If a servant was lazy, they could also be handed over to the government.  And obviously, adultery was a crime punishable by death.  Today, sin in a lot of ways is a much more private issue.  Consequences are also many times much more private.  Parents deal with their own children, etc.  Adultery is not considered worthy of the death penalty.