What Makes the Devil So Freaking Evil?
What Makes the Devil So Freaking Evil?
Are you sure Satan is the bad guy? Why, what’s he done? Is it possible that you’ve been fooled by God’s propaganda machine? Let’s have some fun.
I get the name and the fame, but did the Devil, Satan, the evil personified, ever kill a single human?
Not that I know of. The devil’s greatest sin was apparently a rebellion against his father, the biggest mass murder of all time, and tempting Eve into tasting an apple from the Tree of Knowledge.
Not misinformation, mind you - information, knowledge, genuine insights. What an evil thought, to want women to think and humanity to be informed, truly deserving of our condemnation. Really?
Just a thought
Hear me out. What if uncle Lucifer is the good guy and “God’s” propaganda machine managed to make him look like evil personified?
We see such attempts daily in politics. They work on the majority with impressive effectiveness. Just look at Trump and all the people with “Trump Derangement” syndrome or the “MAGA crowd” on the other side.
How quickly we can be fooled into loving or hating any person, party, or ideology clearly indicates how susceptible we are to manipulation. When you turn to your “news programs” today, you’re not getting news but pure, disgusting, and open propaganda. A brainwashing, in other words. What if that was always the case?
One thing is certain—the Catholic Church is one mighty marketing machine with an impressive propaganda department and a loyalty-rewarding system that reaches beyond death.
It was made popular in an era when no one could check the information provided. Most weren’t even able or allowed to read. Heretics were burned at the stake, and that was if they were lucky.
History is unreliable, yet it repeats
When it comes to religion, well, proof was never needed. All that was required was faith. Worse yet, even thinking or daring to oppose such an ideology was punishable by death. No thinking or questioning allowed as it were. “Convert or die” is a popular strategy for religions and other extreme ideologies that mustn’t be questioned, only obeyed.
I can’t shake the feeling that history is again repeating itself in this manner. Of course, the church isn’t the only guilty party. No authoritarian ruler, dictator, or propagandist encourages open discussion of ideas, free access to objective information, or disclosure of secrets and censures everyone who opposes their message. It’s always been this way, and it’s the one thing we can count on to reveal the true nature of any leader.
If you censor opposition, forbid access to information, and claim to be the sole arbiter of truth, you are most certainly a liar and a bad guy on whom history will not look fondly.
The thing is that it takes time to reveal the true nature of such leaders. They must first lose their power over people for them to be able to see the truth.
The biggest authoritarian ever known to exist
God made one simple rule in Eden. Stay dumb and do as I say, and you’ll be fine. Question anything, and you’re out! Nothing new here. All dictators prefer stupid, uninformed, and obedient subjects.
Giving Satan the benefit of the doubt, he apparently believed that humanity has the right to know things and open their full potential, so he nudged Eve a little to break the old man’s rules. Eve, in turn, flashed her boobies, and Adam was a goner, eating that apple faster than you can say “premature awakening.” What they found out, we will never know.
What we do know is this lust for information caused God almighty to curse all of humanity, from then to eternity, into sin. Yes, because Eve wanted to learn things, silly woman, we’re all guilty and sinful. Starting with our very birth, no less.
So typical of the God of collective punishment, isn’t it? One mistake of one individual, and everyone dies, or in this case, gets expelled from the Garden of Eden into a life of suffering.
In my essay on the semi-fictional Genocidal Olympics, the old Christian God took the podium with ease. He murdered men, women, children, and animals en mass on multiple occasions. Sometimes, burning numerous cities to the ground was barely enough to satisfy his rage. At other times, the whole Earth had to feel his fury and die a horrible death by drowning (the Great Flood).
With a God like that, who needs a Devil?
That made me wonder - what wrong the Devil, Satan, Lucifer has ever done to us?
All I can find, and I looked, is that he tends to find it amusing to turn humanity and God’s most faithful followers against God himself. Essentially, a rebel at heart, questioning the dictator's rule. In most historical cases, these were the good guys, remember? At least until they got into power, that is. Power corrupts and all that.
What I can’t find, and please correct me if I’m wrong, is any report of the Devil murdering even a single human being.
This can be, can it? I mean, he’s the devil - the epitome of evil. Surely, he must have done far worse things than God, who is the light, love, and all that is good in this world, right?
Tell you what - if you can find what the Devil has done to us, humans - anything that is worse than murdering an entire city or two, murdering firstborns, including babies, unleashing diseases upon the innocent, and, you know, murdering a whole planet essentially as they didn’t meet your standards, please let me know in the comments. I would genuinely like to know.
I was raised in a Christian religion that was more of a cult than anything else, and it was clear. The devil was the bad guy, and God was the good guy. There was no room for doubt there, so no one ever questioned it.
Well, I’m a grown-up now, and I question everything. Yes, that also includes the “one who cannot be questioned or he will murder you and anyone who even breathes the same air as you, and then torture you for all of eternity in the afterlife in hell which he created just to punish those who he doesn’t like - the God of love.”
Forces of good and evil in today’s time
I can’t help but notice some similarities today. We generally have two sides in our Western society.
One that demands freedom of speech, self-defense, justice, access to knowledge, accountability, disclosure of secrets, and questions things that don’t make sense. (and)
Another that prefers secrecy, censorship, squashing dissident voices, following the political lines without questioning or thinking with one's own head, jailing opposing voices, and calling everything misinformation. In short, they want obedient subjects who don’t question anything.
Before you attack me, I’m not talking about the left and the right, for those are far too simple of categorizations, and I don’t really do politics. That’s just a circus for the crowds, anyway.
I’m talking about general inclinations toward freedom of thought and expression and the opposite of that in certain groups.
Which is the force of light, and which is the darkness?
If the devil is the one who wants people to know things and God the one who wants them ignorant and obedient, that makes it… I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Let’s play the devil’s advocate (pun intended)
What if Satan is the good guy? I know. It sounds absurd even to write this; it feels wrong and sinful even to suggest it.
What if he just wants people to think for themselves, make their own decisions, and question everything, including God?
Does that really make him the bad guy?
What if God should be questioned, but we’re not allowed to?
Why aren’t we allowed to question God and his words or deeds? Just because he’s all-powerful and could smite us into oblivion? That’s not a good reason, friends. That’s just a tyrant being a ruthless authoritarian.
Satan apparently wanted God’s position and power, so he challenged him
You know, like any other opposition, rebellion, or democratic election. He lost and was banished from heaven.
Does that make him evil?
Is every opposition to a dictator, ruler, king, or presiding political party evil now, or does that only hold true when you question God’s rule?
Do we not believe in democracy and multiple options for who rules over us? Isn’t the opposite of that just dictatorship that everyone hates with a vengeance, but only when it comes to human affairs, for some reason?
The devil is also the bringer of light, Lucifer
He was a favorite son of God, not some monster. Alas, he disappointed Daddy, and he paid the price.
Jesus, being the good brother, ascended to God’s right arm. He became his sword and fire, while Lucy was all but forgotten. Essentially, this is a tale of two brothers fighting for Daddy’s throne and goodwill. One is rebellious and ambitious, and the other is subservient and patient.
I see precisely zero evidence that Satan is some evil monster. He might be an asshole, but from what I can tell, he’s just the scapegoat for anyone who dares to oppose God. We’re talking about mythical creatures who are most likely aliens, if they even exist.
If you step back and observe this whole saga as objectively as possible, you can’t help but wonder if the big guy is the good guy or if he’s the bad one.
I know—blasphemy. I await the lightning that will strike me for only suggesting that my readers think with their heads and make their own deliberations about forbidden topics.
Alas, I’ll take my chances. Perhaps it’s good that I don’t have a large following, or I would have been nothing but a large pile of salt by now, as the ultimate king of censorship, genocidal champion, and the furious opposition destroyer would have to smite me in my sleep.
My motto is and remains: “Question everything!”
It has served me well in the past, and I’m reasonably confident it remains the right approach, especially when one notices how much propaganda is being stuffed down one's throat.
Just recently, I was reminded that most people don’t have a habit of questioning authority and blindly follow whatever authorities decide.
Below are two completely random and made-up examples that for sure never happened because that would be crazy.
It’s “safe and effective,” and everyone who doesn’t take this experimental, rushed, and untested shot is impure, dirty, and forbidden from participating in society. You’re all going to die a horrible death if you don’t do as we say. Not only that, you will have been found guilty of killing your grandparents. If you question us, you will lose your livelihood, family, and friends. Everything will be stripped away just for questioning our narrative. You are now a lesser human with no rights and should feel lucky we even tolerate your existence. We, the holy followers of science. The never doubtful, never questioning, obedient servants of the mighty “Pharma God.”
The Earth is dying, and it’s all your fault. Humanity is the disease unleashed upon this planet. Everything you do, travel with, use to heat yourself, fart, burp, and yes, even breathe out is killing our beloved Earth! You must accept this responsibility and submit to our will, you sinners, vermin, and carbon dioxide producers of no value. Stop making babies, for they are nothing more than a virus you unleash onto Earth. They eat, breathe, and procreate. Your babies, not ours, of course. We must save the rock we live on, or we’ll all die in five, no ten, no twenty, no fifty, not hundred years. We’re going to freeze, drown, and burn up from heat. Damnit! Science is changing, don’t you know? It’s definitely not that we are wrong. Any evidence to the contrary is inadmissible, as it was not provided by the prevalent authority - the Ministry of Truth. Question us and find out the real meaning of hell! By the way, can you please give me a good deal of that multimillion beachfront property that’s about to go underwater any day now? Please and thank you.
Unquestioned obedience has never been the smart play, friends
Don’t be fooled by the modernity of today. If there were ever a simple rule for differentiation, the following would be it.
People who don’t allow questioning, open debate, and the expression of opposing views are not, have never been, and never will be, “the good guys.”
I know hearing or reading about ideas opposing your dominant beliefs is difficult to accept or tolerate. Most would rather suppress opposing views and censor them at all costs than think and make decisions themselves. Critical thinking is a difficult thing. It’s uncomfortable.
One thing is true: As outside observers, we always lack information. We cannot know everything, which is why we trust authority and experts.
On the other hand, blindly obeying without even considering the possibility that we are being lied to or that the people we trust to be our sources of truth might be wrong is not the answer. If nothing more, they, too, are only human and fallible at that.
Throughout history, the prevalent truth, belief, and science have more often than not been proven to be false as new understanding came about or the impenetrable arm of censorship got weak.
As we become wiser, we realize we don’t really know anything
When you were a child, you thought your parents had all the answers, but as you become a parent yourself, you see they were always “winging it.” The same happens when you enter any profession. They look impossibly intelligent and sure of themselves from the outside, but they often have more questions than answers.
More open information, debate, and, yes, sometimes playing with unpleasant ideas are needed. Steelmaning prevalent beliefs, playing the metaphorical Devil’s advocate, and deliberately switching perspectives give us a broader view of things.
To some, it comes all too naturally. For others, it goes against everything they believe. Eliminate fear from the equation, and see where the line of questioning takes you. You might be surprised.
So, where does this put God versus the Devil?
Is the entity that resists authoritarian rule, wants freedom and knowledge for humanity, and has a bad reputation while never directly harming anyone the bad guy? (or)
Is the worshipped entity that claims to be our creator, demands perfect obedience without questioning, believes it has the right to destroy us at will, and has done so on many occasions, murdering millions along the way while pretending to be the God of love, the actual bad guy?
Here’s a funny thought
You know, like politicians. What if, indeed?
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