Iepilei
14th December 2002, 21:45
After reviewing probably one of the most interesting reads I've read in my life I started to wonder the stances of the opposing poles in Christian mythology. God and Lucifer - the light and the dark. The question that came unto my mind was, "was the Devil really as bad as the bible depicted him as?"
Now, before you jump on my case for Satanism let me clarify - I'm not referring to the stereotyped Satan which most of these angry kids worship and which most right-wing Christian conservatives potray in their religious propaganda. I'm referring to the actual description - based in the bible - of what he did, to... or for humanity.
Now let's look at the explainations of the Christian heaven. It's a humble society, with a strong central head of power who knows all and sees all - a classic authoritarian society. The people are kept happy through ignorance - their ignorance of distance from god, and their ignorance of the nature of life. In Christian mythology, this society was seen on earth at one time - the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve existed as the firsts, and they were told to never eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. The people obeyed for the time, until it was offered to them - by Lucifer himself - that if they ate from the tree, they would know the truth. So by eating from the tree they were cast from the Garden - into the real world.
This was the first sin - defined sin as actions which distance yourself from god.
Now here comes my question. We all know that the christian way of thinking spawns from neoplatonism - which came ultimately from the writings of the philosopher Plato. Plato envisioned the worlds first utopia, in which society was ruled by the philosopher kings... the well educated elite. The aspects of christian heaven and Plato's utopia are in essence similar. So my question is, did Lucifer actually do mankind a favor by freeing us from our ignorant prison? The first criminal action potrayed, was man undermining the rule of a king. Is Satan really the bad guy here?
Now, for those of you who analyse movies check this out. In the movie the Matrix, neo is offered one of two pills - a red one or a blue one. Just before he decides, Morpheus says "all I offer is the truth, nothing more". Now, this movie has been studied in depth because of it's highly confusing imagry and underlying subtext. Overall it's been given a religious backing - but the real question is, after looking at this scene. Is Neo, the savior of the world - the Antichrist?
Will the ultimate savior of the world - destined to return to earth to save mankind - be the Antichrist?
(Edited by Iepilei at 9:48 pm on Dec. 14, 2002)
Now, before you jump on my case for Satanism let me clarify - I'm not referring to the stereotyped Satan which most of these angry kids worship and which most right-wing Christian conservatives potray in their religious propaganda. I'm referring to the actual description - based in the bible - of what he did, to... or for humanity.
Now let's look at the explainations of the Christian heaven. It's a humble society, with a strong central head of power who knows all and sees all - a classic authoritarian society. The people are kept happy through ignorance - their ignorance of distance from god, and their ignorance of the nature of life. In Christian mythology, this society was seen on earth at one time - the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve existed as the firsts, and they were told to never eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. The people obeyed for the time, until it was offered to them - by Lucifer himself - that if they ate from the tree, they would know the truth. So by eating from the tree they were cast from the Garden - into the real world.
This was the first sin - defined sin as actions which distance yourself from god.
Now here comes my question. We all know that the christian way of thinking spawns from neoplatonism - which came ultimately from the writings of the philosopher Plato. Plato envisioned the worlds first utopia, in which society was ruled by the philosopher kings... the well educated elite. The aspects of christian heaven and Plato's utopia are in essence similar. So my question is, did Lucifer actually do mankind a favor by freeing us from our ignorant prison? The first criminal action potrayed, was man undermining the rule of a king. Is Satan really the bad guy here?
Now, for those of you who analyse movies check this out. In the movie the Matrix, neo is offered one of two pills - a red one or a blue one. Just before he decides, Morpheus says "all I offer is the truth, nothing more". Now, this movie has been studied in depth because of it's highly confusing imagry and underlying subtext. Overall it's been given a religious backing - but the real question is, after looking at this scene. Is Neo, the savior of the world - the Antichrist?
Will the ultimate savior of the world - destined to return to earth to save mankind - be the Antichrist?
(Edited by Iepilei at 9:48 pm on Dec. 14, 2002)