About Believing in "The Devil"

2009-12-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

Having been a member of one writing site for a couple of years now, I often go the forums there as a way of taking a break from writing (or other work) and "just seeing what's going on". For I don't know how long now, there's been a thread about whether or not there's such a thing as "The Devil". This thread has stretched on (as of this writing) for at least 730 responses. It isn't the only "devil thread" on the forums (or, of course, on the Internet). Somewhere back when this particular devil thread first showed up I posted my "I-don't-believe-in-the-devil" response. (I may have even posted my usual, cute, little, dancing devil just to be funny and "make the statement" that that's how seriously I don't take devil talk. Last week I popped back on just to comment that I was amazed to see how long people can keep debating whether or not there's a devil.

Today I popped back and was considering posting yet another cute, dancing, devil; but I saw a response that so often shows up in these discussions. Someone said how there "can't be light without dark". It always bothers me when people make this statement, because it seems they aren't aware that, in fact, there can be pure lightness without any darkness (provided they don't misinterpret what "darkness" means to a lot of other people).

I disagree that "there would be no light without the dark". That may depend on a person's connotation of "dark"; but the way I see, yes, there's unavoidable sadness in living (as when you love someone and they die - you wouldn't have the sadness if you hadn't loved them). There's also healthy anger (maybe an example is the kind of anger that people feel when someone else is mistreated). To me, though, normal sadness or healthy, normal, anger (that isn't inappropriately manifested in unacceptable behavior) aren't "dark". They "negative aspects of living - but not "dark" (as in "evil dark"). There's also a whole set of other negative emotions, but people who are emotionally very solid (and even more so, people who are mature, as well as solid) most often don't have those toxic emotions (like anger from misplaced priorities, jealousy, envy - any of the "secondary" emotions that are more about one's own ego and security than about caring for/loving other human beings, animals, the world, or life in general.

The world would do very nicely if there weren't "evil dark" (as in preoccupation with things that aren't positive contributions to one's mental health, intentionally hurting someone, sick/demented things such some that show up on the Internet - anything that isn't life-nurturing/soul-nurturing and that, instead, takes away from life or an overall sense of good mental health. That stuff, though, isn't (in my belief) the result of any devil existing. It's the result of people having been damaged mentally/emotionally by "the world"/life. So, to me, that kind of darkness exists (no doubt about it), but the people who live it/feel it, and the world, would be better off if there wasn't so much damage that so many people "live in that darkness". Then, too, there's the kind of "twisted darkness" that can come, through no fault of the person or others, as a result of clinical mental illness. Either way, though, "evil" or "twisted" darkness happens when something goes wrong in a person. We weren't "designed" to have this kind of thinking. When we start out in this world, we start out as natural, neutral, little creatures who are as a part of the "grand scheme" in life as the trees or the ocean or the mountains or the sun. New human beings start out every bit as much, and more, as the miracles we see around us in Nature every day.

Of course, Nature brings violent storms, as well as miracles; and while even some storms can have their powerful beauty, many bring sadness and "natural darkness", as well. Like storms, our hearts can and should feel righteous anger when someone has been victimized; and like the clouds that so often block the sun in the skies above us, sadness, too, can mean we must wait for a wait before seeing bright skies again. The darkness and havoc of storms, and the healthy anger or inevitable sadness we experience as a result of the "lightness" of loving and being loved, are as natural as life, itself, and certainly don't come from any devil.

The trouble is that we human beings are relatively fragile and yet complicated creatures in this world. We take about 25 whole years to truly reach maturity, and even then we need another decade or so to really feel "rooted in" when it comes to our place in the world. Like all creatures (some more than others), we need nurturing and just the right conditions if we're to mature into capable, solid, adults; and the catch to that is that the nurturing and "right conditions" we need are a lot more complicated than those which, say, wild animals need. Fragile, long-time-maturing, and yet more complicated creatures - now if that doesn't put us at high risk for turning out imperfect, I don't know what does.

"Imperfect" comes in degrees, though, and those of us fortunate enough to have grown up into a world that has shown us how "light" it can be are often those who don't believe in devils. Those of us who have grown up in a world that has told us, or shown us, how "dark" it is; or that "there can't be light without dark"; often seem to come to accept that there's only "light" and "dark" and never such a thing as "general lightness", tinged occasionally with "plain, old, healthy, sadness" or "plain, old, healthy, anger". Sometimes maybe it's just easier to call all "darkness", "the work of the devil"; rather than to sort out what's normal and natural and what's the result of damage. More human beings would be much better served, however, if they were raised learning that love only hurts when we lose or worry about those whom we love, and then it should never hurt when we still have it, or claim to have it.

Also, human beings would be a whole lot better off if they saw some of the sadness that comes with the truest form of "light" or love isn't the work of a punishing Creator or a devil, dressed in red and waving a pitchfork.

In the movie, Forrest Gump (starring Tom Hanks, of course), Forrest says has a line that says something about how he may not be a smart man but he knows what love is. Well, I don't pretend to be the "smartest" person when it comes to whether there are forces beyond what we see (or at least beyond what the most trained scientists can see, or have proven) in this Earthly existence; but I know what "light" is, what sadness is, what righteous anger feels like, and what love is; and I don't call any of them "darkness". I call them part of life. As for the "darkness" that comes in the form of "evil", or even just "dark-mindedness", in this world; I don't call that, "caused by 'The Devil'". I call that "caused by ignorance", sometimes ignorance demonstrated by very well meaning, caring, people who just don't know any better or else don't want to know any better.

Sometimes it's easier to just write off all that is negative in this world as "the work of 'The Devil'", rather than face the difficult reality that so much human-caused "darkness" is the result of ignorance (ignorance nurturing young children, ignorance associated with not knowing what real love is supposed to be, ignorance with regard to the needs of teens or even other adults, or any other kind of ignorance that results in someone's believing that beyond, or underneath, this world some devil has the power to bring unnatural darkness. When it comes to our own ignorance, we generally don't recognize our own. Besides, even if we do, it can be devilishly difficult to figure out what to do about it, and how to solve problems that have resulted from it.

In any case, we'd all be better off in this world if fewer people believed in some all-powerful devil being responsible for all that is dark in this world; or that human beings are "born evil" and "need someone to rid them of evil; or have it washed out of them or "taught out of them" or beaten out of them; and instead addressed the ignorance that has allowed "evil" to grow from being damaged to one degree or another.