Meditations - From Martin LeFevre in California
The Devil is Man-made
“The greatest triumph of the devil in the modern age is convincing people he doesn’t exist.” I don’t remember the author
of that memorable quote, but it encapsulates my problem with New Agers, sophisticated secularists, and run-of-the-mill
rationalists.
All of us in the West are well acquainted with the Christian view of evil and the devil. God created the angels before
man, and they were all good. But the highest archangel, Lucifer, led a rebellion against God. He chafed under heavenly
rule, because his ego and pride prohibited him from serving anyone or anything but himself. Lucifer was cast out, along
with his followers, and after God made ‘Man,’ the entire entourage began their fight for the souls of men, women, and
children on earth.
The Scientific Revolution, and the prematurely named Age of Enlightenment, supplanted this simplistic supernatural
story. Prior to World War I, it seemed to many that scientific and technological progress was assured, and that the old
shibboleths would be swept away by the victory of reason over the irrational impulses of humans and the childish beliefs
of religions.
That faith was shattered by the bloodbath in the trenches of Verdun, although it took Auschwitz and Hiroshima to bring
the faith in reason, science, and progress into serious doubt. Even so, believers in the creed of human rationality held
on until stateless and state terror combined in the new millennium to produce a perpetual “global war on terror,” and
with it, a much more sophisticated and sneaky rise of a fourth and presumably final Reich.
Few would deny the existence of evil anymore, as many did until the New Age turned out to be the same old sh-- and then
some. The popular notion in the ‘90’s (even after Rwanda) was that evil could be explained using conventional
psychological models. You still hear it sometimes, how evil is an amorphous phenomenon in human consciousness, an
impersonal force that has blind momentum. By subtracting intentionality however, the concept of evil loses all meaning.
The denial these days has to do with not the existence of evil, but its nature, purposes, and agents. Those who react to
Christian ideology on the subject, and give a superficial psychological explanation for evil, or deny the existence of
its intentionality, are spiritually, intellectually, and politically surrendering the field to those who serve the very
thing they decry from their gilded or bully pulpits.
So let’s tackle the issue head on. Does the devil exist, and if so, what the hell is it? To take even the first step in
this inquiry, it’s necessary to confront one’s primal fear of darkness. Because if evil, which in essence is collective
darkness imbued with intentionality, is supernatural, then the Christian view is as good as any. But if, as I maintain,
evil is not supernatural, but a byproduct of human consciousness, then a deeper philosophical and psychological
explanation is possible. More importantly, if humans subconsciously produce evil over the milllennia, there is no reason
to fear it, as long as we are honestly admitting and facing our own fears and flaws.
Human consciousness is not an individualistic thing. Every person in every culture is ‘embedded’ (to use a Pentagon term
for compliant and complicit journalists) in all that came before, however new and rewritten their superficial script.
People who think of themselves as entities unto themselves, and live through images and ideas fashioned in their own
minds, are the most frictionless conduits for collective darkness.
Are there masterminds of darkness? Yes, but they are human things operating through willfully blind humans. So-called
demons are weak, pathetic, miserable hairballs in consciousness, fearful only because of our own unseen and unexamined
fears. They prey on people’s weaknesses and flaws. But the incredible thing is, if one genuinely admits and learns from
one’s own mistakes and failings, one turns the tables on evil, and grows stronger in the ending and understanding of
darkness.
The key qualities are humility and doubt. The devil, by whatever name, has neither. It is as certain of its rightness
and righteousness as the marionette Bush and all his millionaire preachers preaching to the dead. There is no “battle
between good and evil.” Only evil does battle. Good does not battle evil, thought it does stand against it. The good
continually learn from evil, and thereby, prevail.
There is another ending for our children to the story we were taught in the Judeo-Christian tradition. After God made
all the angels, and then humans, the lowliest angel turned, aghast, to God and said, “Why did you make that?” “One day,”
God responded, “that will be my greatest creation.”
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- Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He has been publishing in
North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe (and now New Zealand) for 20 years. Email: martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net. The author welcomes comments.