The Devil Made Me Do It!
With sincere thanks to Flip Wilson who deserves the all credit for popularizing the preceding phrase. OK, so it used to be popular. I still like it anyway.
To start this little discussion, let’s talk about “evil” – as in evil forces and stuff like that. Are there evil forces at work in our world? It doesn’t take a great deal of super-heavy thinking to realize there’s something rotten in Hog Hollow. In this far from perfect earthly world there are a whole bunch of individuals and groups who are resorting to all sorts of skullduggery to achieve their devious goals. And yes, sometimes with catastrophic results. The newspapers and other media news reports are commonly filled with examples.
From a spiritual point of view, there’s probably a reason to allow these things to happen. For one thing, this yucky stuff could always serve as a source of lessons and positive reinforcement for all of us. If we see and hear about things happening that we believe are just “not right”, this can help to solidify our values. If we are on the receiving end of a really bad situation, this could possibly turn into one of the best learning experiences of our life if we’ll let it.
The bad – or evil – stuff also provides a reference against which we can measure good. I think the following question sums it up nicely. “If there were not evil, what would good be?”
So what is the source of all the “evil” things we see happening in this world? Are they the work of satan? Is the devil really meddling in our affairs to try to drag us away from our God?
Here’s a quick history lesson. A long, long time ago, a satan was a considered to be a member of the “divine court” whose main job was to snoop around earth and report back to the super powers on us humans. The original Hebrew word for these sneaky folks was later translated in Greek to “diabolos” (slanderous) and then to the Latin “diabolus” – eventually reaching our language as “devil”. Along the way we personified the original Greek translation so we eventually wound up with a concept of a really bad guy who is responsible for the world’s evil doings. The image of the human-animal demon with horns and a tail popped up sometime during the Middle Ages. Interesting, huh?
My guess (that’s all it is folks) this that we humans have maybe promoted the concept of this bad guy for a couple of reasons. One may be so we don’t have to take responsibility for our own actions. It’s the easy way out, isn’t it? It’s pretty much the same as blaming your little brother (or sister) for the crayon scribblings on the wall. “Not me, Mom. Herbie did it!” Only now as adults, we can all chime in together to sing, “The devil made me/us/them do it!”
Or maybe we just picked up on what appeared to be a logical idea from the ancient Persians and put it to use. It’s a good guy/bad guy – good and evil thing. You know how easily that sort of thing can happen. Someone else already has what seems to be a reasonably good idea so we just buy into it either because we honestly believe it’s true – or it blends in smoothly with whatever concept we’re trying to promote.
Here’s another off-the-wall thought. Maybe we would be well advised to stop mentioning or even thinking about the “evil dude” altogether. We humans are very special creatures with amazing abilities. We know that we have the ability to imagine, visualize and create those things which never before existed. This includes not only material objects but abstract concepts as well. The evidence is everywhere we look. Perhaps the very recognition of the possible existence of a modern “satan” is the very thing that is allows “him” to exist and negatively influence our lives. Maybe it’s the only thing. Or – maybe we should all just forget about the horned dude altogether and individually take responsibility for – and be accountable for - our actions as good or as “evil” as they might be.
So, are we humans inherently evil? Nah, but for whatever reason, we do frequently wander off the path into the thorny bushes. Sometimes it may be because our life experiences (programming) have been a bit screwed up. Or sometimes maybe we just develop some weird priorities and over-focus on some really strange (and frequently hurtful) things. And some of it may even be due to a skewed interpretation of messages provided by our survival instincts. Lots of possibilities.
Yes, there are certainly evil forces in this world however, it really looks like we humans are the ones who are exerting all the effort to keep these forces alive and well. Maybe – who knows? I recently heard that our universe is created in conundrums (as in the answer to a question is only another question). For whatever reason, that appears to be quite intentional. Perhaps to promote questioning, the learning process and our individual development. Again, who knows?
As a wrap-up, your assignment is now to try really, really hard to think about mostly good stuff for the rest of your life. Give it a shot. You’ll probably like it…
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