How Do Devils Work?

 

Since I ended up in a church yesterday and the topic of sin was brought up, I realised that it might be an idea to see if we could get any clarity on the “devil” or the character that defines and brings evil to the human world. Ever since the human race have tried to understand the world through the divine, they’ve always done it through the prism of good versus evil. Just about every religion has a divine being who defines “good” and an evil one. Think of God versus Satan in the Abrahamic faiths or Ahura Mazda versus Angra Mainyu in the Parse faith. So, given the prominence of the “evil” being in our understanding of the world, isn’t it time we tried to understand the nature of evil.

Well, let’s start with the obvious – what does evil look like? Well, the most common depiction of the “evil” one is that he looks evil and nasty. This character we call the “Devil” who lives in a place called Hell, is portrayed as something that is meant to scare us:

 

 Copyright Freepix

We like to think that “evil” is easy to recognize. If the devil really looked like what we like to portray him to be, we’d all very well behaved as the idea of spending eternity with him would simply be scary.

The sad truth is that the Devil is not ugly and frightening at all. He usually takes “human form,” and we’re bound to think of that human form as being the guy who looks the most menacing:

 

 Copyright PBS

 

 Copyright Rand.

While the menacing people are menacing for a good reason, the truth is not only does the devil look human, he’s usually very appealing to us. Somehow, when the Devil speaks, we’re bound to listen because there’s just something within us that says “Ya, that’s telling it as it is,” or “he’s, our guy.” Devils look good and we want to be like them. There is, as they say, a very good reason why the phrase “lead us not into temptation,’ is written into the Lord’s Prayer.

Think of America’s favourite Presidential candidate who decided to label an ethnic group known for producing good lovers to be “rapist.” Instead of getting upset, a good number of people, specifically the type with an IQ higher than their body temperature, started defending him. As one Chinese girl in Singapore said, “I mean, he didn’t express it very well but….”

 

 This guy actually got people to believe that (Copyright WSJ)

 

This guy need to rape women (Copyright Disolve)

 

 All because the girls preferred him to these guys (Copyright Shortform)

Here was a classic case of Satan at his best, getting a good number of otherwise decent people to believe the worst in their neighbours because it made them feel less adequate. What’s probably the most interesting phenomena, is that a good number of Men of God, decided that the devil was doing a good job and proceeded to throw their political muscle. Apparently, Angels were summoned from Africa and Latin America to help him win the last election, which thankfully didn’t happen.

Now, the problem here is that the devil doesn’t work on his own. When you had the guy in America picking on people who got laid more often than they did, you had a bunch of little devils sprouting all over the European continent promising to save nations from hoards of poor people who wanted to work and set up small shops:

 

 Copyright Politico

 

 Copyright CTGN

 

 Copyright Sky News

 

 They’re going to save you from ending up like him (Copyright My Christian Daily):

 

 

 

By blaming him (Copyright Liverpool Echo).

The Devil, as they say, is good at his job in getting you to bring out your worst instincts. Your fears and greed are part of someone else’s fault. You start to think that you need to do bad things to other people before they do bad things to you. When he gets to work, things like logic and common sense go out the window. You think of irrational fears and if you’re really good, you start to get other people to believe you.

Think of the devil sitting in the land that many people call Holy. Someone hurt him and instead of hunting them down, he managed to slaughter a group of people and convinced the world that he was defending himself when he ended up killing far more than were killed on his side. What’s more interesting is he managed to get an otherwise “nice” guy to encourage him in his slaughter:

 

 This guy has convinced (Copyright Jerusalem Post)

 

 This guy and the rest of the world (Copyright CNN)

 

 That these guys need to be protected from:

 

 This guy (Copyright Daily Sabah)

The devil may speak well. The devil may look really good. What they’re saying may appeal to you in a strange way. However, let’s remember that just because something sounds good, it doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing or the good thing. Being good does require work but let’s remember that all good things need to be worked for. There is a reason why heaven is considered a reward.