The Devil

The Devil is a mythical entity who represents, what most of humanity believes to be, pure evil.  The Nemesis of God in Christian dogma, the Devil is often depicted as a horned beast that is half man, half goat.  If God is good, then the Devil is the antithesis of good, it would seem.  A fallen angel who rebelled against God and was cast down from heaven, the Devil has only one purpose, and that is to harvest the souls of the damned.  While God is portrayed as the light that is pure and open, the Devil is portrayed as a trickster who uses temptation and lies to corrupt the hearts of men.  Residing in hell, the Devil commands an army of fdemons, sometimes referred to as minions or legion.

The Devil as represented in tarot.

The description I have given of the devil, thus far, is a loose one.  In reality there are so many interpretations of what or who the Devil is, that it would be impossible to provide a definitive overview without writing a thesis on the subject.  However, some of the things that are consistent throughout most belief systems, are that the Devil is evil, corrupt, manipulative, sly, rebellious, dishonest and an all round bad apple.  So it is little wonder that the devil is regarded as being the personification of everything that is wrong and evil in this world.

This kind of thinking, in my mind, is extremely dangerous for the future development of mankind.  As long as we continue to use the devil as an excuse for why certain members of society carry out atrocious acts, we as a society will severely hinder progress towards a better world.  When ever a serial killer or paedophile commits a crime that sickens us to our core, we should not immediately think of it as the work of the devil, rather, we should focus our efforts on finding out what really drives those actions.  To say that these types of crimes are acts of evil, suggests that they are somehow outside the realm of societal, environmental, psychological, or any other type of influence that can be explained through scientific study.

The devil does exist; but only as that part of us that we wish to purge, the part of us that goes against every moral code we have adapted as an evolving species.  We have all the ideals of how we wish things would be; but those ideals are evolving faster than the human animal itself.  There will likely come a time when we know enough about what makes us tick, to eradicate the things that cause us to inflict pain and suffering on our fellow man.  However, that time would come a lot sooner if we could just let go of these ancient myths.  Then we will finally see the Devil for what he really is – mans infallibility and imperfection.