The Devil – A Concept Based on Human Judgement

In most Religions there are antagonist deities or demigods that harass and tempt man to do what he is not naturally supposed to do. The key word here is naturally. Man has created many unnatural concepts that reflect as unnatural behavior. Man has even gone so far as to personify this concept and use it as a method of explaining away the “evils” of the world.

This Devil, Fallen Angel, Lucifer, etc. is quoted by many fundamentalists as the source of all human misery. But what are they really saying when they state this? Isn’t to blame the Devil for every bit of ones problems and temptations simply the same as just saying that bad things have happened? Why the need to personify the perceived negativity in one’s life?

The first reason the comes to mind is simple; blame. We cannot blame an abstract concept, just like many find it hard to praise an abstract concept; hence we also have the concept of God. Known as anthropomorphism, giving human traits to that which cannot have them, is a form of imposing frustration upon something other than oneself in order to validate the possibility that events could have been otherwise.

The second reason is more philosophical. In the Bible, the Devil wanted to be as powerful as God, believing him not to be fit to rule. The devil got exactly what he wanted, half of God’s power and dominion. God can only grant that which is in his power to grant, and since he is everything, he could not convert his wholeness into that of the Devil, which was already a part of him. However he could allow him dominion over half of his wholeness, half of infinity. Here we have the beginnings of judgment; Right from wrong, good from evil, God and the Devil. Coexisting in the same space and universe, and ultimately being nothing but the wholeness of God, as nothing but the Wholeness of god can exist for him to have complete dominion over everything.

The devil got exactly what he wanted, and from this duality in wholeness came the seeds of judgment and hence the temptation of man. When man ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he became obsessed with judgment and has ever since struggled to return to the simplicity of wholeness.

The real question is this: When we have allegory that signifies the fundamental problem with human thought and being: that of judgment, and action based upon judgment, commonly known as justice; why do we fight so hard to solidify in each others minds that there is a Good God and an Evil Devil? The admission and belief that these concepts are physical or metaphysical realities only further entrenches us in duality and steers us away from the wholeness of a single true source of all being. It creates splits in our thoughts and personalities as we accept judgment and duality as the norm and nature of life. Why can’t we just allow events to be just that, events. We live and we die, we exist and we do enjoy life when we allow ourselves to be free of the burden of judgment.

They say leave judgment to God, we have no right to judge. This is very true especially since God has no reason or need to judge. God’s judgment would be only God judging himself. Henceforth we have no reason to judge as judgment is only a reflection on ourselves. This adage is simply a message to convey that we should allow ourselves to live a full life without the illusion of judgment; an aberration that exists only in the human mind while containing no true substance.