The History of the Devil

Amazing hour documentary I think everyone should watch if they're interested.

The documentary discusses the origins of the devil and where certain concepts come from.

What I learned from watching this (Notes/ Summary if you can't watch):

• In the bible, there is no mention of a dark figure up against God in the early Testament.

• A misconception is that the serpent in Adam & Eve was the devil -  there is no mention of the serpent ever being the devil taking form, it's a talking serpent that is a symbol of evil - as Eve picked the apple from The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

• Satan is only mentioned in the Bible as unwary angel. In the book of Job, Satan argues that Job is only obedient to God because he has a good life. God agreed for Satan to test Job by inflicting disease that would cause pain to him and his family. In the end, Job continues to worship God and Satan loses the argument. Satan was never depicted as a bad angel.

• In the Old Testament, heaven and hell does not exist. Instead, all people who die go to a place called Sheol.

• People have always believed in evil. In several religions, there are several god and bad gods. 3,500 years ago it was a Persian man named Zoroaster, a religious teacher, reduced the whole cast of good and evil Gods to 2; a Good God and a Bad God. This is what created a true separation of Good and Evil. These Persian ideas made their way into the Hebrew scriptures soon after.

• Greek culture comes to Israel. We all know Greek Mythology. The God that shaped our image of Satan was the Greek God - Hades, ruler of the underworld who has a black face or black beard and sits on a black throne with a black fork. He's also the God of wealth and abundance.

• In another Greek story, Zeus defeats the winged half-God/half-serpent Typhon and throws him down to into the underworld. This was the story that inspired God throwing the rebellious angel Satan into the underworld.

• When we think of hell - we think of fire, lava, and people being tortured. Where did it come from? In the New Testament, Jesus warns people of Gehenna. Gehenna is a town near Jerusalem which was a rubbish heap and it would stink so badly that they would set fire to the town that would burn for several days or even weeks. It was also where they burned the bodies of executed criminals. This was the inspiration for Hell.

• When the Romans conquered Jerusalem, they were hated and accused them of being demonic. In the Book of Revelation, the devil is known as The Beast with the symbol 666 appearing. The Beast 666 could refer to Caesar. If you take Nero Caesar in Aramaic and count out the numeral values of the letters, it comes to 666.

• 4 centuries after the death of Jesus, Constantine makes Christianity the official state religion and use Satan as a weapon for anyone who refused to convert or disagreed with the Church. And people who were "Satanic" were put to death. These were the earliest witch hunts.

• Because people worshiped Pagan Gods, the church had to discredit these Gods to get people to convert to Christianity. They turned the happy loving God Pan into a scary demon. He is depicted with horns.

All of this is told in the first 20 minutes of the documentary. The rest talks about how the Church and the government have used Satan to control the world and maintain power and how it is still used today. 

Random Thought

Why does everyone have a stick up their ass about smoking cigarettes but it's ok to drink. Yeah smoking can kill you in the long term but it's not going to trigger someone to beat up their wife and children or smash into a car. I can smoke 20 cigarettes in a row (I don't smoke, btw) and my mood won't change 1 bit. Give me 20 drinks in a row, I would hope to die of alcohol poisoning before I'd think about getting into a car and killing someone or hurting others.

It's the media. Do you know how much money alcohol companies pump into television? They keep the media from anti-alcohol campaigns because if there was ever a "Truth About Alcohol" like there were "Truth About Smoking" on TV, they'd pull the plug on advertising and TV would loose billions. You never see anti-alcohol, you always see anti-drunk driving or whatever, which is different. 

No One is Weak

We often like to measure and judge other people’s level of strength. We throw out adjectives like pathetic, spineless, cowardly, and fragile and forgetting times where we could be easily pegged as such. A breakup may be the end of the world for one person, and not a big deal to someone else. Having little money may turn one person’s hair gray, while another person doesn’t stress about it at all. I think we shouldn't be so quick to call someone weak. We’re all a little bit tough in our own way. It’s funny how the simplest conversations inspire a blog post, huh? 

Of all the movies I have seen on the subject of Racism, this hits the point more succinctly than any other in my opinion. Atticus Fitch comments that Brock Peter's character had the gall to pity a woman who is supposed to be and is regarded as superior to him. I love the way he drives that simply but true statement home.

Random Thought

I don't think gun control would be effective at this point.  The same thing has been said about drugs, prostitution, alcohol.  It's already a crime to murder people and that has not deterred people from doing it everyday.  There are laws against possession of cocaine and we all know millions of people in this country who do it everyday.  My point is, just because you make it difficult for people to get a gun doesn't mean people can't get it.  There are 300 million guns in the USA - 1  gun per person pretty much.  Even if they "control" guns with restrictions and laws it will only affect new purchases, yet guns are so readily available to get in other ways.

My heart goes out to the children,parents, and family who have been affected in the shooting at the elementary school in CT. This has not been the first of many brutal incidents whether it may be in a school, project, or home. We as a community, as a population, and as a country need to being to find the problem and begin to come up with a solution; Reflect on past events and find out how one beings to psycologically break and do such horrific actions. This is devastating!

There are plenty of pros to having family and friends that have known you since you were young. The downside, however, is that these are the people least likely to embrace or be understanding of your life change(s). When you experience a life-altering event or go through a period of personal reflection, you are bound to change in some way, mainly in perspective or behavior. Whether the changes are positive or negative, great or small, those who know you well will notice them. Sometimes, seeing these differences will make them uncomfortable, concerned or treat you differently. This response only makes difficult life-changes that much more challenging.