Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Satan As A Person

Satan has always been a compelling character for the branch of evil and the disintegration of goodness but for one moment in the context of Paradise Lost, can this character be seen as a hero? A rebellion against the grain, something Plato would say, and the norm of things. Can the suggested goodness by God be as uniformly good as it is bad? In my opinion, the conquering motive seems to be of autonomy, the desire to be acknowledged and characterized by the whim rather than the rationale. To be measured in the terms of philosophy, Satan is not much a part of holism because he does not work together with the counterparts of authority, so rather than be a part of God and the implied whole, Satan merges on his own. Thus, he is an individualist.

Much comes to mind with the unspoken “attractive” qualities of Satan: Can the battle between God and Satan, good and evil, holist and individualist, man and angel be distinguished as a complex identity crisis in the latter. God is believed to be in the image of ourselves and Angels are usually described as metaphysical characters—something unidentified and subordinated by the creator. Angels are led to be “God’s Heavenly Court” so Satan’s anticipated indictment of this court has much to do with a personal protocol for being different—establishing an identity of one’s own. Identity has much to do with being good and being evil because ever since biblical times, God is always drawn out to be divinely and saintly, wearing a gown and glowing from righteousness. However, Satan is beastly, having horns with a spaded tail and carrying a pitchfork, he is bursting in red—red can be in relation to blood and death or passion and love. Therefore, Satan is a conundrum of the duality present in ourselves.

Heaven and Hell are figments of our personal space:
Heaven represents what we aspire to become: our dreams and endeavors—walking on the side of the law.
Hell represents what we are afraid to admit is part of our self: our sins and unmerciful appetite—shortcomings and breeched impulses.

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