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Usually in Hollywood movies, the epic battle between evil and good is reduced to a skirmish between the devil (Satan, Lucifer or whatever you want to call it) and … some dude. Yeah, some shmo who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. God is only a vague idea; and, the main character is left to do all the representin’ by himself. This has always felt misguided to me. Even though, most of these movies have their basis in Christian mythology, they tend to fly in the face of some very basic information in the Bible.
Firstly, Christians - and more specifically evangelical Christians - tend to virtually ignore the Old Testament, it seems, and forget the God who took care of biz in Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis, the Lord punishes the wicked in these towns by destroying them both completely and killing everyone including people who are too young to commit sin. I like this part in the Bible, because it falls more in line with how the world seems to work. It is often theorized t that natural disasters and large accidents have their root in spiritual problems. They tend not to discriminate and affect everyone the same way regardless of age, gender or the like.
People also tend to forget that Satan (according to Christians, at least) used to be an angel of God. He might have fallen and may not be an angel anymore, but he is still God’s. If, in fact, it’s true that God is everywhere all the time, sees all and is all powerful then, surly, still very much reins over the devil itself. Sorry folks, that is just implied by the definition. So, when something truly evil takes place in the world such as famine or genocide, the devil maybe the contractor but God placed the job order.
Hinduism - to me - seems to have a better grasp of the concept. While the religion has lots of “lower level” celestial entities we refer to as “gods” they are the equivalent of Christianity’s angels, archangels and saints. They are powerful and maybe worth worshiping separately, but even to Indra, the king of gods, the Absolute is still a mystery. (Trust me when I say this, on closer look the distinction between the Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer is conceptual even if they have separate names for them. It is quite remarkable. I am planning to write an article about this phenomenon at some point.)
This “Absolute One” or God with a capital “g”, is not good or evil. It is simply “is.” Well, it is ultimately good, because the direction of the flow of Existence leads all of creation back to an absolute state where the fragmented pieces realize their true identity, which is being one with God. But in the mean time, God is there to maintain a balance between the constructive and destructive forces of the universe: good and evil. As a result, you experience miracles that make you weep and tragedies that, well… make you weep some more; and, it would be a mistake to think that they were NOT all the work of the “One and Only.”
Author Bio
 korneld | Kory is the founder and editor-in-chief of StandUpPhilosopher.org. He started to wonder about matters of spirituality at the age of 14. He soon learned Transcendetal Meditation (TM) and it reamains his bread-and-butter and main vehicle of self exploration.
He is also a big fan of Tom Brown's Trackerschool and everything it has to teach. | | | Website: StandUpPhilosopher.org | | | Country: United States |
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