Lucifer. Satan. Ahriman. Darren Farley. The devil wears many names, but just how did
this being of ultimate evil come to be? Throughout history and cultures, evil entities
have always been blamed for various tragedies that befell humanity. In ancient Greek mythology, there were various
entities which could perform or inspire evil deeds, but the Greek gods themselves were
often so cruel and evil that there was little need for a centralized evil figure. Hades may be the figure best representative
of a traditional 'devil', but compared to the shenanigans of the other gods, Hades often
comes off as a choir boy. Under the yoke of gods who were as capricious,
petty, selfish, arrogant, and jealous as children, the ancient Greeks could have been said to
suffer under many devils. Buddhism is one of the few non-Abrahamic religions
that has a figure similar to what we most closely associate as 'the devil' in our modern
culture. In Buddhism, the demon Mara directly opposes
the Buddha's quest for enlightenment. In one version of events, he sends his three
daughters, Attraction, Aversion, and Delusion, to strip in front of the meditating Buddah,
in order to tempt him away from his studies. Buddah however swept them away from his presence,
ignoring the temptation and continuing to pursue his personal enlightenment. Mara is the guardian of passion, and uses
his powers of lust, hesitation, and fear in order to lead would-be Buddhists astray and
off the path. If you've ever felt yourself afraid of doing
the right thing, hesitating to act when you know you should, or cheating on a significant
other with another person, then you've felt the powerful pull of Mara in your own life. Unlike the traditional Abrahamic devil however,
Mara does eventually repent of his sins and convert to Buddhism. This occurs when the Buddhist monk Upagupta
journeys to the ancient Indian kingdom of Mathura to preach the path of enlightenment. Finding great success amongst the population,
Mara's palace began to tremble, and he was quick to take his revenge, attacking the Dharma-
or the Buddhist teachings directly. In order to seek out the source of the disturbance,
Upagupta slipped into a meditative trance, known as samadhi. With the monk helpless before him, Mara slipped
a fine jade necklace over his neck, an attempt to tempt the monk with vanity. Upagupta then gathered three corpses- that
of a man, a dog, and a snake- and transformed them into a beautiful garland. Approaching Mara, the monk offered him the
beautiful garland as a thank you token for the jade necklace. Reveling in his destruction of the monk's
piety with his gift of precious jade, Mara proudly extended his neck and received the
garland, only to have it instantly transform back into the three rotting corpses. Angered and disgusted, Mara fled to the heavens,
seeking anyone who could help him remove the rotting corpses from around his neck. In desperation, he approached Brahma himself-
one of the principal deities of Buddhism- and begged him to remove the necklace. Brahma suggested that Mara return to earth
and beg for the forgiveness of the monk who had cursed him. Mara thus returned to Upagupta and threw himself
at the monk's feet. Upagupta asked if he would turn from his evil
ways and cease to attack the Dharma, to which Mara eagerly agreed, and then began to repent
for his many sins. Thus, Mara was converted from his evil ways
to the path of enlightenment. In early Hindu beliefs, there is no one figure,
or group of figures, responsible for evil. Rather, evil simply exists in the world as
part of the natural cycle of life. As the Hindu faith evolved however, blame
for evil was assigned to demons. Both demons and gods made a choice to speak
either truth or untruth, with the gods choosing to speak only truth and the demons choosing
to speak only untruth. While we may be best familiar with the concept
of the devil due to abrahamic religions, the devil as a singular entity of ultimate evil,
is believed to actually be the influence of Zoroastrianism on early Judaism. In Zoroastrianism, good and evil are not part
of the same coin, but rather are two completely opposite and separate forces that are forever
in conflict with each other. The force of good is called Ahura Mazda, and
the force of evil, or “destructive spirit”, is known as Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman. Neither of these two forces is all-powerful,
meaning one cannot outright control or defeat the other. But, good and evil are also not equals- good
is free of the bonds of time and space, while evil is constrained by both time and space. Thus, when the world ends and time and space
are dissolved, evil will die along with the old word, leaving only good to reign forever. This concept of two separate, powerful entities
vying for the fate of the world, is believed to have influenced early Judaism, prompting
belief in a devil who was powerful- yet not as powerful as God himself who would ultimately
win and rule supreme. In early Judaism though, there was no belief
in an actual devil. Yahweh rules supreme, and for a long time,
Satan in Judaism was not so much an individual, as he was a natural inclination by people
to do wrong. Translated as “opponent” or “adversary”,
Satan was the sinful impulse or general forces that prevent human beings from doing good. There was no central figure who commanded
these forces, and no tempter that played on human frailty to lure people into evil. A battle with Satan in Judaism is a battle
with yourself, and your proclivity to be lustful, selfish, lazy, etc. Sometimes though the name Satan is used to
reference an accusatory or prosecutorial figure, who is actually also on God's side- not opposed
to him. Typically this is an angel which is allowed
to act in a way that is adversarial to God's people, in order to help them rid themselves
of moral weaknesses or strengthen their character and faith. Perhaps the best known example of this is
in the book of Job. Job is one of the wealthiest men in the land
of Uz, where he lives with his large family and many flocks. Described as a righteous man, who strives
to do good and avoid doing evil, Job is blessed with a large family and much wealth. However, Satan approaches God one day and
God boasts to Satan about how good and faithful his servant Job is. Satan however points out that it's easy to
be good and faithful when you're living such a good life, so he challenges God- take away
Job's fortunes, and he'll surely curse your name. With that, God grants Satan power over Job's
life- yet forbids him from actually killing Job. In just one day, Satan kills all of Job's
livestock, ten of his children, and all of his servants. Job is not just financially destitute, but
has lost nearly all of his family. He shaves his head and tears his clothes in
mourning, and then settles into the dust of his home where he lays as three of his friends
visit him and try to find the source of his damnations- confident that it must be some
secret sin in Job's life that brought this catastrophe down on him. During the course of his ordeal, Job defends
his character against his friends and rebukes his wife, who suggests that he curse God and
die. As Job refuses to blame God for his misfortune,
Satan strikes him with all manner of illnesses, further adding to his misery. While Job expresses frustration with God,
he still refuses to blame God for his woes- pointing out that God had up until then, given
him a long, happy life, so he had the right to take it away. Job's friends continue to harass him, all
of them confident in their self-righteousness that Job clearly must have been harboring
some secret sin, or this evil wouldn't have befallen him. At last, God appears before the group as a
whirling tempest, and with a series of rhetorical questions shows the frustrated Job and group
just how little they understand creation or the nature of God. In an act of humility, Job admits his limited
knowledge, which pleases God- though God remains upset with Job's friends who had for days
tried to pressure Job into admitting his suffering was his own fault. Job however asks God to forgive his friends,
which pleases God once more, and God forgives the friends while restoring to Job twice as
much wealth as he had before, along with new children and an extremely long, happy life. While Christians have turned the Satan of
the Book of Job into an individual entity diametrically opposed to God, the ancient
Jews understood the Satan of Job as merely an actor in God's heavenly court. Furthermore, while scriptural literalists
will believe the Book of Job to be a real story, it's widely acknowledged that the story
was clearly a poetic exploration of deep theological questions. In Islam, itself an offshoot of Judaism, God
created Adam- the first human- and then ordered all of the anglels to prostrate themselves
before Adam, signifying that man with his free will and ability to choose, was the superior
being. All of the angels prostrated themselves except
for one- Iblis, or Shaitan- who out of pride, claimed that he was superior to a mere mortal. For his pride, God cast Iblis out of heaven
and into hell, but not before granting Iblis his request that he be allowed to lead mortals
astray. Knowing that temptation would challenge and
strengthen his people, God gave Iblis permission to attempt to sway humans to evil. Both good and evil are created by God in Islam,
as Iblis was after all God's own creation. God's will however is always good, even when
it doesn't seem like it- thus evil in the world is simply part of God's plan. An argument could be made that the Holocaust
couldn't have possibly been anything but mindless evil, until one considers the resolute determination
by modern nations today to never again repeat such a horrific atrocity. In this example, the evil of the Holocaust
was still God's will, as it created a future good that the victims of the Holocaust may
not have seen, but which would potentially save many more future lives. In Islam, there is a strong emphasis on resisting
evil, believing it to always be a test from God. When a believer is the victim of evil, it
is their chance to prove that they trust God, even if they cannot see the benefit or meaning
to their suffering. Islam's Iblis differs from Christianity not
only in origin, but also in purpose and power. While Christians believe that Satan rebelled
against God directly, in Islam Iblis rebelled against humanity. Also, Iblis plays a much lesser role than
Satan does in Christianity, where he is the architect of all evil. Instead, Iblis is reduced to a tempter, not
capable of anything more than merely whispering temptations into the ears of believers and
unbelievers alike. Finally, we get to the best known version
of the devil in modern culture- the Christian Satan. In Christianity, Satan is evil incarnate,
and at perpetual odds against God. Because he's unable to hurt God directly,
he instead targets what God loves most- humanity. Thus, he attempts to lead humans astray, or
bring about great calamities and evil. While you've likely heard of the term Lucifer
used to describe the devil, the truth is that this is a misunderstanding of the use of the
term in Isaiah 14:12. Meaning 'bringer of light', the name Lucifer
is believed by many to be Satan's angelic name, before his fall, but is in fact a reference
to a Babylonian King. Most of what we know about the Christian devil
comes from the Book of Revelation, apocalyptic writings that are believed to be heavenly
revelations to mankind on the behind the scene workings of heaven and hell, as well as what
the end of days will entail. Here, we learn of a war that breaks out in
heaven, though the motives are rather vague and unclear. Many reasons have been attributed to this
war, with most accepting that it was Satan's pride which led him to convince a third of
the angelic host to try and overthrow God. Interestingly, though many Christians accept
that a third of the angels followed Satan's lead, this is only because of a reference
to a third of the stars being cast down by a great dragon a few verses before the mention
of a heavenly war. There is no reason to believe that a third
of the angelic host joined Satan in rebelling against God. For all we know it could've been Satan and
two of his best friends, or Satan and 99% of the angels. All we know is that the archangel Michael
and his own angels triumphed over Satan's forces and cast them out of Heaven. Satan is also believed to be the serpent that
tempted Eve, as well as the accuser who brought Job low- but again, there is no specific reason
to believe, even within the Old Testament texts themselves, that this is true. Satan has merely been appropriated by Christians
to replace all instances of evil, testing, or tribulation in scripture, despite playing
a shockingly small role in all of the text. What is agreed upon in Christianity however
is that today, Satan is prince of the earth. This is a reference to the inherent wickedness
of earthly ways- or our basic, selfish impulses. Satan is allowed dominion over the earth so
that we can strive against him and overcome our own evil natures, and thus be made more
righteous like God. When the end of the world comes, Satan will
rule over the earth for a set period, and lead mankind's armies against God- only to
be defeated and cast into the lake of fire as punishment. Then, a second earth will be created, free
of the imperfections and evil of this one, for the faithful to enjoy for eternity. Now go watch 50 facts about the devil you
didn't know, or click this other video instead!
