The World’s Perception Of Evil Is Mostly Wrong
Posted on 14. Apr, 2009 by The Gimcracker in Movies, Theory & Philosophy
Take this Antichrist trailer for instance. Watch The Exorcist or any other horror movie about “evil”. That’s what people think evil is. They think it’s blatant, violent, frightening imagery and that demons are ugly, ferocious beasts that make you want to flee. The stereotypes of hell and evil and the devil are a tad askew.
If people are scared of evil and want to run from it, the only place to run would be somewhere that’s not evil. By definition, the only place that is not evil is a place where God is. Isn’t that exactly where the devil doesn’t want people to go? It doesn’t make sense that he would make evil come off as scary/repulsive/unattractive to people, because his only goal is to get people to turn from God and follow him. The fact that somehow the devil tricked us into thinking evil is something that it’s not – THAT is evil.
The most important thing to take away from this is that hell is not dark, depressing, and full of physical agony as the world stereotypes it. Hell is exactly like Earth, but without God. You can take part in anything you want forever and ever in hell. You can eat forever, do drugs to obtain an eternal high, have sex as much as you like, and be nice to people as much as you want. You will realize the true meaning of hell when you find out that those things have stopped making you happy and there is nothing else to consume. That is hell.
What an interesting point to consider. It reminds me a lot of sunday school lessons back in the day were we talked about the Devil and his influence being very subtle – the part of your brain that wants to take part in something that may be just on the other side of the right thing to do. Extrapolate that out a little and you have the Godless-Earth Hell you are talking about. At this point, I’m still not sure where I fall along the believer/nonbeliever line, yet I am more inclined to think that your proposition – evil is everywhere and it looks mostly like good – is closer to the truth. If the Devil truly is a being that embodies all that is the opposite of good, wouldn’t it be the ultimate devious trick to fool everyone into wrongly categorizing evil (into monsters, demons, etc.), so that when the true evil is lurking about, we are none the wiser? Alluring. Deceptive. Malevolent. Wicked. Those things, I think, are evil.
Precisely. And the next question, then, would be “if the devil tempts us with things we want, why don’t we just worship him instead?” I guess my answer to that would be that we don’t really know what we want. When I was a kid I thought I wanted to eat endless chocolate and candy, then I realized I actually didn’t want that the older I got. Especially after I read The Chocolate Touch.
Brian. Nice observations here. I think you are right on line as far as the subtlety and vagueness of evil that makes it–perhaps–harder than we think to define in this world.
I can’t wait to NOT see this movie.