While working on some essay questions for school – describe the theological implications of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – and listening to Enigma (Mcmxc A.D limited edition) I heard the line, “If you believe in god, it’s because of the devil”.

It struck something in me. Yes, I’ve been completely immersed in theology for the past 8 months, reading and studying and taking the occasion break to watch Dogma and The Last Temptation of Christ (God I love that movie! – ignore the pun), so maybe it’s just my state of mind.

As a good Goddess fearing Pagan I don’t believe in the devil. But from an intellectual point of view exploring that statement seems interesting. How would one explain that? Were I to say to someone, “If you believe in God, it’s because of the devil” and they said, “What do you mean?” What would I say in response?

Trying to come up with a response resulted in this post. Yippee for you!

What if it turns out the devil does exist and that in fact he’s the one running the show? God as Christians understand him (we’re conveniently leaving other religions out of this thought experiment) is something that the Devil has created to keep us all confused or under control. God doesn’t exist, but it is in the devil’s best interest for us to believe in him. While we’re worshipping over here, the devil is quietly messing around over there. Interesting.

Now what if Dante told the story wrong and that Lucifer had won wouldn’t all the crap in the world suddenly make sense? We aren’t living in God’s creation were living in the Devils. Interesting.

Or. The statement is simply saying we believe in God, a compassionate and loving supreme being because we fear an evil one. (supposedly evil one – see post ) Belief in God is simply to make us sleep better at night when the demons are roaming free. Interesting.

I’m sure there are other ways to respond to this line, but the relationship between Science and Religion are, at this time more pressing, Talk amongst yourselves.

FM