In an effort to explain and control the destructive behavior of human males Biblical writers came up with the concept of the Devil as a counterpart to God. Over the centuries many images of the Devil were created by different Church leaders. All of these images were made to look ferocious in the belief—or hope—that they would frighten people into behaving according to the precepts of the Church.
Not surprisingly, neither the concept of a Devil nor the ferocious images had any noticeable effect on reducing—much less eliminating—the negative behavior of males. Violence of all kind has always plagued humanity and remains a characteristic of the male-ruled world.
The reason why this infantile religious ploy failed is simple. The “Devil” is incarnate in the genetic programming of males and often overcomes the better side of many men.
Every violent trait that males have exhibited since the origin of the species has not only persisted it has grown in its destructive power in direct proportion to advances in technology.
The power of men to injure and destroy has become virtually infinite, recalling one of the insights of Albert Einstein, who remarked that there are two things in the universe that are infinite: the size of the universe and the stupidity of mankind…adding that he was not sure about the universe.
Christianity and Islam in particularly have never recognized, understood, or accepted the nature of human males, with the result that the social and political laws and guidelines they created have been both anti-female and anti-human.
In the early1970s African-American comedian Skip Wilson used the tag-line "The Devil Made Me Do It!" in his popular television show to explain his unorthodox behavior—helping to make the show the second most popular fare on TV during its five-year run. To my knowledge, that was the only really positive result of the creation of the Devil concept by Catholic Church leaders.
The final straw in the irrationality of Christian dogma was that human beings who failed to live up to the precepts of the Church could receive absolution [forgiveness for their sins] from a priest and that they could ensure their entry into Heaven by declaring their belief in and acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord just before dying—the ultimate hypocrisy in Christianity.
Humanity will not achieve its potential until religions are replaced by a philosophy based on valid knowledge and commonsense.
Copyright © 2011 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente.
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