The Devil and the Delusion of Freedom and a Free Society

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” From the movie, “The Usual Suspects”.

And he has done a great job, especially in this country. For we believe that we do indeed possess freedom, the greatest delusion of all. And therefore, the Devil, since he represents all that imprisons us, has succeeded in convincing us he does not exist.

No, this is not a harangue against the evils of government or the Bush administration. Nor a philosophical discourse with an artistic use of words. This is the plain truth.

This is the state of humanity: It is a typical day. The alarm clock goes off. He rises. He goes to make his morning coffee, and finds that the coffee-maker is broken. He gets upset and into a grumpy mood. He drives to Dunkin Donuts, and a car coming from the other direction cuts him off. Our hero, already uptight, curses at the other driver, and gives him the finger. He finally gets into Dunkin Donuts. There is a pretty door at the counter. She smiles at our man, and he instantly gets into a better mood. He gets her phone number, and he gleefully gets back into his car, only to find a parking ticket on his windshield. He now gets back into the bad mood.

And on and on.

Man is entirely controlled by external circumstances. Man has been pre-programmed to act in a particular way based on the external information which is presented to him. This pre-programming occurred primarily during childhood, and man has no choice but to act in accordance with that programming.

Man is nothing but a machine, and a poor one at that. And a machine cannot be free.

Christianity’s concern lies solely, 100%, in making these machines into men. Christianity’s purpose is to make man free, by helping one escape from his bindings, his enslavements, his sufferings, his chains: the Devil.

But again, we live under the delusion that the Devil does not exist.

The Devil is a genius! He makes us think that other things are a threat to our freedom, and makes us fight and argue and waste a whole lot of time and energy on what basically comes down to nonsense (politics, for example) and completely distracts us from reality!

It matters not whether our society is free, for we ourselves are not free. The free, awakened man will remain unfettered no matter what the form of government, for he or she can never be controlled by external rules or circumstances, but the sleeping machine shall remain a slave in a the most free of societies.

Why would one try to break free, when one believes one already is free?

Be Watchful, and you will see the Truth of these statements, and you, yourself, will begin to break free and begin the journey to Heaven.

Comments

[rob]

Interesting. But "The Devil" serves more than to explain what Heidegger might call our 'fallenness into everydayness' (what happened at the Dunkin Donuts). "The Devil" is, in addition, a personification -- an agency by which this fallenness is carried out. But we don't need a hypostasized "him" or "her" to explain why we fall; the Devil is within our very make up, rather than an external agency.

[fireofthelord dot com]

Excuse me? The Devil is otherwise known as the fallen angel, Lucifer, who deceived a third of the angels in heaven and brought about a war. He is a spirit being and he started his journey of deceit at the time of Adam and Eve. There is much about the spirit or soul that is not understood. An example; we cannot see the Spirit (person) of God but the truly born-again believers of Jesus Christ can know his omnipresence. The Devil makes his presence known, too. The Devil is not a personification. He is a person even though we cannot see spirit body. He is the root of all false prophets and their false teachings plaguing Christianity.