Satan: The Root of All Emotion

…yet another one of those writings I had submitted as homework. This one is a revisit to my reading of and assignment for Paradise Lost. Submission requirements:

…and now the actual writing:

Who or what do we have to thank for making us who we are? Many would answer this question from a more tangible and personal perspective, and reply by answering with the names of their parents, loved ones, peers and educators. Some would answer the question from a scientific perspective and mention their parents and families with an eye toward genetics. Finally, others might answer the question from a spiritual standpoint and give thanks to their deity. But of those answering with religion, would they think of an entity that is associated with evil? Would one of a Judeo-Christian based faith ever give pause to recognize Satan?

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being introduced to Paradise Lost. While reading this epic tale of man’s fall from grace—and the events which led to that point—I became engrossed, enveloped and intrigued. I went back, rewound and re-read several sections and evaluated what my eyes were seeing and what my ears were hearing [Librivox, 2008] and developed a series of thoughts from my interpretations of the work. Some of the most startling points—yet not quite surprising once given thought—were feelings of sympathy of, relation to, and thankfulness for the Devil (Palmer, 2011).

I carried these thoughts on with me for a few days, and shared the tale as I had read and interpreted it with a few different people—my marriage counselor included.

I began to share my feelings from Paradise with the counselor by stating that I had been given the task for an assignment to state which character I had an affinity for; with only slight hesitance and an odd near evil smile I informed her that I chose Satan (Palmer, 2011). After catching a quick glimpse of the counselor’s confused, almost disgusted face, I explained the tale for it was obvious that she had never read it.

I explained how it seemed that Satan’s emotions were just, in the sense that they were quite similar to feelings that are human in nature. In his life prior in Heaven, Satan—then the angel Lucifer—had learned of God’s Son; the Son was created by God to aid in the reign of Heaven and was to share in all His glory power. Lucifer had become very upset of this, as he felt that having a second master—one which was not entirely separate of the first—was unfair; additionally, Lucifer felt that any seat that was to be created as a second chair of sorts should be allowed the appointment of a being already in existence, such as he or another of his fellow angels. Lucifer gathered a group of angels which shared in his feelings and then proceeded to challenge the Throne. Ultimately the Father and Son prevailed. (Milton, Book IV 615-7, 655-62)

Having been exiled from Heaven and banished to Hell, Lucifer—now Satan—and his cohorts plotted an attempt to retaliate by laying claim to God’s next creation—earth and Man (Milton, Book II 1-389). In his attempt, Satan did fail, yet succeeded in helping to define some of Man’s later characteristics. This failure helped in my expressing how Satan was one who deserved some attention without being given honor or praise—attention somewhat akin to that which is given to important figures in history like Adolf Hitler.

Satan had—through the understanding of “human” emotion—rightfully felt scorned by his Master. As I had stated in my previous writing on Paradise and my retelling to my counselor any number of people here on earth in our current time would view such an act within our society—government, business, and perhaps even familial lives—as egregious; to have a leader create and fill a position with one of close, personal kinship is unquestionably distasteful, unethical and even immoral. Applying this human emotion to Satan’s actions—as Lucifer—thusly makes his response understandable. Likewise, his actions of attempted recruitment of Man and claim of earth in retaliatory vengeance makes certain logical sense under the influence of “human” emotion.

Here is where I began to express slightly in my prior writing and more so in my dialogue with the counselor that the concept of human emotion was not entirely born of Man’s sin against God by eating of the fruit, but through Satan’s infectious influence based on his emotions. Prior to Satan’s contact with Eve, Man had few emotions—if we can call these elements such. Man only knew how to Honor His Grace and show Love and Appreciation to the Father; Man had no concept of lesser feelings of honor, love, appreciation, nor any vertical, diagonal or reverse of these emotions. All of these emotions had, however, existed previously and were known too well by Satan. Through his temptation of Eve, and her temptation of Adam, Man later awoke with these emotions and were rendered less perfect and more human.

I opened this writing asking who or what should be thanked or given attention for making us who we are—the commonality between the answers being some element of our past. I had stated that many of us would mention our parents and varying elements of our upbringing and experiences; from here I dove into an odd point on the topic of religion. I shared how one piece of Judeo-Christian history—portions being considered apocryphal—as dramatized in writing through Milton’s Paradise Lost. In doing so I have presented the reader of this essay an idea which many may at first—like the counselor to whom I mentioned sharing the notion with—think as heretical and insane. To regard Satan as an important influential character on humanity is utter nonsense; or is it? Without this ultimate “embodiment” of evil would we be able to properly contrast good?—we would not be able to contrast good at all; nor would we be capable of knowing such things as sin, anger, jealousy, etc.

More importantly, we would not be capable of the further extended concept of free-will and it’s related free-thinking; without those elements we would not be capable of having authors such as Milton and the ability to discuss, debate and interpret such amazing works.

Librivox. Paradise Lost by John Milton. (2008). Audio/Web. Retrieved 16 Nov. 2011 from http://librivox.org/paradise-lost-by-john-milton/

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. (1667). Retrieved 16 Nov. 2011 from http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=MilPL67.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all

Palmer, Jeremiah. Satan = Epic Fail. (2011). Retrieved 8 Dec. 2011 from http://kg4vma.livejournal.com/579673.html