The Story of Lucifer, Analyzed

[nerve]

this is an essay I'm working on. it needs a lot of work, and I need to include the story of Lucifer at the beginning and where it came from...but here's what I have so far, tell me what you think. _____ Lucifer was an archangel. He desired to be above God. He desired worship, or power, or both. Worship is adoration, power is control. if you are worshiped, you have a degree of control over what worships you, but if you have power over them, you have full control. Whichever Lucifer desired, one thing is clear: he was not happy. He developed pride, and pride causes suffering. This means that when God created Lucifer he made it possible for him to develop pride, which means, the potential for him to develop pride was in him. (And God included this possibility in all of the angels he created. so the story goes, "one third" of the angels rebelled with Lucifer.) Perhaps you would call this "free will". When God made the angels, being a loving God, he would make a beautiful place for them to dwell (heaven). He would want them to be happy, and so he would make it possible for them to experience pleasure and happiness without having to know suffering. These angels, being happy and knowing they were happy, would love their creator, because he would be the source of their happiness. Even if they did not know he was their creator, they would have no problem with him, because they would be happy. Lucifer must have been happy, or at least he was at first. Then, because of his free will, he developed pride. His developing pride meant that he became unhappy (because some aspect of his existence became undesirable.) But what could possibly make him unhappy? We know that he could see that God was above him somehow. If Lucifer did not know that God was the creator, then God was dishonest about who he was. That would mean that God had disguised himself as an angel or a being of equal (or lesser) power, deceiving them; one could only imagine to test them, to tempt them, when you consider that he also gave them all the ability to develop pride. Since God is a loving God, we know that that is not the case. Lucifer had to have known that God was the creator. Knowing God was his creator (and so, could destroy him), and knowing that God was the source of his perfect happiness, how could pride develop in him? First of all, he would be happy, he would not desire worship/attention (unless he was being neglected...), and he would not need power. Power is the ability to make changes that improve your own situation, and if he had happiness, then his situation would not need improvement. (To have happiness, he would have to know what happiness is, and if he knew what it was he would know that it was a good thing, and that it would be bad to lose it.) Nevertheless, pride developed in Lucifer, which means, for whatever reason, he became unhappy in his life. This unhappiness could have only developed in him because of his God-given free will. The ability to develop pride would not be necessary, if it were possible for God to give all of the angels true happiness without the need for suffering. Lucifer, knowing God was the creator, would never willfully do anything to anger God, because he would not want God to take his happiness away. From this, we can draw a number of possibilities: The first possibility is that God created the angels but did not let them know he was their creator, which means he lied about who he was. Since he also gave them free will (which, in this time and context, can only mean "the ability to become unhappy"), the only reason he would hide his power would be to tempt them. He would appear to them as another angel, or some kind of being, of equal (or lesser) strength, though somehow they would know he was "in charge". That temptation would be unnecessary, it would be a diabolical trap. If it were truly possible for them to be happy without suffering (and should be for an all-powerful God), then they would never become dissatisfied, and would never try to overthrow God. All of this means that God not only took their happiness away after awhile, which was unnecessary, but he also set it up to where they would desire to overthrow the one who was responsible, and made them believe they could. (If all of this is the case, then God basically created beings and then set them up for suffering.) Lucifer became unhappy in his situation. The only reason that he would be unhappy, the only plausible reason he would have to be dissatisfied, would be if the one in charge was abusive. Otherwise, he would have no reason to want to be above the one in charge, because he would have been perfectly happy, and having more power would be pointless. If the one in charge (God) were abusive, then we can agree that Lucifer had every reason to persuade other angels to join him in an attempt to overthrow God. A second possibility is that God created the angels, and he let them know that he created them (and so is more powerful). They would have started happy, but since they had free will, they also had the ability to develop pride (which was unnecessary). Lucifer developed pride. But why? Pride is a desire for adoration (worship, attention), or a desire for power. Power is the ability to change your own situation in life to a better one. Desire, of course, is wanting something you don't have. The only reason Lucifer would desire more attention would be if he was being neglected (maybe, being an archangel, the hard work he was doing for God was going unnoticed?). If he felt unhappy because of this, and desired more praise, you can only say that God did not give him perfect happiness in the first place. Or he did, but took it away and replaced it with "free will". The only reason Lucifer would desire more power, would be if he was unhappy in his situation. If he were unhappy, then God did not give him perfect happiness in the first place, or he did, but then took it away (and replaced it with "free will"). "Free will", in this time of perfect happiness, could only mean "the ability to become unhappy". The only reason any angel would become unhappy, would have to be because God did something to cause it. He would have had to have suddenly introduced the possibility of suffering. He would have to have somehow made them, or at least a portion of them, unhappy; in which case they would have every reason to be...unhappy. Lucifer was the first to become dissatisfied, or at least, the first to take action. Lucifer, in this case, would certainly not try to overthrow God in a violent manner. He would know that God was the creator, and therefore is more powerful than him; if he angered God, God might take away his happiness. (And Lucifer, knowing that his happiness was a good thing, would not want to lose it for any reason.) In his state of perfect happiness (and, appearently, dissatisfaction) Lucifer would know that an outright attack on God would have grave consequences, and wouldn't dare. He might, however, survey the other angels; find out if he is alone in his dissatisfaction. After learning that there are others who are unhappy, like him, he decides that something should be done. Lucifer, we have reasoned, would not dare attack God, or approach him in any way that might upset him. Lucifer must have approached God in a calm, friendly manner, explaining to God that there was a problem, the problem being that he and certain other angels were experiencing pain. He must have asked, "Why are we suffering?" and "Can you end it?" A loving God would not punish them (increase their suffering) for that. A third possibility is that God created the angels, and created the majority to be happy, but then deliberately created an angel that would lead the minority group that were unhappy in a rebellion against him. This group would not have a choice in the matter; if they knew God had created them, and if they had happiness, they would not have chosen to rebel. This would mean God deliberately created beings to suffer. That would be cruel. A forth possibility is that God created angels, and gave them perfect happiness, and Lucifer's (and the other angel's) developing pride was not caused by God. That would mean God did not exist first before anything else, that there was something that existed at the same time, and must have been equal to God in power (because God could not completely overtake it). This would mean God is not omnipotent. If God was not aware of this opposite force, that would mean he is not omniscient either. If he knew about it, yet still created lesser beings (one could only imagine out of lonliness?), then he knowingly subjected these beings to the opposite force, to suffering. He put his own needs first, at the expense of others. That is cruel. A fifth possibility might be that God created the angels, and gave them perfect happiness, but was not aware that there was another being in existence (that could only be his opposite). In this case, God would be loving, but he would not be omniscient, and since suffering exists, he could not be omnipotent either. The problem with this as a possibility is that if God existed first, yet was not aware that there was anything else, he would be fully concentrated into himself. That is, the only thing he could possibly know would be himself, and so he could never create anything at all, because he would not know how. He would only know one thing, and if only one thing existed, it would be nothing (nothing would exist). "...No one thing can be the only thing in existence. By definition of "thing", it isn't possible. in order for some thing to be, it has to be distinguishable from some other thing. The simplest example I can think of: a speck of light (energy) in empty space. there you have not one thing but two: the white speck of light, and the dark, empty space around it. Buddha said: 'Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.' That makes sense to me." I think we can discard this as a possibilty. The fifth possibility, then, is that these beings do not exist as actual entities, but are instead metaphors or symbols, for abstract concepts. From possibilities one through four, we can conclude that God is cruel. The only other appearent possibility, is that their exists no creator God, and God is only a metaphor for existence itself, or, probably, all of the good aspects of existence. Lucifer/Satan, then, is simply a representation of the bad aspects of existence.

[Gastone Mojaisky]

. Lucifer/Satan, then, is simply a representation of the bad aspects of existence. In otherwords according to you, Lucifer/Satan are analogous to the Yin and yang?

[Howie]

Cool. I want to read it again before I respond.

[nerve]

In otherwords according to you, Lucifer/Satan are analogous to the Yin and yang? no. God/Satan would be. Lucifer and Satan are the same being...Lucifer became "Satan" after God cast him out of heaven.

[Howie]

This is what I was going to discuss PD. Forgot I had a thread on it. The very Devil Similar in ways

[Abra]

A good read with many interesting points. As an essay (for college, anyway), I think that the format is off. It needs to sound less like a conversation (make it more formal, and fix all syntax and grammatical errors), and use more synonyms (happy, unhappy, and possibility are much too prominent in this essay!). The organization is iffy (the introduction is weak and the "list of possibilities" are akward. To fix the latter, omit/combine three, four, and five, and expand upon what will become a third point. Also, the fourth and fifth seem to focus too much on proving God's faults). Also, include some text support. Whip out some Bible quotes that describe segments of lucifer's fall. Good essays need support. Of course, if this is for some piddly high school class, you're pretty much set.

[tkdyo]

I find the essay very interesting and well thought out, however I have one more possibility for you to add. The very meaning of perfect happiness is lost without the concept of being unhappy, as such, there must be an opposing force for the angles to know what they had, or else they would just be mindless drones. This also brings a second point that love, cannot be true love without the being making a concious decision to love, in that sense, God had to give the angles free will so that they had the ability to love. So, with the part of free will in place, then it is only natural that some angles would want God's power, even if they were already living a comfortable life. tell me what you think. or anyone else too!