When we think of God, we associate good, light, force, and entity. Basically every good thought or anything associated with good is directed towards God. Likewise, when we think of the Devil, we automatically think of evil, and darkness. Every negative thought and bad emotion is linked with the Devil. This thought process is similar to the notion of dualism. The literal definition of dualism is the division of something conceptually into two opposed or contrasted aspects, or the state of being so divided. For example, concepts of dualism would be good v. bad, ying v. yang, light v. dark, and purity v. impurity.
When asked the question, “What is the opposite of God?” most would answer the devil. Although these are two opposing forces and scripture always mentions a righteous one referring to God, while the other one is evil referring to the Devil, this view would be controversial to orthodox thinkers. For starters, in order for God and Satan to be two opposing forces, they would first have to be equals. Their equality would be equals in all sense meaning their force, qualities and powers are the same. For many orthodox thinkers they would clearly deny this. For them, God is above Satan in every way possible. God and Satan cannot be equals. So when asked the question again, “What is the opposite of God?”, the correct answer would be “No God” because that would be the true opposite of God. “The opposite to force is not another force, but the absence of force”. In other words, the opposite of God is the absence of God.
One proponent for dualism was the Gnostics. This group promoted the concept of dualism by stating that reality is broken down into two “equal and opposite forces of good and evil”. In addition, the Gnostics used the...
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...ood v. evil, light v. dark, basically God v. Satan. However in every battle, the humans are merely pawns between these two forces. Although this is based on a dualistic view, orthodox thinkers would disagree. No entity especially Satan is equal to God. Although Satan is a fallen angel, the Devil still carries out God’s will when God allows him to. Basically, “the creation of God is good, but fallen.”
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Even though evil is very real it has no existence of its own. Evil is an absence of something, it is not a “thing” itself. Evil is a lot like cold which is the absence of heat. So evil can be nothing without something.
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I will divide this paper in a few key points. The first is what Gnosticism is. The second is the
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In order to consider this as such an allegory, we must define the scope of the struggle. That is to say, what is good and what is evil? In the Christian tradition, there is a fictional figure that creates all the evil in the world. Some people call this figure “Satan” however, that word derives from the Hebrew word meaning “adversary” and can refer to both physical and nonphysical entities. As such, there is no singular evil Satan figure. The name of “Lucifer” used in Isaiah is a reference to a fallen Babylonian King and it is only later, well after the writing of the Bible, that Lucifer is adapted to refer to an evil entity. The term “devil” is just as enigmatic in that it means “accuser” and can stand for any being either divine or mundane. As such, there is no singular evil entity in Christian mythology blamable for evil in the Christian tradition. It must therefore make sense that anything that is evil is that which is against or not of God.
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The third term is diabolic dualism is almost the same as dualistic, but is more elaborate and is seen as personified evil. The personified evil it can creep into our consciousness, in our thoughts and could make suggestions or to give us ideas, and it starts mixing with our thoughts that not belong in our consciousness.
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