The Origins of Good and Evil
"Around the world there are a variety of cultures with an assortment of religious beliefs and systems. This is a fact. Within these different cultures and religious systems are varied perceptions of what is real in the universe. Some of them have a deity or deities; some have no god. The diversity is great. Some of the deities are anthropomorphic, others are animalistic; some are elemental, and others have no form. Many traditions have the concept of good and evil; others do not. Those traditions that do not separate out good and evil, such as Taoism, consider all things in the universe, whether viewed as good or evil, to be within the cosmic plan or mind that some call "God." In other words, in some views, "God" is simply a term to describe the entire universe and all its aspects, whether good or evil.
The question arises, where have the concepts of good and evil come from, since they have developed so differently around the planet? Why is it that some cultures view some things as evil while others see them as good, and vice versa? How can followers of one so-called religion believe that only those who hold the identical tenets are good and those who do not are evil? Since no one "religion" is followed by a majority of earth's inhabitants, how can such followers view the rest of the world's population as doing the devil's work? Where did these ideas originate? Are they based in reality? Is there a good god and an evil devil who take turns influencing the universe and our world? Who determines which is which? How did this determination come about?
Narrow Perceptions Represent Bigotry
For those people who study the subject in depth, and have revelation and expansion of consciousness of their own, the answer becomes frighteningly and sickeningly clear as to how, why and what is going on. What becomes obvious is that each group has brainwashed itself to believe that it holds the only truth, way and path. Each group, faction or cult believes that those who do not see its way are doomed to hell by its perceived and chosen deity. Every religion holds that if its specific guidelines are not followed, true salvation is not destined to occur. What becomes abundantly evident to those who seriously involve themselves from as unprejudiced a perspective as is possible - say, that of an alien visitor simply observing this planet - about every one of these so-called religious systems is that they are in fact not based on any true revelation from any specific deity who is the absolute authority and who gives "his word" to "his chosen people" but are instead based on egotistical and cultural biases that are destined to bring political and material gain to those who can force them upon others.
This statement may seem shocking to those who have not looked into the situation to any extent. Those who are caught up in any given religious tradition will believe that their system is the only true one, the most advanced in the universe. This is the first sign of egotism and arrogance. This presupposes that no other group of people or individual has ever had an enlightened or wise thought. This assumes that only those who carry the "way, the light and the truth" have any intelligence whatsoever. It also presumes that whoever received "the Word" in the first place is a very egotistical "chosen person," or the arrogant "son of God," or some such.
True Wisdom Can Be Found Anywhere, Not Just in Some Old Book
The fact is that around the world wisdom has been able to penetrate the noggins of a multitude of people, to be revealed in a large array of creative ideas. Contrary to what the brain-dead "religionists" would have everyone believe, there is nothing at all wrong with this variety. This variety is the spice of life, and those who avail themselves of it are greatly enriched in consciousness and spirit. Those who narrow down their consciousness to reject the wisdom and perception of all other cultures in favor of their own egotistical "religious" beliefs are mean-spirited and lacking in divine spark. They call themselves devout, but they are really out of it.
"Religions" are Recycled Myths
As an example of how religious dogma is derived from political and material gain, let us look at the western tradition of good and evil as held by the Judeo-Christo-Islamic traditions. Most people think that these systems come out of the Hebraic interpretation of God/Devil, which was revealed directly from God. What few people realize is that the Hebraic interpretation is a direct lift from older cultures such as the Phoenician, Babylonian, Sumerian, Zoroastrian, Indian and Egyptian, et al. The majority of people have not bothered to study the evolution of religion enough to realize that practically every culture has "borrowed" (stolen) the spiritual traditions of other cultures, reworked them and made them to revolve around itself. This is particularly true regarding cultures that have merged through invasion. Most folks are not students of history enough to know that throughout the past 6,000 years of known history peoples have migrated and moved all over the place, so much so that it is impossible here to name the migrations. During these various migrations, which were often caused by the need to find better, less exploited, more fertile territory, invaders absorbed the cultures they invaded. To do this, they usually had to make the presiding cultural gods into either sub-deities under their own god or gods, or into demons and devils. This is precisely what has been done throughout the world, whether one realizes it or not.
God and the Devil are One
In the case of the Hebraic tradition, the Semitic group of people that later became known as the Jews engulfed and incorporated into its pantheon of prophets, patriarchs and deities the gods of other cultures, such as Brahma, the Indian creator god, who becomes the patriarch Abraham; or Mises, the Sumerian/Egyptian superhuman hero-lawgiver, who becomes the prophet Moses. What few people realize is that the principal God/Devil of the Old Testament are also derived in this way from older traditions, specifically the Egyptian, Indian and Zoroastrian. In fact, the God/Devil construct comes in part from derivation of the Dual God of Persia, Ahura-Mazda/Ahriman, or the Egyptian Horus/Set. Set and Horus, for example, were the Dark and Light aspects of the one God. These were the first elements out of the Void, as even the Hebraic bible claims. Set, or "Darkness," was the primary god in a number of very ancient cultures along the Nile River. It is of the Temples of Set, in fact, that we have possibly the oldest identified ruins on earth. Set eventually came to be the God of the South, where his peoples resided. At that time, Horus was only a vague entity somewhere to the North. As the peoples migrated towards the North, Set, as symbolized by the South Pole Star, began to become less and less visible, and it came to be believed that Set was descending into the underworld to become God there.
Sooner or later, as the people continued to migrate north and became more focused on the Lord of the North Pole Star, Horus, they began to view Set as less important and Horus of greater significance. No doubt this led to conflicts. Set continued to be worshipped along the Nile, but it became clear that factions arose who desired to make Horus supreme. This ploy would be, once again, for political and material reasons. The movements of the astral bodies that corresponded with and symbolized these entities, such as the Pole Stars, and the Moon and Sun, were crucial to life along the Nile. These heavenly bodies were closely charted and calendared. Such movements provided a semblance of order in what would ordinarily seem like a chaotic and unkind world full of yearly flooding, terrific sandstorms and unbearable heat. By measuring the movements of such planetary bodies, those who later became regarded as priests of these bodies could determine when would be the most auspicious time for planting, reaping and harvesting. This was intrinsic to life along the Nile, and without it there was no life.
If, as happens frequently in history, some sort of natural calamity or disaster were to strike a particular culture, group or people, the priests would look towards the displeasure of the god behind any one of the various planetary bodies or elemental forces such as wind (which was represented by the Egyptian "Shu"). The priests would then determine that such deity needed to be propitiated so that order would return to the world. The priests would sometimes battle as to which god would be appeased, and during difficult transition times - for example, the movement north when Horus came to usurp Set in importance - these conflicts could become ugly and violent. Indeed, the priests would resort to all sorts of name-calling and propaganda to make sure their particular interpretation was set in stone, so to speak. In the case of Horus and Set, Set - who was once considered an equal of his twin brother Horus - became viewed as something bad or evil. Set, as "Prince of Darkness" and "Lord of the Underworld," came to be seen as an enemy of the people. This characterization also came about because of the fear of the dark and the insecurities felt throughout the night. But, as can be evidenced by the later story of the Greek god Hades, the Lord of the Underworld was not always, and did not continue to be, viewed by all peoples as evil. Hades was, in fact, simply another god doing his job. It was a certain bias that eventually led to the establishment of the Prince of Darkness and Lord of the Underworld as an evil and sinister character.
"Evil" is Subjective
And speaking of sinister, how many people realize that the word "sinister" actually means "left" in Romance languages? Here is a classic example of how cultural bias has attached a judgment upon something so simple and benign as a direction, view or aspect. And how did this judgment come about? Left-handers, for example, were considered dangerous to the social status quo because their use of the left appendage kept the creative, right side of the brain open, leading to new and dangerous ideas - indeed, to creativity and union with the creator itself. But because these new ideas upset the status quo and could lead to its reduction in wealth and position, left-handers, or "leftists," were considered bad and evil. Hence, they became "sinister."
It is possible that the word "evil" itself is also derived from something equally innocuous but through cultural bias has become judged as something bad. Some claim evil has its roots in "Eve," or the primary female. Things of Eve would be evil. In this circumstance of etymological development, the aggressive male ego actively worked to make things of Eve bad or "evil."
In any event, although it was not previously this way, and in some places he is still worshipped - leading critics to make claims of devil worship - Set came to be viewed as something bad and evil. He came to be seen as the cause of all problems to the peoples along the lower or northerly Nile. That he was not always viewed by all peoples as evil is exhibited by the fact that several Egyptian pharaohs over the centuries called themselves "Seti." The pharaoh was considered the living embodiment of deity, to rule in the earthly place of the entity, whether it was Ra, Horus, Osiris or Set. The Nile kingdoms have a long and colorful history of such traditions.
Horus and Set - Sound Familiar?
So, where is all this leading us and what does the Egyptian history have to do with the present interpretation of good and evil as defined by our current "religious" traditions? You may have guessed by now that Set, or Set-Anup, or Set-An, came to be called, "Satan." Likewise, Set's previously equal "brother" and twin aspect of the One God, Horus - also called "Iasus" and "the Krst," the "Light of the World" and the "Sun of God" that rescues the world from Darkness (Set) - has come to be viewed as All Good in the Judaized/ Hellenized/Romanized version now named "Jesus Christ." As we have seen, the "good" Iasus, or Horus, was not always considered an adversary to his "evil" brother Set, and today's story that the "Prince of Darkness" and "Lord of the Underworld" is an evil demon working against a good "Prince of Light" and "Lord of Heaven" was not always so. At one point, these two aspects of the One were equivalent in divinity. They became judged and deemed to be either good or evil because of political, environmental and egotistical motives. Hence, those of the South, the Dark Ones, became of the evil Set, or Satan, and those of the North, the Light Ones, became of the good Horus, or Jesus.
As it turns out, the entire notion that Darkness is evil (therefore South is bad) and Lightness is good (hence North is good) is revealed to be racist and political, and not at all based on revelation from any divinity. As has been shown, the entire good and evil, light and dark, God and Devil scenario has come about wholly through cultural and political bias, also not through the revelation from a purely good deity.
The lesson of all of this: Don't be too sure you know what good and evil are - and don't judge a person by the contents of The Book." |
