The "Twin Deity" Lie

Just recently, I became aware of an online conversation between some people who were acquainted with a friend of mine who passed away some twenty years ago. It seems that twenty years prior to his death he had done some crazy things, that put at least one of the conversants in Harm's way.

The one who started the conversation had blogged about an incident where my friend had, while inebriated, shot a gun in the direction of the protagonist, a self-proclaimed Satanist. The shots were actually fired randomly in the general direction of a house a block or more away, in a fit of misdirected rage. The Satanist, also blogging about this incident of two decades passed, claimed to have been avenged by the Devil two decades after the fact; presumably because she was an advocate of Satan worship. In her report, she stated that my friend had died 'mysteriously' in an alley, behind a dumpster, inferring that Satan had righted the wrongs years later, by killing my friend. She ended with, "Satan save the Queen", in that she claims to be some Devil worshiping "queen" of some kind. In actuality, my friend drank himself to death that day.

I wanted to interject my observations, but it seemed ill advised since I don't really know the individuals involved, nor do I have the full story of the death of my long-lost friend. Additionally, I trust religious zealots [of any way, shape or form] about as far as I can spit. Which quickly leads to my points. Satan, in this case, is portrayed as being more than a little schizophrenic. The drunken actions of my friend were certainly 'devilish' by any standard. I can, in a dark-humored way, imagine him explaining to the authorities that "the Devil made me do it", regarding random firing of a weapon in city limits. Furthermore, I frequently heard my friend say that he had a demon, and knew him by name. Does Satan kill one worshiper to benefit another? Does he punish a follower for acting in a way that more resembles an attempt at endearing the Devil than anything? There are some real problems here. It appears that Satan is very, very much like the very 'God' that I was raised to believe in by a psychotic parent, in a psychotically religious town.

So, after some more thought about this whole reading adventure, I decided that if one were to believe in these deities [and their common places in the old fables we are told], one would soon come to the conclusion that they are actually twins. Or, just as likely, the avenging God and the avenging Devil are one in the same. Now that I recall, I believe I heard someone once say that "God is schizophrenic." It does make sense, in context. Context aside, I do not believe any of this hogwash for a New York moment. To quote George Carlin, "It's all bullshit, and it's bad for ya."

I had never quite looked at these idiotic ideas in this light before. It tends to make the deities in question almost laughable. When looked at in this perspective they are actually preposterous.

Nick