[Odd Musings] On Lucifer

Some of you might have read Satan's Plea. It's an attempt by me to look into how the Devil (full disclosure: I'm an atheist) would try to portray himself through out the Bible. How would he counter this book? Mainly I try to apply things known about human history (obviously skewed towards my own experiences in life) to this important narrative. But this odd musing is about the myriad of ways that idea of Satan (or the devil) has come about.

Now one can think about the topic and come up with multiple reasons for the devil. As a child I remember that many things in the natural world were considered agents of the devil (shatani) and though things have slightly changed in this more secular world, it seems that there are still evil things/people out there, though sometimes we try to be more nuanced or provide non-supernatural explanations for them. But the fear that things can arouse, or experiences still plays a part. That makes it easy to see how our ancestors on the plains of Africa must have felt when they came up against a more powerful animal, or a place where the signs of an ambush made one's spine tickle, or the fear of heights, or a crazed man, or a foreign man who might be dangerous, or something out there in the dark. All of these must have combined to a feeling that was associated with fear and thus the devil. From there I can see creating something to symbolize the devil, or evil spirits. And from there someone unified Satan with his demons.

What I want to focus on right now is the enemy within. The specific story in the Bible (and elsewhere) about Lucifer being cast out. Here we see something a little different than the above stories of an outside enemy. Here we have an enemy within your own tribe. I can imagine a few ways this meme would have arisen in our ancestors but the most interesting one is the challenger to the power, the chief of the tribe. In the story of casting out Lucifer I see this as the strongest meme. And within the warning of the Biblical tale I see a tale to conform (or at least not to shake the powers that be). In that sense, when one looks at the story like this, we can see that perhaps Lucifer was the precursor to us all (as in a reason for our development as humans and a reason for our advancement).

How? He was the first to challenge whatever status quo existed and what was constrictive to our growth as apes. Now, take this to the next level and I see (perhaps romantically) that he was the reason we started from a small tribe in Africa and spread to the whole of that continent, then to the whole of the world. One tribe grew too big, infighting occurred and the rebel was cast out to survive in the world. Slowly, bit by bit they forged to new areas and created new tribes, the same fight and casting out repeating, albeit with new actors, whenever things got too tight or stuffy (and each time it was never enough to just allow people to move along, that might have undermined the very narrative of the village on holy ground, therefore the powers that be had to cast those who were being thrown out in a bad light).

Now, I'm sure there are more factors at play here (some even contradictory). Some malevolent chief who merely wanted a scapegoat and the normal sacrifices weren't cutting it. Then he would point out some man on the fringes of the village and the cycle would move from there. Another matter is to look at the time of agriculture. Perhaps here that story of the castoff wasn't looked upon with disdain, but perhaps as the explorer. Here we can see as the society can have more people the rebellious forces that wouldn't have been so bad in a smaller setting could be devastating in a new town. Therefore it was necessary to highlight this story even more and thus cement the hierarchy that existed by calling this meme to rebel or ask for more from the leader as the root of all evil.

Your thoughts?