Giving the Devil his Due

Looking upon the pearly face of Twitter today I found a trending topic- #thingsthedevilinvented.

Glancing among the humourous comments such as ‘the internet’, I found my first thought being ‘freedom’. So, darnits, let’s give the Devil his due and take a look at his gift to mankind (before he started getting all nasty about it).

Cast your mind back to le jardin originale, the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are chilling out, naked as the day they were brutally hewn out of soil/ribs respectively, infused with the spark and life and left to meander around. God says that his garden is all yours, so long as you don’t eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Sweet deal- do what God says, don’t ask questions, don’t seek knowledge. In other words, forget about free will and choosing your own destiny, just accept the provided enclosure like a good doggie. Along comes the serpent. Skipping over the logical conclusion that God must have made the serpent- her certainly gave him his current ‘armless body (upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life)- the slippery one sets about tempting Eve to take the apple of knowledge.

Stop right there, pal. Remember that the bible was written by men, and edited by men, for a thousand years. All the woman’s fault, is it? Disobeyed God to blunder into the Devil’s trap, did she?  Take your allegory and shove it up your ass, and have a go on mine. Eve, having more hidden depths than her male counterpart as women often do, was daring enough to take the advice of Satan (meaning the Enemy- not the Evil one, just the Enemy). She risked everything in order to discover knowledge and power that would liberate her and Adam from God’s playpen. Sure, they got chucked out into the cold, but they also got free will.

Cheers, the Devil!