I want to start a series of posts loosely organized around the quite-simple (ha) theme of "how the questions of evil affect my epistemology," but I don't have time to get all my thoughts out right this moment. For now, an introductory teaser:
The greatest achievement the devil ever made was convincing people he doesn't exist.
So said someone famous.
I, however, think the devil would be smarter than that. People who aren't agitated
for a cause are pretty useless for anything the devil would want to do.
Much better to convince people that fighting him will be effective
using technique XYZ, which doesn't actually do anything at all. The
fear/tribalism response is one of the most powerful instincts humans
have, and can be rallied for all kinds of purposes. Make people spin
their wheels, believing they are fighting evil, when actually they
aren't. Or, even better, convince them to do evil things, ironically
believing they are fighting evil.
THAT, friends, would be the devil's
greatest achievement.
