The Devil — An Autobiography

1. The Riddle of the Riddle.

An arrogant monk sat encircled by a gaggle of tourists whom traveled from far off lands to uncover the secrets of the universe. The sly ascetic curled his lips into a Cheshire grin as the fools lined his basket with sweet fruits and piled silver coins high into his pot. When suddenly, a homeless boy in rags who slept in the alley politely interrupted the mystical street theater.

He implored: may I please have a scrap to eat, oh venerable sage? My dry tongue has never savored fresh juice before.

The irritated monk turned to him, and in his traditional pompous manner declared: Filthy little boy, your pitiful materialism disturbs my transmission to these truth-seekers. Food is nothing but an illusion, and hunger is merely ego. Nonetheless… as a mystic I do see reality as a riddle that has vexed my fellow monks and me for millennia. If you can demystify this eternal riddle, I will gift you my freshest mango.

The precious, honest child looked back at the monk and all the tourists, and asked with a confused face: what’s a riddle?

And everyone within a thousand miles instantly became enlightened.

2. The Earliest Nomenclature for God.

It may surprise the reader to discover that the moniker devil and the term evil share no etymological relationship, especially since the letters in evil fit neatly inside devil. It may further surprise them that the moniker god and the term good share no etymological relationship either, especially since the letters in god fit neatly inside good! Admittedly, both pairs seem like they should hold a common ancestral lineage but factually do not. Remarkably, they somehow mutated over millennia to ultimately look and sound similar despite their disparate origins.

The earliest documented religion, Hinduism, venerated a species of god called deva in Sanskrit, which now acts as the foundation for theistic English nomenclature. Deva in turn became divus and deus in Greek, as well as the name for their patriarchal god Zeus. The Romans conquered Greece and Latinized the pair into divinus and theos, which laid the grounds for divine and deity in English. This clear lineage remains generally accepted and undisputed amongst etymologists and philologists.

This matters because many foolish satanists falsely cite the Hindu deva as the origin for the words devil and evil—an unequivocal error according to the aforementioned etymology. They merely spy a superficial similarity in appearance between the terms and presume shared etymology. In summary, neither devil nor evil share etymology, nor do they derive from deva.

3. Origins of Diabolism & Satanism.

The ancient Greeks employed a secular term diaballein (διαβάλλειν) which mundanely meant to throw across, as in to throw a rock across a river. However, the notion to cross—to pass from one side to another—became synonymous with treason, that is, to act falsely, to switch allegiance from friend to enemy, to be a traitor. This concept still prevails today in that to cross or to double-cross a person signifies infidelity and betrayal.

The universal moniker devil is rooted in this fundamental primitive taboo. The devil personifies treachery. He epitomizes apostasy.

The Greek term diaballein normalized into diabolos as an epithet for any double-crosser, traitor, accuser, liar, slanderer, and backstabber. It Latinized into diabolus, then turned into diavolo in Italian, diable in French, diablo in Spanish, teufel in German, and finally devil in English. The monolithic mantle Devil—which has legendary name recognition with every human being on Earth regardless of their ethnicity—is best defined intellectually as The Apostate or The Disavower.

Satan means adversary in Hebrew; it generally refers to an identity or character type in the same vein as antagonist, nemesis, rival, enemy, etc. The two most notorious monikers in history—Greek devil and Hebrew satan—overlap in the sense that they both denote an entity who stands in enmity or opposition toward someone else. Nevertheless, the two do not possess exactly the same meaning—devil carries a duplex significance. A satan acts adversarially; whereas, a devil betrays first and acts adversarially second, particularly through false accusation—as indicated by the original Greek word diaballein meaning to throw across or to bad mouth.

The masochistic middle child in the Abrahamic family of religions, namely Christianity, utilizes the devil theme with iconic precision. It portrays the motif of social betrayal and political mutiny as the very prologue to the entire Christian Armageddon saga, in a polynymous episode entitled Luciferic Rebellion, War in Heaven, and Fall From Grace. Long story short, the high angel Lucifer disavows allegiance to the god Yahweh, revolts against the kingdom of heaven as the adversary Satan, and roves the earth slandering Yahweh, wherefore he solidifies into the Devil. To this point, Christian lore even underscores the early Greek motif of double-crossing when it explicitly calls the Devil by the eponym Accuser!

4. Christianity’s Abuse of Greek Philosophy.

As an aside, honored Greek philosophers like Aristotle in particular innovated the hypothesis behind monotheism through his signature idea of a prime mover and first cause. This Greek monistic tradition laid the intellectual floorboard for future Christian and Islamic versions of a single creator-destroyer deity. In fact, Greek philosophy faced the threat of extinction after the fall of the Roman empire, but Muslims diligently conserved the knowledge through meticulous transmission and translation into Arabic. At that time and still today, the Caliphs—Islamic theocrats—prohibited scientific and political philosophy for its heresy, but nonetheless tolerated certain Aristotelian logic, perhaps due to its monistic, absolutist theme.

Christianity spread across Europe so virally in the Middle Ages because its ontological template of a monistic god and devil showcased some of the best, most cutting edge Greek metaphysics! In hindsight, that template appears archaic, but in that era it revolutionized human thought.

Do not mischaracterize this as an apologetic for Christian theology. The author would merely like to suggest that it would be more surprising if Christianity did not penetrate Europe, as its keenest ideas originated in the society of greatest genius at that time. Theologians revere Italian saint Thomas Aquinas as their champion of monotheistic logic; he furnished his five proofs for the existence of god, which borrow heavily from Aristotle. Furthermore, the apostle Paul went so far as to pen the New Testament in Greek. And as previously elaborated, the character type of the Devil is rooted in Greek diabolos, the idea of a slanderous backstabber. In summary, this does not mean the ancient Greeks themselves conceived or perpetuated Christianity—it means that the Jews and Romans blatantly misappropriated the Greeks!

5. Origin of Demonology.

Consider the oft-maligned term demon. Of course, it descends back to ancient Greece too. Philosophers expounded the moral premise of daimon in reference to the relationship between character and destiny. The Presocratic sage Heraclitus declared, “Ethos anthropos daimon” (character is fate). Greek daimon turned into Latin daemon, and then English demon. Aristotle theorized that dedication to virtue caused eudaimonia—happiness or good spirit. Later in medieval Europe, demon came to signify an evil being synonymous with devil or satan.

6. Deification & Diabolization.

This etymology exemplifies with lucidity the way one civilization would take a heretical concept or mythical being from another civilization and bastardize it. In fact, this adversarial tradition of misappropriation has become known aptly by the eponyms demonization and diabolization. That being said, the opposite also occurred; tribes borrowed mythical beings and glorified them in a tradition known aptly as deification and beatification. Deify means to honor as a god, and beatification means to make blessed.

From a distance, religion looks like one long plagiarism.

7. Moral Relativism.

Hesiod distinguishes between good days and evil days, not knowing that every day is like every other.
—Heraclitus, Fragment 94

Above and beyond the exact history of these three most common monikers for evil: devil, satan, and demon, the reader needs to recognize that their usage only holds validity relative to the perspective of the person whom uses it. In other words, Yahweh views Lucifer as Satan, but Lucifer also views Yahweh as Satan at the same time. The moral judgement implied in each term is relative, not absolute. The narrative of religious mythology almost always portrays the belligerent struggle between good and evil from the partisan perspective of the so-called good god—essentially whichever deity fights for the faith, rather than against it.

An example of relativism in modern context: Yahweh amounts to a genocidal theocratic dictator whom rules from an iron throne in his kingdom. Given today’s classical liberal values of free speech and individual rights… does it surprise anyone that Lucifer—deemed the wisest angel—revolted against Yahweh’s totalitarian state?

Does this tale not accidentally depict Lucifer, aka the Devil, as the good guy in actuality, as the libertine, the lionheart, the champion? The authors of this novel penned it in the pre-to-early Middle Age when slaves and peasants venerated human royalty as demigods; plebes still honored the polity of monarchical kingdoms. Notwithstanding, Western society has now secularized politics and insists on nothing less than democracy—another Greek concept, by the way. In light of this radical transition from inherited royalty to elected representation, the whole Luciferic Rebellion mythos is turned on its head!

Lucifer transforms into the revolutionary protagonist whilst Yahweh turns into the tyrannical antagonist and Jesus the sycophantic bootlicker.

Point being: moral judgement remains relative to the valuation by which its measured. Ancient moral valuation judged Lucifer to be the Devil; whereas, contemporary moral valuation judges Yahweh to be the Devil!

Moral judgement is relative to valuation, and valuation is relative to perspective, i.e., moral relativism aka perspectivism. Fixed or absolute morality does not exist, and perspective valuation cannot be avoided.

Perspectivism acts as the bedrock for realism.

8. Classical Liberalism of the Enlightenment.

A fundamental war wages at this very moment on planet Earth in the very heart of humanity. It underlies all intellectual battles. It can be abbreviated to:

• Pluralism vs. monism
• Perspectivism vs. absolutism
• Individualism vs. tribalism
• Freedom vs. prohibition

Either everybody is entitled to their own point of view, or everybody must conform to a universal worldview—usually under the threat of capital punishment by a religious terrorist. The relative term liberal has become mired in a maelstrom of political misappropriation. Classical liberalism aspires for liberation away from archaic, monistic, absolutistic, institutionalized tribalism. Authentic liberalism champions pluralism, perspectivism, and individualism—all synonyms for the same thing: freedom.

Who qualifies as more enlightened: The Devil or God?

The father of The Enlightenment in Germany, Immanuel Kant, defined enlightenment as thinking for oneself. The Enlightenment philosophers gave birth to classical liberalism. Ergo, enlightenment and liberalism hold hands; one might view enlightenment as a euphemism for liberalism.

9. The First Line of the Bill of Rights.

For an epic example of Enlightenment-style liberalism, look at the most controversial nation-state in history: The United States of America. Its colonial conquest and slavery aside—the political state incorporates the archetypal Enlightenment values familiar to the 18th century. Its founders created the first explicitly secular nation ever and carefully inserted freethought principles throughout its central document called the “Bill of Rights” to the Constitution. For its day and age, no better legal document had yet been writ to law; its number one amendment defends signature liberal values with the clarity of crystal.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
—United States Constitution, Amendment 1

Do not miss the critical importance of the first line, wherein the author James Madison—under counsel of Thomas Jefferson—declares that the legislature cannot pass any law that “respects an establishment of religion.” He explicitly defines the United States of America as secular and unreligious. Alas, any time a legislator calls for a bill faithful to Christianity or Islam, a genuine liberal can cringe with disgust at how unscrupulously that bastardizes the spirit of the American founding.

Pause and reflect on that one more moment: the most famous legal document in world history demands secularism—to not respect established religion—in its very first line!

The reader needs to realize that the British Empire and its monarch King George III certainly judged the American Revolution and its Founding Fathers as nothing but Devils, Satans, traitors, and adversaries. Nobody questions the moral righteousness of the American Revolution, but everyone hypocritically questions the moral righteousness of the Luciferic Revolution, when in essence both revolts expound the exact same values!

As a stern warning though, in the three hundred years since the Enlightenment, liberalism as a political movement has lost its way and even regressed backward upon itself, the values turned illiberal. Nevertheless, at its root, liberalism will always denote pluralism.

10. Become a Living Devil.

The Devil embodies liberation. He thinks freely, speaks freely, and socializes freely. He personifies enlightenment. He iconifies freedom. Tribal morality judges apostasy and heresy as the two gravest evils, hence their first two commandments always prohibit false idols and sacrilege. What the Individual considers good, the Tribe judges to be evil.

Since time immemorial, humanity has seen the world through the eyes of God—the eyes of the Tribe.

Dear reader, it is time now for humanity to view the world through the eyes of the Devil—to use one’s own eyes.

It is time now to become the Devil.