The Scriptorum:
I think the genius of Paradise Lost and Downfall (aside from their literary and cinematic craft) is that they are cautionary tales. They portray the everyman and all of our potential for evil. This poem and movie should be like mirrors held up to our faces, showing us the reality of what we really are and can be. It should not cause us to want to be like Hitler or Satan, but rather to frighten us away from that potential that lies like a coiled serpent inside each and every one of us. Know your enemy (in this case yourself) and perhaps that will be the way to overcome it.
and...
Simple observation of human nature, particularly in more refined and advanced cultures, reveals that natural morality or moralism seems to be the primary way that unbelievers hide from God and guilt and cover their badness as a way to not experience shame. In that sense, morality has become a monolithic defense against seeing oneself truly and opening to one’s need for God.
I think the genius of Paradise Lost and Downfall (aside from their literary and cinematic craft) is that they are cautionary tales. They portray the everyman and all of our potential for evil. This poem and movie should be like mirrors held up to our faces, showing us the reality of what we really are and can be. It should not cause us to want to be like Hitler or Satan, but rather to frighten us away from that potential that lies like a coiled serpent inside each and every one of us. Know your enemy (in this case yourself) and perhaps that will be the way to overcome it.
and...
Simple observation of human nature, particularly in more refined and advanced cultures, reveals that natural morality or moralism seems to be the primary way that unbelievers hide from God and guilt and cover their badness as a way to not experience shame. In that sense, morality has become a monolithic defense against seeing oneself truly and opening to one’s need for God.
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