An Interview with Satan

Reporter’s notes:

In the literature of the major world religions is a prominent recurring theme concerning the existence of some sort of demon or devil who is constantly mixing it up with the Almighty’s creations.  It seems odd that such a character could exist in the Creator’s perfect universe, but there he is, Satan, contradicting logic and confounding the faithful at every turn.  This trouble-maker’s supposed existence has been the inspiration for a lot of heated debate for centuries.

Anyone that causes that much grief must have some interesting views or he wouldn’t attract that much negative attention.  Why has he been kicked around for so long and why does everyone insist on blaming him for their troubles?  Can it be Satan got a bad rap?  Isn’t it time he be allowed to tell his side of the story without being shouted down by all of the irrational religious hysterics?
To prove my point I decided to arrange an interview with the elusive but apparently ever-present Satan.  I wasn’t sure he would agree to an interview but he seemed to be intrigued with the possibility of a quiet chat away from the heat of his duties.

To get the ball rolling I gave the devil a copy of the bible and he laughed - loud and long.  I thought, well, that is the sort of response you would expect out of the devil, isn’t it?  If you are a religious person you might think so.  I am not religious in the conventional sense but I was exposed to it as a kid and I can honestly say the devil’s opinion of the bible is pretty much in character.

As one might imagine, the devil doesn’t think much of the Christian’s holy word or any of the other so-called holy texts.  In fact he told me, without even opening a page, that the bible is a bunch of bunk written by clueless “holy” men, more intent on promoting their own version of piety and in keeping the masses under control than in actually expressing the gospel of Christ.

I believe it is possible to learn from one’s supposed adversaries so I decided to question Satan, on behalf of all religions, on his views about his role in world events.

The interview:

Reporter:
Do you feel you have the range of powers attributed to you by the Christian clergy?

Satan:
If I had that kind of power I would kick God off of his throne and take over now.  It should be obvious to Christians that the clergy uses my “evil” influence to keep the masses in line and to assure themselves of a job.

Reporter:
So you think your influence on people is overrated?

Satan:
Of course.  People should realize the game is rigged.  It has always been that way and will always be that way.  For Hell’s sake, God is omnipotent and I can tell you from personal experience He is Mr. Perfect in every way.  He is the Supreme Planner and His Creation is the Supreme Design.  I hate to say this but the plan is so good that there is not even any room in it for evil.  That means I am actually unemployed and have been reduced to temp work for eternity.

Reporter:
No evil? That’s pretty amusing coming from someone such as yourself.  You sound as if you have the inside track on the divine dealings of God.  Would you care to enlighten me further?

Satan:
Inside track?  I was on the executive planning committee until I got kicked off for insubordination.  There was this intense debate between God and the other members over the most crucial point of the plan which……..

Reporter:
Wait a minute….You mean God let other beings in on His decision making process?

Satan:
Yeah, sure.  To my way of thinking that is one of His bigger faults.  He insists on letting everyone have their say in the way the creation is set up.  In fact this fault is built into the universe He set up for humanity.  I mean, how can you maintain any kind of control if humans are free to run off in any direction they want?

Reporter:
You are overwhelming me with ideas here. I don’t know which to pursue first.  I am intrigued by this committee you mentioned and the possibility other supreme beings consult with God.  If God created a universe just for humans, does that mean there are other universes inhabited by other species?

Satan:
I know you are not used to thinking in the kind of terms divine beings use but I will try to explain in a way you can grasp.  First of all, humans have adopted this very myopic point of view that assumes they are the only game around, but I assure you there is much more than meets your present worm’s eye view.  I won’t get into the committee idea just yet because it is irrelevant to your concerns but I can shed some darkness - forgive me, I couldn’t resist that – on the universe you assume you inhabit all by yourself.
It is important that you understand this point – I represent an idea.  I am a metaphor for humanity’s ignorance.  I am not a real being in your terms.  In the great play the Divine One writes, I play the part of the opposition, or the bad guy if you wish.  If you continue with the theatrical production analogy, I always play the part of the so-called “evil” person.  The term “evil” must be understood as temporary and has no real lasting basis in God’s Divine Play.  Mr. Goody Two Shoes is a firm believer in the redemption of even the most seemingly corrupt person.

Reporter:
What is the purpose of evil?  It seems to be an inescapable and destructive part of our lives.

Satan:
God intended my “evilness” as a learning tool.  I am paired up with the concept of good to give the play an all important interactive element.  These opposing concepts are really part of the same wholeness built into the Creation.  This is where the big argument between God and the rest of the planning committee became quite intense.
To be honest I let my role as the opposing force of evil interfere with my position as a divine planner and it cost me a seat at God’s table.  Anyway, in order to give the players a chance to produce a credible performance, God argued that absolute free will was the only way to go.  He is a big fan of ad libbing and believed that freedom would give the play that unplanned, spontaneous look so favored by him.  I argued that giving humans this kind of leeway without any directorial control might allow them to develop their roles but would also lead to a lot of trouble and grief for the performers.

Reporter:
It appears you were correct.  We are on the verge of obliterating ourselves and our planet at the moment.  That’s not such a good way to end the play when the audience becomes part of the tragedy.  Without an audience or actors there can be no play. Hmmmm.

Satan:
You get my point and I might add that this would be a big no-no with God if humans were to carry the play to that extreme.  You see, God is all about the totally voluntary spontaneous act and anything that tends to inhibit this creative play really annoys Him.

Reporter:
Its my guess we have annoyed him quite a bit.

Satan:
Well, it is a surprise you have chosen to totally ignore your spiritual heritage in favor of the extreme limitations most of you have adopted.  No one could predict humans would try to isolate themselves from their environment and pretend they are at war with a nature that is fundamentally indivisible. Neither did it seem likely humans would surrender their inherent freedom and allow themselves to be dominated by crass materialism.

Reporter:
This is all very interesting but where does the biblical Jesus story fit into all of this?

Satan:
It’s time to clear out the bible’s dead wood.  According to the bible, I met Jesus, and as the story goes, he scored points on me.  It’s a good fairy tale at most but does not even begin to reflect the reality that underlies your world.
The historical Jesus was an okay guy but that’s not the point.  Like me, Christ is a member of the executive planning committee.  He is not a real physical being nor was he ever meant to be.  His role in the divine play is similar to mine.  He volunteered to be, in your terms, a go-between or a metaphor to represent all that is good in the divine spiritual nature of humanity.

Reporter:
Wait a minute.  Are you claiming Christ was not born into the world to save it?

Satan:
Not in the manner in which Christians believe.  To understand this confusing concept it is necessary to fill you in on a few hidden details.  First of all, Christians, and in fact, all of humanity have a secret that they have been hiding from themselves for centuries.  The reasons for this deceptive behavior I will get into later, but the main point is this – the human species believes itself to be separate from the rest of creation.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  You and all of your kind have your origins in a common ground from which all things spring.  Some of the more enlightened call it the Temple of the Hidden Domain or the Kingdom of Heaven.  You are God’s protégés, so to speak, and cannot escape your divinity no matter how hard you try.

Reporter:
Forgive me, but this is beginning to sound like a rehash of new age ideas.

Satan:
You can call it whatever you wish.  Christians use the same argument to try to discredit the validity of the message.  That is understandable since the so-called new age ideas are a product of the devil you know.  Ha! Ha!  That is precisely why Christians should take off their blinders and openly examine challenges to their beliefs.  That is why I am the devil.  My job is to provoke humanity into self-examination.  That is the only way of discovering the truth about your selves and revealing long buried knowledge.

Reporter:
The truth?  How would we know it if it is the truth?  You are going to have a tough time convincing Christians they are divine.  They tend to be very suspicious of your honesty, you know.  They have that whole sinful nature issue that they have to deal with and they are going to view your opinions as just another ploy to lure them into more sin.

Satan:
Truth in your terms is merely the accepted fiction of the moment, something that everyone has agreed to acknowledge as a universal in your 3 dimensional space.  Truth in the terms of the Creator is the knowledge that there can never be one fixed answer to His Infinite Creation, nor is there any way of defining the infinity of All That Is.
Anyone who has the hubris to claim to speak for God does not realize how hard we all laugh at such ignorant conceit.  The truth is you form your reality, individually and en masse, from a literally limitless variety of choices.  You are given total freedom to act out the play in any manner you choose, and under God’s script, there can be no set conclusion to this continuously unfolding drama.  I suspect you would alter your roles dramatically if you were to realize this.

Reporter:
Whoa!  Let’s back up here.  I can agree that freedom is about choice but how can you claim we actually form our reality?  Christians will never buy it.  That type of supreme vanity is one of Christianity’s cardinal sins. Anyone who believes in God will label such fantastic claims as heresy.

Satan:
That is one of many possible responses but doesn’t necessarily make it so.  Christians may make it a sin but others who are willing to examine and embrace this liberating message will benefit greatly.  God smiles at your misguided efforts to put him, and ultimately, yourself, in a straight jacket of narrow views.  It doesn’t really matter if you believe me, but it does matter a great deal if you believe I have influence over you.  Making me your scapegoat has not worked and passing the buck to someone else will not help either.  God has given you the most incredible gift of all and rather than graciously accepting it, you have chosen to reject it.  He has given you the unlimited freedom and power to guide your life for yourself.  I told Him not to do it but He insisted.

Reporter:
Most people have trouble running their daily lives and you are telling me we are capable of creating our lives in any way we want!  Explain to me how it is possible to create our lives without God’s help?

Satan:
Well, the bible has not been much help in this respect because you generally do not put much faith in any spiritual explanation outside of the bible.  Like I said, Christ’s gospel has been distorted but his original function was to convince humanity of the awesome power of their spiritual origins.  This one beautiful quote escaped editing because the so-called holy men did not understand its implications.  “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all else will be added unto you.”
Essentially it means look within yourself and know that you have the power to lead a rich and rewarding life in the here and now.  Since many of you put more faith in scientific explanations, let me phrase it this way.  From a quantum physics point of view, Christ’s kingdom of heaven corresponds roughly to the hidden domain of the quantum wave function.  The kingdom of heaven is not a place on any map or location somewhere out there where God sits on his throne passing judgment; it is a nonlocal realm in quantum physics terms.  Christ referred to this non-locality as the kingdom of heaven because it is the transcendent spiritual realm of God’s ever-unfolding creativity and limitless possibilities.

Reporter:
Perhaps if enlightened Christians were to publish a new bible using physics terminology it would help them overcome centuries of ingrained religious training.

Satan:
That would be a good start but first they must break free of their limited view points before they can begin to restructure their literature.  must discard the notion that Christ was a historical figure born to redeem them.  That is just a clever dodge early Christians built into the bible because they were afraid to face the responsibilities inherent in learning to accept their divinity.  You don’t need a Jesus figure to redeem you; God has given you the freedom and the power to do that for yourself.

Reporter:
I’m afraid most people are not ready to face the awesome implications of actually being self-responsible.

Satan:
Everything I have been saying is validated by your quantum physics.  It would be to your immense benefit to pull your heads out of the sand of ignorance and begin a long overdue exploration of its implications.  Your consciousness, or your spiritual nature, is the agent that creates the world in which you have your current existence.  There is no object in space-time without a conscious subject observing it!

Reporter:
Ah, the old problem. Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if no one is present to hear it?

Satan:
Exactly. How would you answer that question?

Reporter:
If I am interpreting you correctly, then the tree, the forest and sound does not exist for me unless I am there to observe it.  I become the creater of the phenomenon by observing it and I guess that makes me almost god-like.

Satan:
Bravo!  You get an A on your physics exam and more importantly you have opened a long shut door through which I would encourage you to step.  Eh, eh! Notice how cleverly I steered you into committing the sin of vanity.  Ha! Ha!

Reporter:
Your diabolical laughter is unsettling, even though I intellectually accept most of your arguments.  However, I realize you are making fun of my ignorance.  Its your job, right?  How would you explain other persons being present in the forest and reporting the occurrence of its sound to me?  How can the forest exist for them and not me?

Satan:
Its good that you are thinking for yourself.  I can see you are wondering how humans can create the universe when I have said God is the original creator.  God created the framework of your physical existence and the initial condition of free will but he left it up to you to fill in the details of the play.  To answer your question you have to realize you have your basic existence in Christ’s kingdom of heaven, a spiritual realm or if you prefer, the hidden domain of the quantum wave function.  In this realm all consciousness is interconnected and interacts freely

Reporter:
I guess you could say each individual consciousness is a church unto itself, a temple of the hidden domain of heaven, inviolate yet free to interact with all other individuals to create this reality we inhabit together.

Satan:
Yes!  The spirit of Christ or divinity was born within man when God created the human race and set up a free will universe in which all humans could explore their creativity and move on to the next level of reality if they cut the mustard.  If they believe God is divine then they must believe, as God’s creation, they can also aspire to divinity.  They are not limited to being sinful unless they so choose.  They must believe that God embraces His creation in the most intimate manner and rejoices, not in a species that thinks it is flawed, but in one who reflects His eternal glory.

Reporter:
You should write that down.  It would make a great sermon.  Who could have guessed Satan could be so inspiring, but what are you doing tooting God’s horn?  Isn’t it your job to oppose God’s policies?

Satan:
I am doing penance so I can get back on the executive planning committee.  I must complete my task of “evil” before I can be accepted back into the inner circle.  God needs my input.

Reporter:
Why would he need any further input?  You have already said his plan is perfect.


Satan:
That’s true but I have come up with other perfect plans I think he should consider.  Besides, you won’t believe the perks that come with being a member of the executive committee.
I am also an excellent slogan writer.  How about this:  Seek the kingdom of heaven first, look within yourself.  Christ would like that one.  After all, if you choose Christ, you are in effect acknowledging the kingdom of heaven that is inherent within your spiritual nature.
This is a truly scary proposition for the ignorant mind to comprehend and I have tried for eons to scare you into turning to your own inner self for guidance.  That is the message contained in the bible’s labyrinth of distortions.  One of the most beautiful passages in the bible refers to this truth but was edited out centuries ago.  It seems the so-called holy men preferred to believe their version of the truth over Christ’s.
I objected to this assignment because it tended to create a stereotype I have had trouble erasing.  I am really not evil at all.  After all, I was on God’s executive committee, just like Christ but we play our parts so well that we get lost in the role all the time.
As long as you remain afraid of me you will remain afraid of yourself for I am a projection of yourself. When you accept me for what I am, you will be able to banish fear and ignorance and accept your divine nature as a reality.

Prologue

At this point Satan excused himself to attend to the senseless wars popping up all over the mideast.  The minions of the U S imperial government are keeping him very busy but he promised to return for another interview at a later date.