The Opposite Of God
What is the opposite of God?
Some posit a huge and terrible evil, a force of nature equal in power to God, such that the two are locked in immortal combat for all of eternity, and for every good, there is a contrasting evil. (In other words, Ahriman.)
Others posit a rebel angel, a supervillan of vast scale, whose desires are debased, whose imagination is devious, whose schemes are cunning, and whose rebellion is destined to fail. (In other words, Satan.)
I propose nothing so grand or vast as the opposite of God.
In fact, I propose that the opposite of God is ... Nothing. And Satan serves it.
Nothing has no desires, Nothing has no strength. Nothing has no thoughts, no existence, no anything.
Nothing has negatives of all the positive attributes of God. Far from being omnipotent like God, Nothing has nullpotence, impotence. Whereas God is creative, Nothing is sterile. Where God is omnibenevolent, Nothing is omniambivalent, omni-apathetic.
God is pure, and nothing can alter Him. He is a rock. Nothing is impure, and anything can alter it.
God is love, outward-directed, other-oriented, and infinitely passionate. Nothing is fear, inward-directed, self-oriented, and infinitely uncaring.
Satan does serve self, but in doing so, he has Nothing at his core. Having tricked humanity into following self and thus Nothing, he has no reward, no crown, Nothing to pat him on the head and say, "good job." Nothing cares nothing about what Satan does for its cause.
When someone has a selfishness, if they pay it no attention, if they do nothing for it, it is as if it does not exist. If, however, someone does something about that selfishness, they have empowered Nothing in their lives, and they will reap its rewards.
I say all this on a conceptual-philosophical level, for after all, if Nothing were some spirit, it would be something, not nothing. Even my description of Nothing is not Nothing itself, it is only a description. The description is vague necessarily, because after all I am describing Nothing.
The closest things to Nothing to which we can point concretely appear in seven realms of human experience:
The Physical: Entropy, the wasting of energy and the ruining of potential.
The Logical: Nonsense, the lack of truth or information or logic.
The Emotional: Uncaring, the inward focus that cuts off all contact with others.
The Spiritual: Madness, the chaos of thought and feeling that all rational beings fear.
The Animal: Wounded beast, dying, growling and snapping at anything trying to help.
The Scientific: Broken tools and bad data, unusable to any and all.
The Moral: Wasting of freedom, conformity and laziness and actionless rebellion.
These things are not some great evil, but a sloughed-off skin of evil, in the end powerless unless someone feeds it; a singularity that pulls in and pulls in, giving nothing back.
God is the opposite of Nothing; He is Everything. Change, Truth, Love, Wisdom, Life, Innovation, Freedom. He is like a fountain that never runs out of water, a fire that never dies. He gives and gives, and gives. He values our ability to choose above all else, for that is what makes us the image of Him. He knows everything there is to know about Nothing, and has nothing to do with it.
Some posit a huge and terrible evil, a force of nature equal in power to God, such that the two are locked in immortal combat for all of eternity, and for every good, there is a contrasting evil. (In other words, Ahriman.)
Others posit a rebel angel, a supervillan of vast scale, whose desires are debased, whose imagination is devious, whose schemes are cunning, and whose rebellion is destined to fail. (In other words, Satan.)
I propose nothing so grand or vast as the opposite of God.
In fact, I propose that the opposite of God is ... Nothing. And Satan serves it.
Nothing has no desires, Nothing has no strength. Nothing has no thoughts, no existence, no anything.
Nothing has negatives of all the positive attributes of God. Far from being omnipotent like God, Nothing has nullpotence, impotence. Whereas God is creative, Nothing is sterile. Where God is omnibenevolent, Nothing is omniambivalent, omni-apathetic.
God is pure, and nothing can alter Him. He is a rock. Nothing is impure, and anything can alter it.
God is love, outward-directed, other-oriented, and infinitely passionate. Nothing is fear, inward-directed, self-oriented, and infinitely uncaring.
Satan does serve self, but in doing so, he has Nothing at his core. Having tricked humanity into following self and thus Nothing, he has no reward, no crown, Nothing to pat him on the head and say, "good job." Nothing cares nothing about what Satan does for its cause.
When someone has a selfishness, if they pay it no attention, if they do nothing for it, it is as if it does not exist. If, however, someone does something about that selfishness, they have empowered Nothing in their lives, and they will reap its rewards.
I say all this on a conceptual-philosophical level, for after all, if Nothing were some spirit, it would be something, not nothing. Even my description of Nothing is not Nothing itself, it is only a description. The description is vague necessarily, because after all I am describing Nothing.
The closest things to Nothing to which we can point concretely appear in seven realms of human experience:
The Physical: Entropy, the wasting of energy and the ruining of potential.
The Logical: Nonsense, the lack of truth or information or logic.
The Emotional: Uncaring, the inward focus that cuts off all contact with others.
The Spiritual: Madness, the chaos of thought and feeling that all rational beings fear.
The Animal: Wounded beast, dying, growling and snapping at anything trying to help.
The Scientific: Broken tools and bad data, unusable to any and all.
The Moral: Wasting of freedom, conformity and laziness and actionless rebellion.
These things are not some great evil, but a sloughed-off skin of evil, in the end powerless unless someone feeds it; a singularity that pulls in and pulls in, giving nothing back.
God is the opposite of Nothing; He is Everything. Change, Truth, Love, Wisdom, Life, Innovation, Freedom. He is like a fountain that never runs out of water, a fire that never dies. He gives and gives, and gives. He values our ability to choose above all else, for that is what makes us the image of Him. He knows everything there is to know about Nothing, and has nothing to do with it.
posted by BlueNight at
4:49 PM
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