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God's Prideful Ass

Suppose (as I'm sure you have) that good can come from pride--that sometimes, without pride, more evil would come into the world. Fighting evil with evil, as it were.

I'd like to hear what those situations are. In most likelihood, anything good that apparently came from pride actually came from the pursuit of Quality. Indeed, the pursuit of Quality often appears prideful, but Quality is good because it is skillful, without pride.

Enough about that. I've talked about that enough, I think, so allow me to explain it with Christianity of all things. You'll never hear this in church (at least I never did), but the Bible--if you actually read it instead of take some starry-eyed disciple's word for it--implies that Satan is the embodiment of pride. Satan, in his pride, rejected God and brought pride down to Earth. Humanity, thus infected, has been a mud pit of evil ever since, and will continue to be until He returns in all His glory to establish His Kingdom. Even to the end, after all prophecies have been proven true, Satan will reject God and believe he can win. Such illogical behavior can only be the result of total pride (which is impossible to imagine). From the beginning of everything, it is pride that has always turned people away from God (and if it's to be believed, that includes me).

"But Phlegm," the newly analytical Christian screeches, "If God is a jealous god, and jealousy is just another form of pride, doesn't that make God prideful, too? If so, either God is flawed or pride can't be such a bad thing."

Forget your pastor's words for a moment (I know it's hard; even I still hear them) and consider that the phrase "our God is a jealous god" is utterly wrong. He's not jealous. He doesn't have so-called wrath. It's just either you're with Him or you're not, and it's up to you--even though everything's been predetermined--to make the choice. Your eternal damnation isn't His fury. He's supposedly sad at losing your soul. It's just that--thanks to Satan--this lake of eternal fire is the default destination of your soul and your only way out of it is to cling to Him.

Put that way, I don't see any contradiction. Any wrath or jealousy displayed by God in the Bible doesn't come across as pride at all, and should thus not be labeled as such. Instead, it should be recognized as normal operand conditioning: pursue Good and have eternal life, pursue Evil and suffer in Hell. Punishing bad behavior is not an exercise in pride, and it's unfortunate that Christianity--which uses EVERY meme trick imaginable--must use fear of eternal damnation as a motivator.

It's also unfortunate that Christianity itself is so motivated by pride, but eh, maybe another time.

posted by Phlegm at 5/11/2004