I sure hope that thread title isn’t too broad.
Anyway, I’ve a friend who insists that good is not, in and of itself, an adjective. He insists likewise for evil. The way he sees it, each is an entity.
I maintain that makes just as much (or little) sense as personifying blue or green or small or lazy or any other adjective. My point is that both good and evil are just adjectives, qualities if you will.
So, back to the question: why the need to personify ONLY those two?
Well, because they’re opposites, and people jes’ naturally seem to like to divide things up into opposites–yin/yang, male/female, black/white, etc.
There’s a theory somewhere that this interesting habit has something to do with us being bipedal, bifurcated beings. Carl Sagan? Carl Jung? Can’t think of who it was.
Besides, after Good and Evil, what’s left? Mediocrity? The Divine Personification of the So-So? The God of It’ll Do?
There are a lot of opposites which aren’t personified, though.
“God of It’ll Do?” Heck, I think there just might be more than a few folks worshipping that one!
I don’t know why. Although personally, I think that colours really should be personified. For some reason, I always thought that green should be a short, weedy little character - pretty cheeky too.
This is just a thought, but maybe it’s because good and evil evoke so much emotion. Personification is just another way of trying to understand the things that move us. And human beings have a strong desire to make sense of things…It’s what we do. It’s what we’re doing here at midnight.
A case might be made that good and evil weren’t personified at all but the other way round. Emotionalised?
When dualism was invented the persons (well, Gods really) already existed.
When the Persians chose Ahuramazda to be the supreme god it naturally followed that his deeds were good and those of The Other (Ahriman) not.
As humans, we tend to personify ideas and anthropomorphize objects. I don’t think this is exclusive to good and evil (that is very Euro-centric anyhow). Think Mother Nature, the sea, Old Man Winter, even the New Year – all are often portrayed as human or with human qualities. It’s true that Christians don’t think of these as literally personified (as good and evil are in God and Satan). However, polytheism isn’t dead and of course polytheists often personify near everything – think of the Romans and their gods.
I don’t tend to personify good and evil myself, but I agree that dualism and opposition are very emotional. There are many things that are considered true dualities or opposites even though in reality they are more complex – like male/female gender or nature and humankind. Even God and man or God and the world are often shaped as dualities in Christendom, though Satan and man never are. Interesting, no?
I guess that, even though my spiritual beliefs aren’t quite so hard and fast, I still do the same. I tend to think of, and moreso speak of, nature or natural occurrences having an intelligence behind them, even though I am not personally sure that they do. It’s just that it’s comfortable to think of things as human because we are social animals and we long to comprehend things on that level.
I’d go one step further and say that good and evil are not adjectives, that they are adverbs. I don’t think that good and evil can really describe an object. They can describe actions, and do a very poor job in that.
Erek
Oh, it is not. Sheesh, to take that stance, one would have to imagine all of ancient Persia and a good portion of Africa to be Europe.
My point is that generally folks don’t personify those in real belief so much anymore. The New Year baby & Old Year man aren’t believed by the people who use them to actually exist. The same cannot be said for those who believe that there is a specific entity Good and a specific entity Evil.
There is a distinct difference there. The God of Wine was not considered to actually be wine and vice versa. Evil, for those who hold to such beliefs, seems to actually be considered a distinct entity. Same for Good.
That’s off-topic as it doesn’t address my orignal query. Plus you are incorrect that Satan and Man are never shaped in such a duality.