From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Copperhead
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 22:44:11 

On Wed, 23 May 2001, Kevin J. Maroney wrote:

> At 01:39 PM 5/19/01 -0500, Nutria wrote:
> >(It's manichaean basically: Good Adam and Bad Lilith.) 
> 
> There is nothing distinctively Manichean about having a Completely Good
> Thing and a corresponding Completely Bad Thing. That idea shows up in all
> sorts of places, including all of the Abrahamist monotheisms. 

Is this a joke?  That's the very thing that Christians have always used to
say "Manichaeanism is not us."  Satan is the opposite of Michael the
Archangel; there is no counterpart Bad Thing that is the opposite of God.  
God created everything, and some things are warped, but to the extent
Satan has any good thing (intellegence, existence, charisma) it is simply
a warped version of the good thing God gave him.   Nothing in orthodox
Christianity or Judaism gives you the sense that Evil is a real rival to
God that might have a chance of ultimately winning.  

-Rostrum


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