Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Goethe: God's Failure or Our's?



Thoughts on Faust Part 1:

I love devils. Not just any devils though. I love devils who are badass. Mephistopheles is one of those badass devils. Which is why I love Mephistopheles. He is badass mostly because he seems to be on our side.

Good devils are on our side. I'm not arguing that God isn't on our side. However much it can seem like that at times. Good devils don't typically judge us harshly and make demands of us. Good devils don't have requirements for our companionship. Good devils aren't entirely on our side but they get us.

God doesn't seem to get us.

The devils are always humanists. They could be our first humanists. They could be the beings who see us for what we are, not the mistakes we make. It is no small comfort to be accepted. It is no small comfort to have someone to turn to when we're facing eternal damnation.

God is responsible for letting us in or locking us out. God rewards us or punishes us. God created us. And it may have been his mistake. We may be his mistake. We certainly feel that way sometimes.

It is remarkably easy to blame God too. Whenever we screw up...God set us up. Whenever anything bad happens we have someone to blame. God is our easy out. How perfect is this? We don't need God for anything. In fact, we often reason that he needs us! But, wait a minute, we need him for that easy out. So whatever our feelings are they are wrong.

But, what if all along we've been wrong? What if we just haven't been seeing God's side? What if God sees the real us? Gets the real us? Gets what we aren't seeing properly?

God should be able to see the bigger picture, it is his picture after all. What if God sees us as we are: flawed yet capable with so much potential? What if God actually sees us how we think Prometheus saw us?

The God from the Prologue of Faust seems to be this kind of God. He knows us, has faith in us, allows us the freedom to fall on our own, knowing what we sometimes can't accept or can't see: that we are capable of getting back up ourselves.  

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