Re: Changes in formal naming for NetBSD porting effort(s)

[Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>]

Keegan Quinn <ice@wasteland.respond2.com> writes:

> What drives the assertion that "demons are evil?"  I'm neither religious
> or highly educated on the matter, but I've never really thought of them
> as such.  Other summaries in this thread have pointed out their
> neutrality.  Can you provide some references?

Well, it depends on what mythology you're working from.  In the Christian
mythology, which is probably the dominant context for evaluating that sort
of question, demons are, by definition, fallen angels who rebelled against
God and were cast out of Heaven.  They are generally considered to have a
tempter role in this life and a punisher role in the afterlife
(cf. Dante's _Inferno_).  They're not uncommonly associated with an
attitude of pure selfishness, as opposed to angels who are purely
selfless.

It's certainly true that a lot of more modern mythology has made demons
more ambiguous, in part as backlash against Christianity, in part as just
exploration of a more nuanced view of spirituality, in part just out of
the standard human fascination with the bad guys in a stock story.  Many
demons originate as pagan gods and therefore originally had a much
different role before being pulled into Christian mythology and rewritten
(a process which is common for most all mythological construction in
history -- see, for example, the conflict between the Olympian gods and
the Titans in Greek mythology).  But within the mainstream, standard
Christian mythological system, demons are evil by definition.

For a fairly good portrayal of a Christian take on demons that isn't quite
so traditional as Dante's _Inferno_ but which captures the same basic
idea, see C.S. Lewis's _The Screwtape Letters_.  A more famous work of
literature on the topic is Milton's _Paradise Lost_, a quote of which
you've probably heard at one point or another:

    Here at last
    We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
    Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
    Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
    To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
    Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.
                        -- Satan, Paradise Lost, Book 1, lines 258-263

For a different, somewhat postmodern take on angels and demons, see the
roleplaying game _In Nomine_, published by Steve Jackson Games, which can
be played as pure good angels vs. evil demons, with complete moral
ambiguity, with demons as heroic rebels against the repression of heaven,
or anything else inbetween.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>