Zipperfish wrote:
I guess even in a predominately secular society we need our incarnations of pure evil. It is said that if God did not exist, we would have to invent him. Same with Satan. Since (on an official level) Satan no longer exists, we have had to invent him -- in the persona of Hitler. And the Holocaust is our secular version of Hell.
Back in the Age of Faith you had to be very careful what you said about Satan. There wasn't much discussion allowed outside of the orthodox position that he was pure evil. Otherwise you could expect strong social or state sanction. Same with Hitler.
That's my crackpot theory anyway.
It's actually quite apt.
In fact you can extend that theory to the religion of environmentalism or the religion of homosexuality etc.