Ask any alcoholic and they will tell you no one can save them but themselves; and not every alcoholic wants to be saved but when it comes to sin many want salvation. It’s the theme not only of the Bible but of some of the greatest writers like Sinclair Lewis. Had he not been able to use this theme to weave his word tapestries like Elmer Gantry he may have remained an unknown. Sin, like sex, sells, and there is always a ready market for stories that emphasize the human propensity for sin. If it were not for sin, the point of many stories like The Scarlet Letter and sermons like those of Jonathan Edwards focusing on hypocrisy would be without basis and many a moral would be wanting.

As I write ashes from the Piute fire are falling about and the smoke is making breathing difficult even for those without respiratory problems. But it brings to mind the phrase hotter than hell, and the forecast is for those high temps so characteristic of Kern County in general and Bakersfield (Bako) in particular of over one-hundred degrees to set in and make life even more uncomfortable for many. However, here in the Kern River Valley we are not experiencing any actual threat of fire as yet and hoping that will remain the case though that phrase hotter than hell is going to be the watchword even here.

But one cannot mention hell without the Devil and sin coming to mind and in one sense we have sin to thank for some of the greatest art and literature including the Bible, and without sin many an artist and writer would have little to work with. After all, it isn’t the milk of human kindness that sells newspapers it is sin in one form or another. The world, the flesh, and the Devil reign supreme over human efforts to shed light on the path of humankind, frustrating the efforts of the noblest working for peace because while fools make a mock at sin there are many of them making a profit by it.

It is a mistake to sell the Devil short; he isn’t stupid and he isn’t a caricature running around in a red union suit with horns, tail, and a pitchfork. He could hardly have earned the title Arch Deceiver and be so ridiculous or easily discerned. According to the Bible he was created a beautiful angel but fell from his place of honor through his pride, and if the serpent in The Garden the most beautiful and intelligent of creatures. At that, it seems from the book of Job he is included among the sons of God and even Michael the archangel had to treat him with respect according to the passage in Jude. I’ve always believed it was a particular stroke of genius placing that brief but very powerful epistle just before Revelation.

When some deride me for being a well educated man but believing Satan is real, I need only point to the art and literature by some of the most gifted and greatest minds believing the same thing to silence naysayers. It might be truthfully said the Devil is more real to many people from the lowest to highest rank than God; or rather more personal since so many feel their connection to the Devil a closer relationship, a point made in the film Tombstone when Kurt Russell sees the part of the Devil in Faust was played by the beautiful girl and says in amazement “I’ll be damned,” and Val Kilmer replies “You may indeed; if you’re lucky.” Sin and sex; remarkable, really, how the two seem conjoined as though to validate the story of The Fall and its consequences.

But after all the jokes have been told and all the fun poked Satan is the one left laughing and there are the wars of men while women try to make homes, the fact the greatest nation in history, America, refuses to protect children from the monsters of Satan preying on them, too many of our legislators and judges chosen by the Evil One loosing such monsters time after time to continue their depredations against children. If for no other reason than this I would find sufficient ground to confirm my belief Satan is real. And if that generation of children without natural affection, children acting out the role of demons rather than humans is a sign of the End Times it does seem America is bent on producing such a generation of children. And since the children of a nation are its future, this causes me to have a grave foreboding about the future of America.

Walt Kelly enjoyed poking fun at organized religion and had the Fox, Seminole Sam, pointing out the Devil was where the real money was to be made. While there is a lot of money to be made in religion, Walt knew it was the Devil’s work to profit from religion. Walt may have credited the words of Jesus that the children of God are not in the “business” of religion; that the real prophets do not purport to speak for God on the one hand while faring sumptuously and accumulating gold and mansions on the other. Too many of these servants of the Lord are no better than Tom Lehrer’s Old Dope Peddler.

A hierarchy and council of gods as one might assume from the beginning chapters of Genesis and in Job is anathema to monotheistic religions, and yet I’m more inclined to the pantheon of the Egyptians and Greeks with this reservation: A Supreme Deity may well be the ultimate Creator of the universe and giver of life while at the same time allowing for the creation of lesser deities and some of these mixing with humankind in some fashion. And from the Biblical stories and some other mythologies something went horribly wrong, and it became hell on earth ever since.

But given the very strangeness of the universe and the mysteries right here on our own planet there is room for speculation of great variety including gods and goddesses, demons and angels, and no one person or organization has a monopoly on such speculation. And while the Bible prompts much speculation much of even the most fantastic variety is provoked and arises from the discoveries of science.