#but speaking secularly yeah that's it

[rubberbandballqueen]

being the only jesus knower in my friend group means i have to field questions like “jesus didn’t ride into jerusalem on a giant crab, right?”

[unproduciblesmackdown]

i have gone on and on about the devil here in what i suppose is a tl;dr of “i love drama, i love Akd Lucifer I Love You b/c [akd] and i do already think lucifer the devil is fun as a neutrally to sympathetically regarded dynamic being, i.e. being a lens for Whatever re: the human experience”

naturally i love things wherein the devil is like, a whole character through which the human experience is questioned, b/c for me being raised catholic now nonreligious it’s like well i sure know a good amount of Lore and then it’s really fun to explore that secularly / or at least wherein you’re not worried about blaspheming or heresy or anything when it’s like whoops, the thoroughly christian approach of “questioning your own faith / religion / god Is A Sin or at the very least like, the devil has a foot in the door, like when you respect other religions too much” type deal and can get exegetical & flexible. like what does any given religion mean for The Human Experience On Earth, in how people understand it & how their interaction / relationship with their own spiritual practices/beliefs affects their interaction / relationship with the world. which is Something when again another very christian thing can be like, oh this earthly realm doesn’t matter beyond whether you, individually, manage to spend your Eternal Life in heaven or hell, want the protestant work ethic where conveniently for some, you’d better reject any desire for earthly indulgences & instead righteously labor & endure material suffering? hope there’s nothing bad that can come out of cultivating any us vs them insular perspective where also questioning authority is wrong & dangerous & also things can only Really get good when we die / the world ends. & evangelism as a vehicle for religious war / paternalistic power structures. and who is questioning an authority like the devil is lol

anyways and naturally that Thee devil (christianity edition) doesn’t really crop up much definitively until suddenly a bunch of new testament mentions, and old testament stuff is like, is this even necessarily the same entity, there’s a serpent, there’s book of revelations dragons & whatever else is going on in there, there can be satans who are A satan vs Thee satan, it’s just like [not much definitive Hell lore] too of course & that you’ve got sheol, gehenna, hades, tartarus....and that there even being Fallen Angels isn’t definitively textual anywhere in the old testament, & there’s more like, there can be a satan who’s an angel who leaves heaven, tries to get humanity to sin, but is still of heaven / returns there when souls show up like oh you see, you sinned, you should be judged accordingly, & is there to serve as like, executioner for god. an adjudicator. but anyways that this is just that angel’s heavenly role, a la when there’s antics like satan being like “hey god i bet job wouldn’t worship you or whatever if he weren’t so blessed” and god being like “lol alright well let’s see then” like well, that’s just The job, sorry job. where it’s then really Something with like modern ideas of thee devil as Evil & God’s Enemy, yet still essentially having this role of [serving heaven & just being the hangman righteously punishing sinners] like, how’s that make sense lmfao, that’s not really in opposition to god for the evil devil who loves it when you sin to go hey i’m really disgusted & disappointed that you sinned & now i’m here to actively punish you for it. like Oh Kay but what a weirdo lmfao. basically still just doing a job there / how does that Necessarily oppose god

and then speaking of the fallen angels book of watchers lore it’s like. well there yeah it’s about nephilim like hey you watched too hard and were like humans are great and i love them and oops i’m having angelic sex with them, and that’s where you fall. just doing the job....yet for the idea of the devil being an Especial fallen angel has some different lore from various strains of ideas, lucifer coming into the mix, One Passage in i think ezekiel about a finely adorned cherub who was there in eden who was perfect upon creation until unrighteousness was found in them or whatever, again Extrapolated to be like okay so this one fallen angel / conflated with other mentioned figures, say, A Serpent....and then it’s like, all various interpretations about who this figure might be / what the whole deal is. like the eventual positing like oh lucifer’s problem? had to have been Too Much Pride, goething before a fall(tm). and then frankly it’s a lot of ideas like okay but who what where when why how did Pride become Falling. and there’s like, well, lucifer wanted to be better than god, or equal to god, or supplant god? lucifer knew that angels were supposed to serve humans, once humans were created, despite their inferiority to angels? lucifer knew that god would become human and because of that specific situation, angels would have to recognize that human as superior to themselves / their god, and was like, Hell no? the last one is so Especially wild b/c it’s like hello, the incarnation of jesus had to happen to cancel out humanity’s original sin which apparently happens because of the devil’s temptation, who has already fallen before the creation of the universe. what kind of closed loop? if lucifer had Foreknowledge of jesus’s existence then could lucifer Not rebel if that rebellion is simply already A Truth / essentially an inescapable fate? and here it’s like this is just like judas, apparently humanity Had to betray jesus to be saved, someone had to be the fall(tm) guy whether they were in on it or not? not to mention everyone else who might be implicated in the events. and even re: jesus, like, is this predestined, is there free will there? like how a person with no original or derivative (lol) sins had to be jesus’s mom but also got to agree to that. would being like “eh, i’d rather not” have been a sin. the idea that sin is an effect of an abuse / misuse / corruption of one’s free will, what’s all this mean, what’s it mean when there’s divine scripts that Must &/or Will play out and some people Must &/or Will sin accordingly

and of course having to decide “btw. what Is evil itself” before The Problem Of Evil re: having an omnipotent omniscient benevolent god, the idea that evil must’ve been created by god / god had/has some active role/responsibility in the existence of evil, the idea of “no to all of that,” the idea that evil is itself a necessary evil b/c it builds humanity’s character, or b/c it’s simply a byproduct of free will, or of creation itself, though it was not directly created & is rather an Absence of good like darkness as the absence of light, but not itself substantial / existing in its own right outside that context. and re: the devil that it’s like oh we can simply decide that the one thing definitely going on there is Separation from god, which may itself be what we consider Evil to be, or what have you. but you know, if even there is a thee devil as an entity who chose to separate themself from god without external temptation (which would suggest that evil exists without the devil as the originator, as is also an idea out there, vs a more manichean or zoroastrian model of light vs dark / creation vs destruction, although naturally i think it’s obvious that those ideas are associated with god vs the devil currently, as certainly is Good vs Evil, vs more simply god vs separation from / absence of god) it’s like. okay i lost my train of thought during that parenthetical aside lmfao but it’s like, is there necessarily malice required in that, or any drive for Evil / destruction, rather than something more neutral. it’s right there in the “hey, you can’t try to be as good as god or better than god or Above obeying god’s commands or whatever” that lucifer thee devil satan isn’t god, does that then suggest inherently being not of god, is that the idea of evil as an inherent byproduct of the creation of beings who are not god, is lucifer doing anything but existing as god’s creation through having pride (where’d that come from? just from being higher up on a hierarchy? what’s the hierarchy for, god? why’s one angel particularly prideful) or through rejection of an existence in complete harmony / unity with god (well i think literal Unity would technically be reserved for persons in the trinity lol. except the idea that jesus was separated from god during the crucifixion b/c Sin is Separation from God and jesus had to take on humanity’s sin for the whole thing to work) or rejection of some idea of what angels Have to do. which are all things that are byproducts of lucifer being a created being, where one can’t exercise free will to choose to have been created, but now here you are, not fully of god, which is a fact that maybe has inherent evil, and/or the idea that somehow evil was introduced into the heavenly situation Spontaneously. what was to be done lol. if one was created and then the creator was like “hope you’re ready to serve some humans” and one was like “what? to Hell with that” and then that necessarily results in choosing total separation from god, what’s going on there? what of the idea lucifer the devil was choosing Independence from god. or otherwise seeking some form of autonomy in either straightforward separation / deviation from god’s will and/or trying to rebel. if temptation/sin is Good For humanity b/c it teaches us to exercise our own wills correctly, which happens to be in alignment with god, is lucifer, who is not god & thus not perfect, not potentially bettered through temptation/sin. even if things are essentially shrugged off as A Mystery like well it’s divine being things and an inherently superior & alien matter that mere humanity can’t even grasp and it’s Different when lucifer the devil sinned b/c there was no other tempter & it was a completely informed decision, made in heaven, for total separation, it’s like damn couldn’t choose Partial separation? if there was Foreknowledge involved, why would the devil choose that total separation? why would a lesser being who’d know they couldn’t defeat god then or ever still decide to exist in eternal separation & supposed opposition to god anyways? what’s going on there. sounds like a lot of drama. are they making a point

which i’m saying is a segue b/c that paragraph is already quite long. into the idea “well since in this christian scenario, god is omnipotent, and Only god is omnipotent, why doesn’t god just destroy the devil” like [why do we exist, only to suffer?] problem of evil and where like. the idea “oh god just wants to make a point, kind of like with job, like oh you see? evil can’t win even if i don’t try to snuff it out in the first place. but also i Will destroy you eventually anyways, after the point’s been made to humanity maybe, or to you, the devil” but wherein again it’s like, this suggests that evil can’t exist without this specific entity, the devil, which is a particular Idea about things, but not the only idea about it all....certainly relevant how The Devil also sure hasn’t always been largely considered a major figure in christianity and could be like this sort of comedic impish side character lol. vs a threatening malicious adversary. just a funny little guy. but even if it’s the theoretical threatening malicious adversary, that’s only to humans, omnipotent omniscient god knows they can’t lose to the devil one way or another, and maybe the devil knows that too, why wouldn’t they. and yet they chose this path, why? let’s hear from the devil. are they like, well doing this means taking on this inevitable fate, but i too can do shit to just make a point? that’s very interesting to me lol. but anyways, there’s then also the idea that god must love lucifer the devil as one of god’s creations, thus refusing to destroy them. and also the idea that god cannot love lucifer b/c of the total separation / association with sin (is this a “an omnipotent god created a boulder so large the omnipotent god themself couldn’t move it” situation, or just a technicality i guess lol, or is it the same thing here, i.e. “if god can do anything can there be situations in which god Can’t do something, b/c that should be possible”). and also the idea that god won’t Destroy the devil anyways, the devil will simply eventually be out there, separated from god still, while ig humanity and the rest of creation Isn’t, or whatever is supposed to happen there. but that initial separation happened before the existence of that universe / while lucifer was totally in & of heaven, so couldn’t it happen again lol, here’s someone else who is separated. what’s Evil look like without anything else to affect, theoretically? what’s the separation look like. “eternal torment, totally” is an answer, but yknow, An idea about it. is that what that separation is like already? there’s also the idea that having fully chosen that separation / that separation itself means lucifer Can’t repent or whatever, but what’s tormenting them otherwise? is it just like ooh ouch eternal fire yep, ouch this sucks, also where’d this fire zone come from?? then there’s the idea that the shitty fire zone (gehenna style) can like, at least redeem Humans, who get to go to heaven eventually. why can’t it potentially do that for lucifer. can lucifer not theoretically repent or exercise free will again to go “well, i’ve Done the separation thing, now to the next thing.” can god not forgive lucifer. back to the idea of judas too, can he not be forgiven / redeemed. if judas had to do all that, lucifer had to do all that as part of the process also. is judas the first guy to betray someone to collect their bounty. jesus was getting crucified with a couple other utter randos too. like yep you too man? sucks. and again it’s about the angle of like, i love drama, i am also an existing human of the world, i don’t have to be reaching for conclusive christian theodicy / apologism here, the interest is like, what do these religious ideas mean re: humanity’s experience on earth and understanding of that experience. what happens to one’s prayers for judas or the devil. who’s got that quote. mark twain about who’s had the common humanity to pray for the devil as the sinner who needed it most. again, it’s maybe not so much of a generally christian idea about being able to question and Argue with god, much less that being like, righteous lmfao but it’s sure out there like hey god could you start doing this / stop doing That / Not do this thing you said you’re gonna do / hey god uhhh what the hell re: this thing you did. can you not flood the whole world again. watch me spend the whole night wrestling with an angel or maybe straightup god. what would be the point of minding one’s own business entirely like well so long as I’m going to heaven, nothing to pray For but myself, save as is obligatory re: thanks / worship, which is also just about Staying Right myself. lazarus couldn’t go “hey can you have me be alive again,” and yet. and again someone interested in it from the personal religious angle could decide to leave it at “idk it’s just Different for the devil than it is for people, and Unfathomable b/c the situation & entities are totally different from the human experience” and call it a day but it’s like well, zzz, b/c i’m here for the [how is everything understood re: the human experience]

then speaking of humanity, also the idea that Evil sprung from humans’ Original Sin in eden, which only involved a serpent’s temptation vs necessarily any introduction of evil externally. even though also there’s the argument like oh it totally was, which is what made it Different for humanity vs when lucifer did it. cue the post about god going “okay now definitely Don’t eat the fruit of this one tree that’s riiight over there....i’m omnisciently turning my back & stepping out for a while....” when there’s the situation of [my cat won’t drink water unless it’s mine so i leave a glass of water around & he thinks he’s being naughty but really he’s staying properly hydrated] and then “god in the garden of eden” tags lol. the idea that temptation/sin is necessary for humanity b/c it is good for the soul, to the point of the idea god has a direct role in the existence of evil. The Knowledge Of Good & Evil, which can possibly be understood via translation of the essence as “knowledge of everything” like [these two books contain the sum of all human knowledge: “what they teach you at harvard” / “what they don’t teach you at harvard” = implication of Everything contained in Diametric Opposite And Diametric Opposite]. the idea of the also barely biblically mentioned lilith as the first wife of adam who was like banished for refusing to be obedient / subservient to adam. lucifer banished for refusing to be obedient / subservient to god, and/or to humanity, as required by god. the whole “way to get too big for your britches trying to be too much like god” element of eating fruit that gives knowledge of good & evil like lucifer being too big for their britches, who created the britches? where did the [too big for them] tendency come from? and then the idea of what the hell uh. concupiscence. the “if it feels good / if you’re having fun, it’s probably a sin” (especially catholic) thing, like that it’s this Sensual Desire that drives people to sin, self indulgence, you’re probably too horny, don’t enjoy sex or flavors or creature comforts or anything that’s just A Good Time for its own sake. (But....if you’re holy enough you can actually have all those ecstasies but like, in the good way) lilith being Sexually Wanton just because. watcher angels falling b/c they were in love with / having sex with humans. the devil being sexy as hell (lucifer edition as the concept of being like, especially adorned, especially Beautiful) (that classic art history moment of “oh my god no that statue of lucifer is too fucking sexy” [next commissioned statue of lucifer intended to replace it is even sexier] “Nooooooooooooooo”) any Temptation being like a sexual seduction, is this serpent phallic, is the devil getting sexy with eve and that entwining? and now we just Know eve fucked adam over b/c he was corrupted by horniness due to her being a woman. what is god to the love of your wife. what is god to the love of a human woman who is also your wife i guess, fallen angels living among humans and having children with them. is the devil necessarily just bitterly trying to ruin things for Everyone too like well im dragging humanity down, does he devil not think they themself are justified & that humanity might not be helped / improved via rebellion against god too, what if the devil Thinks that, but doesn’t think they’re serving god, but that idea applies that actually evil is necessary b/c temptation & sin Do improve humanity? thinking of c.s. lewis just casually asserting a pretty Out There idea for most christianity that someone can be fully nonchristian & recognize/worship an entirely different god but, through acts which nonetheless serve christian god / are righteous according to christianity, are for all intents & purposes Saved / acknowledged in turn by christian god. naturally mayhaps a bit patronizing there lmfao but that’s trying to reconcile [there’s definitely christian heaven & everyone needs to get there through christian god] with the existence of nonchristians who are Nonetheless(tm) out there in the world seeming to be Good People to a christian despite a lack of what might be believed to be requirements for salvation like baptism / declaration of faith type stuff allowing for Saving Grace which human nature itself cannot achieve (calvinism & predestination & what all....) like if humanity Needs the devil, why is the devil condemned? if humanity needed that hydration by being naughty in the garden of eden, and that could only come about via the devil’s involvement, why is the devil condemned? is the devil then not something of a requisite sacrifice For Humanity, if so? like jesus? like judas, if Someone needed to betray jesus? and Someone needed to exist to tempt judas to that act? humanity staying condemned to separation from god / inescapable original sin b/c suddenly everything played out theoretically Ideally and everyone just stopped sinning, ever, like damn nobody will sacrifice jesus. welp. funny to then think of c.s. lewis’s funky wrangling of the situation in the lion the witch & the wardrobe like well the devil is a mean lady who wants to be in charge. original sin is when some child who’s being a real whiny bitch lately about being a child and world war two and all meets that lady, doesn’t know she’s lying or has evil fairy food & is like yeah i could stand a snack, i’m like 7. then it’s like well you just have to die from there, despite also being rude from there wanting to throw your siblings under the bus even though still one doesn’t exactly grasp the consequences, due to a lack of being informed / also being a child. you do still have to die though, but jesus will intervene on that one, and realizing that actually being with the devil sucks even though she could’ve just kept being indulgent, means that it’ll be like yeah alright, i’m Improved now, so actually this helped even if theoretically i should’ve avoided all this? and lewis is also trying to slip things past like the argument that jesus must be god b/c the only alternatives are lying, and he doesn’t act like a bad person who would lie, or insanity, and he doesn’t act like an insane person who would genuinely think they’re god, which like yeah that’s totally how things work, thanks man lmfao, truly now we’ve solved [not being christian]. next he’s gonna go off about how schools are terrible but also schoolchildren are wretches and adults are too soft & indulgent by entertaining things like psychology or to not use corporal punishment. or like be vegetarians or something. funny things that bother him as like symptoms of, or perhaps facilitators of, moral turpitude. whilest then the best thing you can be is simply like. more ignorant lol? the Innocence of younger children and, in turn, the increased purity of their faith, good job being 5. and, naturally, a distant confusing gesture at someone turning away from their faith as an adult trying to live in their reality, separated from god. lucifer was created because god chose to create them, and then to be a created being means being separate from god / Not God, which is to be imperfect, and perhaps inherently evil for that [separation from god is itself what Evil is] factor / Creation necessarily resulting in evil as Something, even if simply an absence of / separation from god. is the existence of any non god entity evil? which is an existence that Is because god made that happen? why do we exist, just to suffer? why do we have free will if we can only exercise it one way without separating oneself Further from god, theoretically increasing suffering? what does it mean to have that free will even if (further?) separation from god is never Chosen with it? what does it mean to be created into a Role? and tasked with service to someone else? to humanity, as an angel? to god, as a human? what’s god need with worship? what if no one worshipped god but managed to live in ways that didn’t involve going around trying to murder as many people as possible? what if lucifer is just trying to live their own life without worshipping or obeying god? the version of the lore with them created Into a hierarchy, Into a role that demanded subservience to humanity, or at least a human, into a situation wherein everything they did Had to go one certain way, even if they had a capacity to recognize other possibilities. what is the point of that capacity in angels or humans except to give them the potential to suffer, if it’s theoretically always the wrong, self destructive choice? if the suffering / learning through experience Why it’s wrong is good for humans, why not for angels? again, just not of interest to go “well, but angels should know better, humans wouldn’t” like and yet humans were punished anyways despite this being inevitable i guess, god Knows we like to steal sips from glasses of water & left a glass of water out and pointed it out to us then stopped supervising. and if angels should know better, why didn’t this one? if pride is such an issue, why’s god Need to be recognized by all as superior, when god’s the only omnipotent one anyways & can’t Actually be threatened? yet by rebelling, you gotta go On Principle? again, what’s the devil’s principle here? would they accept this fate of separation from god Knowing they couldn’t win, again, why wouldn’t they know? all in, certainly, once you accept total separation you can’t be even more totally separated, and may as well do whatever if nothing changes that situation. the (not necessarily particularly religiously associated) idea that there’s a strength in embracing failure, and of the concept of Possibilities being embraced by embracing the possibility of past/present/future failure, that one doesn’t have all the answers, that a utopia isn’t going to be like, This is perfect, things Cannot be any other way, This is the way, nothing about this can be wrong, everything about this must be right. lucifer’s inherent problem with authority, i vibe with that lmfao. why do angels have to exist to support their creator and also then other creations who i guess get to be freer than them? why do humans have to support god? certainly paternalistic like, well god just wants what’s best for everyone, and in turn like sure, one can accept that paternalism as a humble recognition of the theoretical fact of one’s own inferiority, being a cat of god’s or the universe’s with limited understanding of what’s beneficial for oneself / a limited perspective, but that’s not my angle here again lol like a secular exploration, we Do have other humans who engage in paternalism / assume authority over others / create hierarchies, and it sure is possible to reject that on principle, wherein that rejection is incompatible with a harmonious existence within, or necessarily even alongside, that situation. people with power over other people stopping them from going after what they want b/c that’s not what they Really want, or at least not what they Really Need, or at least not what’d Really be good for them, or maybe just not what the person in power wants. why would lucifer’s choice to be separated from god at all necessarily have to be both total and permanent? is that a punishment? why is that necessary when theoretically, if god wanted what’s best for lucifer, then lucifer should eventually go “oh hm this sucks worse” about the situation. again, what of an idea about lucifer thinking they’re justified / that they in turn are helping humanity by doing whatever they do, despite their own suffering? humanity maybe being improved by temptation/sin/evil, humanity being eligible for salvation from that, and the devil being a key part of that but Not improved for it / Not saveable? self sacrificing....

who has that quote about old testament god being a villain lol. what’s the devil there. what are they to humanity. the perspective that things like indulgence / selfishness / any traits that may be regarded as limitations, weaknesses, failures, theoretically less than Ideal, are nonetheless a part of human nature and shouldn’t be wholly rejected or condemned, and that the devil recognizes this in their own nature as well as humanity’s & isn’t necessarily a threat. and that’s just like, Atheistic Satanism lol. which i suppose is really the lens here lmao, what does [xyz idea about a The satan explore or express about the human experience]....what of a person whose creator insists they do everything a certain way as dictated by themself (the creator)? where any failure / deviance / rejection / rebellion is equivalent to taking on a total, irrevocable separation? where that creator may still love the person, but that love does nothing for them, if they don’t accept returning to alignment & obedience? where any way the person is different from their creator is dangerous, a flaw, unsympathetic, a door that should stay closed & untouched lest it lead to sin & separation, cast out into the howling wilderness of [absence of the creator & their love]? what’s it mean to Not have the creator control your existence but you just have to always choose to do everything exactly as they’d want you to? what’s it mean if the person causes difficulties / inconveniences for the creator even if nothing is truly threatened by this (e.g. that unless god isn’t omnipotent, the devil can’t have like overthrown the throne or anything)? what’s it mean if the person is simply seeking independence? what’s it mean if the person has some trait the creator doesn’t have and never had and engages with it / behaves accordingly? what if the way they were treated caused certain behavior? what if other people under the creator were favored by that creator and the original person here was required to roll with that / actively support that? what if, also, they related to those other, favored people, as people Also controlled by the creator? what if breaking with the creator is a supposed immutable punishment but also brings freedom and the potential of a fully explored existence? what i’m saying is, very interesting with a lens on lucifer re: power dynamics & systems of abuse, whether interpersonal / individual like within a family unit, and/or like via institutions and broader practices / ideologies. lucifer is created, there is inherent evil in that existence as a being who is not god, lucifer just does their thing, lucifer encourages others to just do their thing. lucifer questioning god, what’s necessarily wrong with that, if god is infinitely benevolent, what’s threatened by questioning any more than an omnipotent god is threatened by disobedience and/or entire rebellion? whilest, if lucifer as god’s stray cat is decimating the bird population (humanity) god’s still like well i Guess, but i can’t just keep that cat inside, they chose to be outside forever. where in that metaphor it’s also like, is it malicious of a cat to kill birds? if it is in lucifer’s nature to be the equivalent of like “father i crave violence” then what of that cat running around wanting to attack something if its violence cravings are an Evil that cannot be indulged? lucifer being Prideful for being decorated and beautiful and elevated above the other angels like, well, how’d all that happen in the first place? why? jesus had like, some of the humblest origins possible. why’s your best angel getting so hyped up if that’s dangerous. lucifer the lost cause problem child who we fucked up with but we’ll do it right with this other one. and then handily it can just be like, well lucifer’s trying to be in charge of everyone, that sucks. but like, god IS in charge of everyone, what about that lol? sorry, should’ve had the very literal divine right to being thee divine king in the nature of your birth? a birth which i chose & caused? why is the devil or any of us alive. what’s threatening about curiosity, or an individual lessening / rejecting a power difference, or questioning a situation or a person, much less an authority? what is the point of life under others’ prescribed path? if lucifer exists, shouldn’t they get to explore that? what of a relationship where your only option for independence means accepting eternal / complete separation? if the nature of their existence includes the inherent fallibility of Not Being God, what of it if they fall? what of it if they tried to be god because they knew they were so good and so powerful? all or nothing, you can be god (you can’t, both on principle & in practice b/c you’re not as all knowing or all powerful or all benevolent) or you can be cast out of heaven. you made them too good, maybe, but again, how’s the nature they were created with their fault lol. is it bad for an angel to question god or anyone to question an authority, or just anyone else. is it bad to reject an existence where well, i won’t Force you, but you do have to do things exactly as it is unilaterally predetermined they should be done or you are fully outta here forever b/c that’s completely incompatible to existing in paradise in the love of your creator. what if lucifer Is loved post fall? what would that result in? what would it look like? and why wouldn’t they be, one way or another, what’s it mean to be loved by god if that’s conditional? what’s provided by that if it’s conditional? what’s existence that accepts that and takes it on? lucifer was created and was like, alright, i’m a creation [is a creature] like well who can argue with that. the idea that fallen angels were like oh we love humans so much we Do wanna marry them. that if lucifer thinks it’s good and/or justified to question and disobey god, would they not also potentially see themself as Actually supporting/serving humanity in ways god doesn’t want them to by imparting them with Knowledge at the cost of increased separation from god / straying from Perfection and an obedience to an existence completely arranged for you and a role predetermined. what's Love or even just a Relationship with an unilateral immutable power difference in the mix.

and of course in all this it’s like “well but what if the devil is wrong and is trying to ruin things / make shit worse for everyone / what if the devil is basically a Destructive Force, zoroastrianism style” like sure but i feel like that’s pretty covered, and again just not relevant to my purposes lol, i’m Interested in well what of the devil as a Dynamic Character with as earnest a perspective as any other being. what would be going on there? what’s the devil as a way to question god in a religion where there’s more of a tradition that That Is Itself Bad? what’s bad about Questioning even if you presuppose that god is, in fact, always right? 

i have gone on and on about it and given that it’s as broad as [any & everything. good & evil, if you will] could continue, as could anyone, but really what this all means is that it’s like Ooh Oh Boy to know more about akd’s Lucifer in The Mysteries. let’s hear and see more from them. and it is so sexy and interesting and fun and i’m raring to see them as a hero / sympathetic neutral figure. what if they’re a funny little guy? what if they think they will cause problems on purpose? what if they feel hurt by god’s treatment of them from the start? and/or disagree with it on principle? what if they represent embracing the full reality of human nature because first they embraced the full reality of their own nature? what if it’s sexy as Hell when they show up to seduce humanity into original sin? what if it’s hopefully sexy and fun when they do anything else too, and engaging, thank you for creating drama? what if [if we can think about jesus/judas romance i’m like Who’s Kissing Akd’s The Devil]? what if i’m also like of course i’d kiss them and also i’d love to do that, let me portray lucifer. the script for the Mysteries is truly Lengthy lmfao i want in on it, let us see it. it’s just like my being hype to get to be Supposed antagonist cassius in fourth grade when we did a few julius caesar scenes, like oh love it, the gender, the drama, but also uh the nefarious conspiracy is like “this guy’s becoming a dictator huh, what if we kill him” like well lmfao. lucifer existing in the face of an absolute and theoretically inflexible authority? i’m listening. oh AND shoutout to akd’s OTHER portrayal of lucifer where they’re enduring the abandonment of humanity as a hypothetical fellow human and then gabriel as a hypothetical fellow human is like i’ve been sent to save you and we end on an angelic chord as lucifer looks like they’re about to cry. like well yes and that too, how About lucifer who is not abandoned? how About their being saved? i would also kiss them.

(oh addendum i forgot that in the midst of writing this i thought of this translated poetry segment:

He told Adam “Your fall is temporary You’ll come back to me” but Adam built a house and called it home)

[ophirgottlieb]

This Stock is the Pick-axe to the Cloud Gold Rush

Date Published: 2017-06-05 Written by Ophir Gottlieb * This is a snippet from a CML Pro dossier originally published on 6-3-2017. LEDE Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) is one of our all-time favorite Top Picks in the cloud theme, and is rising to all time highs. Here is the stock chart:

We do believe, as the Top Pick dossier refers to it, that Arista Networks is the Pick-axe to Cloud Gold Rush. Arista Networks Inc was added to Top Picks on 22-Nov-16 for $94.50. As of today it is trading at $152.26, up 61.1% in six-months.

Ticker Date Added Price Added Return ANET 11-22-2016 $94.50 61.12%

Further, on 4-5-107 we penned Arista Networks: The Opportunity is Here. The stock price was $134 at the time of that dossier, so Arista Inc stock is up more than 13% in just the two-months since we published that highlight. STORY & UPDATE Quickly, the story behind Arista Inc: Of all the revolutionary trends that are coming our way that we look to, from artificial intelligence, machine learning, genomics, self-driving cars, the Internet of Things (IoT), streaming video on Demand (SVOD), and the rest — the enterprise cloud realm may be the largest of them all. WHY THE CLOUD? Of all the revolutionary trends that are coming our way that we look to, from artificial intelligence, machine learning, genomics, self-driving cars, the Internet of Things (IoT), streaming video on Demand (SVOD), and the rest — the enterprise cloud realm may be the largest of them all. The cloud is, generally speaking, just a cluster of computers and hardware sharing resources to power the Internet, apps, video, IoT and anything else that is connected and has data. I always search for the best way to demonstrate the explosion that is coming in data. I like charts, and I like stats, but it’s hard to really convey the astounding growth in data we are about to see. So here’s a chart, and then I’ll try my best with a specific example:

So that’s just mobile and it shows the growth in traffic increasing 1,000% in six years. But here’s how that translates into data. In 2012 the Library of Congress estimated that all printed, audio, and video material came in at 3 to 20 petabytes. That means that one exabyte could hold a hundred thousand times the printed, audio and video material, or 500 to 3000 times all content of the Library of Congress. By 2021, global traffic alone will generate 49 exabytes… per month. That means that data that is the size of 14,700,000% of all the printed, audio and video material of all-time will be generated in a month on just mobile devices. Yeah, that’s just mobile and every month. And if we take that even further out, to say, 2025, the numbers reach billions of percent a day. The cloud is going to be a huge deal. Here is a chart of that growth:

ARISTA The old world where Cisco Systems built a wonderful empire was based on dedicated network systems — a fancy way of saying that Cisco provided all of the hardware and guts to the switches (and routers). But, Cisco has secularly lost market share in switching, today at 53%, versus 70% in 2010. The lost business has gone mainly in the Data Center switching side, where Arista Networks inc and do-it-yourself (DIY) white-label solutions have become more prevalent. First, the image we always reference of market share trends:

But the trend — that is, moving to white-label solutions, has been under reported by the media. Facebook has created a gigantic cloud and has focused on something called the Open Compute Project. Microsoft and Google have joined the Project. These companies are looking to free themselves from the shackles and expenses of the “old way.” Arista Networks Inc is aware of the change — in fact, it has been a part of the change — even the catalyst to the change. Arista’s strategy, which has been to take a more software-centric approach of networking, called SDN, is working. The company’s hardware is strong, it has exposure to the cloud platforms and generally appears to be more agile than Cisco. The Arista Inc story is wonderful, full of opportunity and risk, and we highly encourage a read of the Top Pick dossier: Arista Networks is the Pick-axe to Cloud Gold Rush. But now, onto a critical update that pushed the stock price to fresh all-time highs on Friday. LEGAL FIGHT Arista Inc and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) have been embroiled in one of the most contentious intellectual property battles technology has ever seen. While Uber and Alphabet Inc's Waymo have gotten the juicy headlines, the guts of the cloud world have had their own heavyweight bout. We wrote extensively about the risks in our dossier Arista Risk Must Be Examined. Here's a quick primer before we get to the update: Cisco has filed a lawsuit claiming that Arista has infringed upon its patents and the accusation is big one. Arista was founded by ex-Cisco employees and the lawsuit claims that essentially all of Arista’s success is a patent rip-off. To restate clearly, this is not a small off on the side lawsuit, this is a lawsuit of enormous proportions with respect to the accusations. In fact, for a moment, the International Trade Commission placed an import ban and cease and desist order covering all Arista (ANET) products. The ITC determined that Arista willfully and intentionally infringed three Cisco patents covering core, Cisco-proprietary network functionality. For Arista’s customers and partners, the cease and desist order blocks the marketing, sale or distribution of all inventory of imported infringing products. It also means that Arista is unable to honor the service and warranty contracts for any infringing products sold after the ITC’s ruling date [of] June 23. For Arista’s suppliers, the ITC orders mean that Arista cannot import parts or components to manufacture infringing products in the United States. Now, all that ended recently when Arista Networks [] got a vote of approval from U.S. customs authorities with its newest versions of its products. But, the risk isn’t gone. While some will say Cisco is throwing up a last ditch effort to protect its technology which, as we saw in the chart at the top, is in full blown competitive free fall, others will say this is a legitimate case of intellectual property theft. UPDATE It appears that Arista Inc has yet again won the battle of old versus new. Here it is, straight from one of our favorite all-time journalists, Barron's Tiernan Ray:

[T]he U.S Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board yesterday issued a decision finding for Arista’s claims that another of Cisco Systems (CSCO) patents over which Cisco was suing Arista is "unpatentable." It is the second time in a week the company received a favorable judgment from the Patent board, the prior one having been from the same case. Source: BARRON'S

The Patent board wrote: "We determine that Petitioner (Arista) has met its burden of showing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that all of the claims for which trial was instituted are unpatentable." We'll save the technical details and get to the conclusion, which is that, for now, the patent fight is finally over and Arista Inc will not have to turn on its manufacturing plant in the United States, which would have taken a bite out of gross margins. We do note that it is quite possible that Cisco Systems Inc is not done yet, the company has been relentless in trying to defend itself and has used aggravated language declaring that Arista has blatantly infringed on its copyrighted command-line interface terms, noting direct copy-and-paste scenarios in which the firm neglected to fix Cisco’s typos. Of course, Arista has argued that the commands aren’t protected by copyright, suggesting Cisco is simply trying to thwart growth of the upcoming firm. It looks like Arista Inc was right. WHAT NOW We like Arista Inc long-term, but the price is high and we don't believe any extra emphasis should be given to the company just because of this ruling. As always, in this toppy market we do see the potential for a correction, but when we look out 3-7 years, we see Arista Inc continuing to take down Cisco Systems Inc moat and growing rapidly into the cloud. OPTION TRADERS For you option traders we offer this read: Options and the Cloud Revolution A classic example demonstrates that four weekly options does not equal one monthly option. The author has no position in Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) at the time of this writing. WHY THIS MATTERS It's finding the technology gems, like Arista, that can turn into the 'next Google,' or 'next Apple,' where we have to get ahead of the curve. This is what CML Pro does. Each company in our 'Top Picks' has been selected as a future crown jewel of technology. Market correction or not, recession or not, the growth in these areas is a near certainty. The precious few thematic top picks for 2017, research dossiers, and alerts are available for a limited time at an 80% discount for $19/mo. Join Us: Discover the undiscovered companies that will power technology's future. Thanks for reading, friends. Legal The information contained on this site is provided for general informational purposes, as a convenience to the readers. The materials are not a substitute for obtaining professional advice from a qualified person, firm or corporation. Consult the appropriate professional advisor for more complete and current information. Capital Market Laboratories (“The Company”) does not engage in rendering any legal or professional services by placing these general informational materials on this website. The Company specifically disclaims any liability, whether based in contract, tort, strict liability or otherwise, for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages arising out of or in any way connected with access to or use of the site, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages, including liability in connection with mistakes or omissions in, or delays in transmission of, information to or from the user, interruptions in telecommunications connections to the site or viruses. The Company makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the information contained on this website. Any links provided to other server sites are offered as a matter of convenience and in no way are meant to imply that The Company endorses, sponsors, promotes or is affiliated with the owners of or participants in those sites, or endorse any information contained on those sites, unless expressly stated.