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Silver7
Jun '24

I might write a story about this, so please answer this question

Hypothetically speaking if there was a evil god named Yaldabaoth or Saklas and he is a god that is always jealous, hateful and angry all of the time. And let's say that he wanted to turn positive human beings into negative people, and he causes us to go through insane traumatic events to try to get us to feel and carry dark emotions of resentment and hate.

Even if I am a positive person, the thing is that as human beings there's only so much we can take before we pass our breaking point, so if Yaldabaoth could get to use wicked human beings to torment me throughout my life, I could still choose to be a positive person despite that but all that torment he has put me through would no doubt still have me feeling negative to some degree, right? (It's like years and years of being exposed to so much negativity will indeed have it's side effects on anyone?)

And going back to the part where I said he's a god that is Jealous, hateful and angry all the time, so I'd say it's that the more you worship this god and do his bidding, the more you will become like him?

euphridia
Jun '24

This might be a weird twist, but was this evil god always this way? Or did they start out like you, and broke because of the torment they received, thus earning the crown after turning the corner, so to speak?

Except now, he cannot relate to any humans, so in secret, he wants to convert more people to be like him so he is not alone and that his feelings/actions are validated-- that is, evil is the natural outcome of living in a world with conflict and strife. Call it what you will: a positive-feedback loop (evil things happen to me, I become evil, so I do evil things to others) or a self-fulfilling prophecy, or normalization of deviant behavior.

Anyway, maybe it's his twisted way of not feeling alone in his emotions. Just a thought.

NickRowler
Jun '24

Gnosticism is it's own strange rabbithole. A lot of modern day Christians don't recognize it within the canon of the religion.

I guess if you need some life advice.... Sometimes we use gods or spirits as personifications of our feelings or guilt. Sometimes something that can help is reflecting on yourself. You can't control the bad things that happen in the world but you can control yourself. And you can do things in your life that can help make the world better for the people around you.

kyupol
Jun '24

You always end up becoming who or what you worship.

BoomerZ
Jun '24

Just by worshipping someone to become that thing is lazy writing. The god should make you feel those thing by your actions from a situation the god puts you into. Freewill is a thing in most religions. You have to choose to be angry or hateful, they can't force you to be that way. The thing would be to write a story where the logical outcome, and what a reader would choose in their real life, would move them down that path. You don't want the reader to say "I would never do that." It has to make sense. And the person doing it can't think they are the bad guy in the narrative. People in real life don't think they are the villain. In their mind, they are doing the right thing. So come up with a story that the person descending into this doesn't think they are becoming bad.

Silver7
Jun '24
euphridia

Answer this part of my question please: "So if Yaldabaoth could get to use wicked human beings to torment me throughout my life, I could still choose to be a positive person despite that but all that torment he has put me through would no doubt still have me feeling negative to some degree, right?"

kyupol
Jun '24

Temptation is the beginning of sin. It's not a sin. Now the challenge is resisting it which is easier said than done.

And some say instead of resisting, simply observe it... and it will go away on its own.

Silver7
Jun '24
NickRowler

Answer this part of my question please: "So if Yaldabaoth could get to use wicked human beings to torment me throughout my life, I could still choose to be a positive person despite that but all that torment he has put me through would no doubt still have me feeling negative to some degree, right?"

NickRowler
Jun '24

I'm not a gnostic, I don't believe in that stuff. I'm am more of an agnostic. My views are more deism and humanism. Even if you believe in a higher power, at the end of the day, you are in control of your own life and actions.

Silver7
Jun '24

You still didn't answer the question, and it's a simple question

NickRowler
Jun '24

It feels like you fell down a theological rabbithole and you might need to take a break from the internet or find something better to focus on. I remember you having an older post on Nephilim. And several people had to tell you that giants like that aren't real.

There is nothing wrong with being inspired by more obscure religious mythos when writing your own stories. But I think you need to be self aware and not believe all of it to be 100% true.

moontokkym
Jun '24

I mean just read the old testament, the Christian God of the old testament is hateful, jealous, and seems really angry all the time, I feel like the main difference between your pitch and the OT god is intent.

Like he killed all the first born sons in Egypt, innocent kids, to make a point, killed all but 1 family of everything in a flood, struck a guy with lightning because he refused to get his deceased brother's wife pregnant, manipulated a guy into nearly killing his own son just to prove loyalty, made people force a ton of other people for drink molten gold in punishment for not worshipping him, etc...

I feel like if you want inspiration for torments and what cruelty people will go to in blindly serving a scary god just flip through that and then look at what people do in different culty offshoots of fundamentalist christianity to see what people who do their best to be like a God like that become and the sorts of things they do to negatively effect others. Reality is always the best inspiration.

kyupol
Jun '24
Silver7

Of course you will feel negative to some degree. But it's what you DO in response to the FEELING that matters.

For example, someone at work pissed me off. I FEEL like hitting him or saying something mean back... but instead, I don't do it. Because he doesn't know what he's doing. All negative behavior stems from unconsciousness (the opposite of enlightenment). So it helps me understand and gain some level of empathy for people like that.