Into Temptation

Into Temptation

If God exists, so must the Devil. That statement has a crucial flaw in logic, and requires two leaps of faith, pardon the pun. Firstly, you have to prove the existence of one or the other, and, you must then assume that dualism must exist at all. Certainly there is a case for duality in the universe; every action has an equal and opposite reaction, etc, but when dealing with religious dogma, why MUST there be a system of a force of good and evil? That's an assumption I could never make, and to me, this exposes the true author of these concepts, Mankind, and all its flaws.

Forgetting the burden of proof and logic though, let's assume these figures do exist. You have God, benevolent and omnipresent, Creator of all, and by definition, the Creator of Evil. So why create an opposing force for yourself, unless the universe that you created in the first place required it? If it does require it, why would you create a system of opposition unto yourself? Why would you create mankind and give them access to both forces, and yet punish them for straying too far into the opposing side of your own universe that you have created which requires both sides in the first place? The logic breaks down any time you consider the God and the Devil concept.

But this is not a place for this discussion, and as much as I enjoy a spirited (excuse the pun) debate, the preceding paragraphs are here only to serve as a background for what inspired this image in the first place. Being raised Christian (Catholic) and having been immersed in the Bible at an early age (I went to Catholic school, was an altar boy, all of it), these concepts and questions are still with me, even though I left all that behind decades ago and am now a steadfast atheist. I am a fan of mythology, and even though some may chaff against me terming it so, I regard the Judeo-Christian faith a mythology too.

In my image, we see a man in the clouds, burdened by something, head in hands. at his feet is the serpent, the classic symbol of Satan in the Book of Genesis, emerging from below. A tongue of blue flame emerges from the serpent's head, and a beam of energy replete with lightning emerges from the man's head, both of these light elements serve to represent the divinity, the similarity in these two beings. Of course, in this representation, the man is God, sitting hi atop the heavens, and the snake is the devil, discoursing with God, emerging from the unseen earthly realm below. To me, in order for God to exist as the creator of all, including the Devil/Evil, God would have to be a tinkerer who has perhaps good intentions, but has created something out of control. He is impetuous and all too human, creating a flawed system that includes his own Id, his opposing force. In the Bible, Satan works on mankind directly, on the earthly plain, tempting and bewitching and deceiving the poor souls, whilst God, largely absent, observes and decrees from on high.

So my image is, finally, in all its simplicity, a God who has lost control or is struggling with his own creation, the weather spinning out of control, and Evil, which He himself created, is at his feet, perhaps ferreting out God in his rarefied hiding place in the clouds. Maybe God, despite the assertion that we were made in his image, is really a reflection of our own nature, and even He is susceptible to the lure and charms of the Devil, who, once again, he would have had to have created in the first place. With the rain and lightning and the visiting representation of Evil at his feet, this is a God who has lost control of his universe, and things are running amok. Evil has found him, and he hides his eyes from the unintended chaos he has unwittingly unleashed. Surely, this is a God we conflicted humans could at least relate to and empathize with! After all, he is, if we hold him accountable for the creation of Good as well as Evil, as confused and flawed as we are.

A note about the image: All elements were my own photographs, including the lightning. In all the years I have been shooting pictures, I have only managed to take one shot of lightning, so this one photo was altered three times to create the three strikes in the piece. The rain was just lines blurred as an overlay, and water droplets on "God" are a column of flour and corn meal shot at high speed. The clouds were shot earlier this year.

My title references a line from "The Lord's Prayer."

…And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. 
For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen
It is also the title of a great song by the New Zealand band Crowded House, which contains the lines:
Into Temptation, knowing full well the earth will rebel
Into Temptation, safe in the wide open arms of hell
Lose yourself while you linger long into temptation, right where you belong…

A Before and After version of this image can be seen on my website and on my Facebook page: www.michaelbilotta.com and www.facebook.com/MichaelBilottaPhotography

Model: Felix P.