Monday, July 02, 2007

The Devil on the Internet?

Check out this new blog that I have come across: Tapescrew Letters.

Don't tell anyone, but I think I have stumbled onto something here.

It seems that a demon named Screwtape - whose letters to his nephew Wormwood were exposed and published by C.S. Lewis - has taken up blogging as a way to send his letters. He has "cleverly" disguised his name as "Tapescrew" and calls his nephew "Woodworm" - and he seems to think either 1) obody else can read his blog, or 2) figure out who he is. I'm not sure which is the case.

Please keep in mind the disclaimers published by C.S.Lewis in The Screwtape Letters back in 1942, as I believe they are equally valid today in the Internet age: "Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle." Dr. Lewis also wisely points out that "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

Finally, I do think Lewis's two quotes before the preface of his book are worth keeping in mind:

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn."
- Martin Luther

"The devil... the prowde spirite... cannot endure to be mocked."
- Thomas More

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