Item — HN Reader

> Demons are also ultimately suffering sentient beings, who think their actions will bring them some sort of satisfaction, happiness.

If I’m not mistaken, in the Christian religion, no. They are sentient beings who are cast out of heaven and are in permanent desperation because of it (so far we agree). But as far as I know it’s out of spite and jealousy they want to bring as many people as they can with them; they most definitely know it won’t bring them happiness.

Also calling them sentient is probably misleading as they are angelic entities and they cannot change ever. They made a decision when they were created (follow God or not), and that’s that. So sentient yes, but most definitely not Human-like.

1 comments

>Also calling them sentient is probably misleading as they are angelic entities and they cannot change ever. They made a decision when they were created (follow God or not), and that’s that. So sentient yes, but most definitely not Human-like.

As I recall the Biblical narrative, they were convinced to turn against God when Lucifer led his rebellion against Heaven, because he and a third of the other angels refused to humble themselves before the newly created humans. The premise of angels as being unchangeable in their nature is a modern fantasy stereotype - in Biblical canon at least, they are clearly presented as capable of free will and decision making.

Obviously this doesn't entirely make sense within the framework of original sin - angels shouldn't be capable of turning against God, since that capacity is by definition sinful, and no sinful being can stand in the presence of God, but clearly angels do. Mythology rarely if ever includes what we would consider "coherent worldbuilding" from a modern literary point of view - that isn't its purpose, and what we have is an attempt to correlate the remnants of thousands of years of oral tradition and folkore with all of the myriad strangeness that entails.