Musings on Screwtape 2

Two from chapter 9

Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy's ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable. An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula.

This has certainly been the case from the beginning, and yet with media as it is today I wonder if it feels more widespread than in past generations. The accessibility of pornography, just to cite one example, is immediate and varied in its forms. One can experience this "ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure" in record time these days, going from one website to another and never feeling quite satisfied; in fact feeling less and less satisfied with each encounter, and yet desiring more and more. This is the deadening influence over the spirit that Satan loves--desensitization coupled with insatiable lust. Addiction feeds on dead senses, whereas true enjoyment of pleasures ordained of God actually satisfies without consuming the mind, heart, and life of the individual.

A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all--and more amusing.

I don't doubt that hypocrisy thrills the adversary much more than outright rejection of all that is good and holy.