Paint It Black

If I were the Devil, the first thing I would do is take control of all religions so I could manipulate the minds of its followers.

I would create splinter-groups of each religion that would focus on certain script-ures while others remained in the darkness.

I would make the villains in these stories of the same nature but make the qualities of the heroes quite different.

I would create multiple gods with characteristics diametrically opposed in order to sow the seeds of cognitive dissonance as well as having a way to rationalize any behavior under the sun, including genocide of the innocent.

I would make it a religious belief to violate Natural Law by initiating aggression upon others in the name of god.

I would frighten the followers with eternal damnation for daring to question the storyline.

But above all, I would use every tool at my disposal to keep people living their lives from the outside in. If I could get them to discard their own inner knowing by losing themselves in the second-hand knowledge found in a book, my mission would be accomplished.