Wide context

Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/The devil is considered alien to modern society also because of the repressive character of the concept. For a long time Satan served as a deterrent in the strict moral system of the Church. People knew that whenever they did evil, they ran the risk of eternal condemnation, weeping, and grinding of teeth. They may have been living in a constant fear, but they had one thing that modern society lacks: the sense of radical evil. Moral deterrents, however, have gone out of fashion. We should be happier now as we no longer have to fear Satan. But this also means that the concept of evil itself has faded away. If there are no clear-cut boundaries between God and Satan, there are no such boundaries between good and evil either. What remains is the total chaos and confusion the modern man is living in. We claim to be free individuals that need no moral formulations, guidance or deterrents. Fair enough, but then we should not be taken aback by kids or adolescents comitting grievous crimes. If we have lost the meaning of good and evil, why should they have it?