The mechanical nature of sin

*This post was written as is, without any editing, so forgive any mistakes.

Lately I've been constructing a metaphor that compares the nature of evil vs. good to that of machine vs. nature. I've been thinking specifically of how addiction, which we all experience at some point in our lives to some extent, turns our "organic" nature as spiritual beings into something more "mechanical." For example, the addict often speaks of something triggering his or her addiction. "I saw the billboard for Bud Light and it triggered my addiction." It's as if the person no longer has free will, or agency, over his or her being. We know, however, that nothing can take away our agency. Indeed, that was/is the whole crux of the issue. In the bible we read of a war between Lucifer, the son of light, and God the Father. It was Lucifer, the great "dragon," who later fell from his glorious position to become Satan, the father of all lies. He wanted to take away the agency the agency of all the other children of God and force them back into the presence of the Father after tasting mortality. This, of course, was contrary to the will of God and the irrevocable Law of the universe. We know that another being, even more glorious, known as the First Begotten of the Father, even the Lord Christ, stepped up and declared he would provide a way for the children of God to descend and reascend, always retaining their agency or free will, and he would do so by providing an eternal sacrifice, or atonement, so that the bridge between the presence of God and the lower dimensions, or this world, could be bridged.

Somewhere along the way as people choose to make bad, or evil choices, they relinquish their free agency. As contradictory as it sounds, we can choose to not choose. We will our will away. Although hard to describe, I feel that it's our nature to be in control of ourselves, that's the natural order of the way our will, our deepest "I", deals with the exterior elements, from our bodies to our surroundings. As we do things that are contrary to the will of God, and our own true, divine will, we allow something else, our animal or mechanical nature, to take control.

Think about the things people get addicted to. Food. Drugs. Sex. Power. Money. Work. Negative relationships. Sleep. Idleness. None of those things are inherently evil, but can be abused. As people abuse these things, they become addicted, or entrapped, and soon feel there is no way out. It's then that one's nature becomes more mechanical, as if one were simply a puppet instead of the master of his or her own self and the self, as the enlightened ones say, is one's own universe.