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 Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:29 pm
This is a rather simple topic with a simple opening post, but I think it's an interesting one to think about. I shall provide my ideas after a bit of response.
To you, what are light and darkness, in spiritual terms? What do you think they mean to others?
How about in relation to many of their instances in popular culture? Star Wars has the Light side Jedi, who embody harmony, peace, and lack of emotion; and the Dark side Jedi, who embody change, passion, and personal drive. Do you think these are accurate, and "Light is good" while "Dark is evil"?
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:59 pm
Light and darkness don't mean much spiritually to me. Both light and darkness are natural occurrences while "good" and "evil" are human concepts and are subject to culture and personal beliefs/opinions.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:13 am
Like Daikon says, both light and darkness are natural occurences. Normal parts of the world. But people got used to use them as symbols because of the feeling and associations that light and dark evoke in them. People tend to like light better [and it was also proven how it affects the hormones that affect our mood], and dark can appear dangerous simply because you cannot see properly and you don't know where you are going and which dangers can lurk around you.
I myself as a gothic person have likings for darkness not in the cultural symbolics of "evil" but in the aesthetical sense [beauty of the night and the colour black] and some symbolic sense too [I feel in it mystery, elegance, strength, melancholy, looking under the surface and not being shallow.] The symbolics depend very much on what the individual person or the culture wants to see in the subject.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:29 am
In my tradition on of the interpretations of light and dark symbolism is knowledge and ignorance.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:42 am
rmcdra In my tradition on of the interpretations of light and dark symbolism is knowledge and ignorance. Hm, I like that.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:52 am
Light is the obvious, the revealed, the familiar. Dark is the hidden, symbolic of wisdom, knowledge.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:40 am
it seems like a too-simple dualism to me. i enjoy the night walking in the woods without a light and many strong beautiful things are black. besides, one of my favorite online characters, from the Adventures of Fifine, is "Beautiful Darkness". 
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:24 am
I think of light being good and dark being evil, I guess. But like light and darkness, it isn't black and white. There are varying degrees of light and dark.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:09 am
Vengeful Elegance I think of light being good and dark being evil, I guess. The problem with that is that both are necessary "forces". Neither one is inherently "good" or "evil". There are reasons that darkness is important, and the truth is too much light can kill things.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:25 pm
I personally don't get why generally light = good and dark = evil, I like darkness, and I'm christian.
But i do have a theory, God created light, he did not create darkness, it was already there, the same with heat and cold, God created light and heat, without God you have cold and darkness, and that's my theory anyway.
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Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:02 pm
As someone who isn't overtly spiritual, I see light and darkness as they are; simply speaking, energy and the lack thereof.
Speaking on a spiritual or fantastic level, however, for me, light and darkness don't hold any particular significance as they pertain to "good" and "evil." I suppose people do have more of an inherent fear of the dark because it limits sight and is thus considered a detriment to at least one of our senses, which makes sense. But too much light can be just as harmful, so the two are clearly intended to balance one another out.
Frankly, I think the blatant dualism attributed to them simply makes for good stories (and it does!).
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Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:05 pm
Physically, and spiritually, light is a presence, and darkness is an absence.
God is light; in Him there is no darkness. The things that are of God are light. The things that are darkness (sin, etc.) are not of Him. There isn't a spiritual grey. There is only light and dark.
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Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:06 pm
Shurikenboy Frankly, I think the blatant dualism attributed to them simply makes for good stories (and it does!). I respectfully disagree. I think the dualism of "Light" and "Darkness" in stories makes for bland and trite works that are all around boring.
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Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:32 pm
VK Fox Physically, and spiritually, light is a presence, and darkness is an absence. God is light; in Him there is no darkness. The things that are of God are light. The things that are darkness (sin, etc.) are not of Him. There isn't a spiritual grey. There is only light and dark. But if everything that is of God is light, why is there darkness? God created everything, no? So how could darkness exist unless he/she deliberately placed it in the world? That's tantamount to saying that God created sin, because if sin is darkness and darkness can only exist by God's will, then the same is true for sin. (I'm not trying to harass you, I'm honestly interested in seeing what your logic behind this is.) DaikonNairu -Ren- I respectfully disagree. I think the dualism of "Light" and "Darkness" in stories makes for bland and trite works that are all around boring. Haha, well, one man's trash... I certainly agree that the dualism can be oversimplified to the point of disinterest (I also believe it can be complicated to the extent that it becomes convoluted), but all around I tend to enjoy stories that don't seem like they're trying too hard, and the light/dark conundrum can give writers an easy and reliable foundation even if it doesn't serve as the sole major theme or end-all of their story in its entirety. It's all a matter of preference, though.
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Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:38 pm
Shurikenboy But if everything that is of God is light, why is there darkness? God created everything, no? So how could darkness exist unless he/she deliberately placed it in the world? God did not create darkeness Genesis 1 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. He created light and separated it from what was already there.
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