Truth From Willy Wonka

Truth From Willy Wonka

March 23, 2009

By Joel Riley

And now the fantastically irresponsible deep thought of the minute. (You have to have seen the old Willy Wonka movie to understand this frightful allegory. Maybe it's also in the newer one, but I'm not so sure).

One of the greatest mind-boggling questions to all philosophers of religion, atheist or believer is--Why Satan? Seriously, if God is an all-powerful God who created everything, then He had to create Satan. Same can be said about the Serpent in the garden, right? Although the Serpent was evil, God still had to place him in the garden knowing full well (since God is omniscient) that he would make man fall. The same can be said for Satan; why would God create a being that would cause billions to receive eternal damnation? Yes, you could use the cop-out that God created an angel who had the free will to choose to fall. That being said, God still created that angel knowing full well that he was going to fall and cause destruction for many. Thus for God to create that angel that would eventually fall, its creation would have to be in the will of God.

So this question is one that has bothered me, and, despite literally dozens of hours in the past months figuring out who Satan is, I still had yet to figure out a logically satisfactory answer. Why would God create a being (Satan) who would tempt billions to go to hell forever? It's quite disturbing indeed.

So let's get the unspoken idea out of the way: where does Willy Wonka come into all this? In the story of Willy Wonka, we have this Uncle Crazy of a character by the name of Slugworth who is seen whispering into every kid's ear who has won the golden ticket. And after Charley Bucket wins his ticket, he finds Slugworth awaiting him, asking him to sell an everlasting gobstopper from Wonka's factory once inside.

Point #1: Sluggo wants the goods, and he'll make it worth your while

Now throughout the rest of the story inside the Choco factory, many of the characters fall to various character flaws that rightfully lead to their downfall (envy, greed, gluttony, etc..). And then, sure enough, our pal Charley makes his tragic downfall, and is about to be escorted out of the factory when, in a moment of valor and dedication to Wonka, Charley sets the everlasting gobstopper down on Wonka's desk. And then bingo, Charley gets the prize....he inherits the factory....and all is good in the hood and at the end of the movie we find out that Slugworth was working for Wonka all along and was set up as a trap for people not worthy to inherit the factory. Without Slugworth and his offers of money, Wonka would have never been able to see who was truly of good character and worthy to win the big prize.

What does it all mean?

The Everlasting Gobstopper = temptation of this world
Sluggo = Satan
Wonka = God

So now you have it. By people foregoing the temptations of this world (the gobstopper), they are able to inherit the kingdom of God, showing God they truly do love Him and are dedicated to Him. Without Satan, God would never have the test of free will for people to choose sides.

How does this work in your philosophy? If there was no Satan of temptation trying to lead you away to the dark side, you would default into following God. This would not be a sincere love for God, but a mandatory one, and not one that God would seemingly appreciate. With the creation of Satan and a love of things of the world, it gives man the free choice to either choose the shallow but attractive things of this world or to forgo those things and to just truly love God so that you are willing to give up the things of this world for Him. And, yes, this is all God wants. He is willing to send many to hell (by their own choice) in order to have some people truly love Him for who He is.

In summary, through Willy Wonka, we realize that God created Satan in order for man to love God through free will. Without an adversary such as Satan, there is no free will, and thus no self-decided love towards God from man.

If you're lost, I'm sorry. Willy and I tried our best.

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Joel Riley is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan and is currently attending Urshan Graduate School of Theology for his MTS. He spends his free time arguing with atheistic philosophers in his head, fixing the difficulties of our century, and engaging in formal picnics.