this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 138 points 1 month ago (3 children)

My favorite part is how the devil is judging the contest himself, and even with that huge advantage he's still like "nah he's just better rip"

[–] [email protected] 114 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

There's a subtext that you guys are missing. The devil wins whether he says Johnny won or lost.

  • If the devil wins, he gets Johnny's soul per the terms of the bet.
  • If Johnny wins, the devil gets Johnny's soul because he's committing multiple deadly sins purely by boasting and challenging the devil for a golden fiddle: pride, greed, vanity.

If he deems Johnny the winner, Johnny is less likely to challenge the decision, and he's also more likely to continue committing the sins of pride and vanity (by boasting of his victory over the Devil Himself).

Johnny's only chance to avoid his fate (per most strains of the Christian faith) is to acknowledge and repent/confess/absolve his sins by seeking divine mercy. The devil knows this is unlikely.

Johnny lost as soon as he uttered his first line.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's okay Johnny's Protestant he just has to repent

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

even if he wasn't, that golden fiddle would have bought him many indulgences

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The boy said "My name's Johnny,"

"And it might be a sin"

"So I'd uh... I'd better not"

"I'm actually gonna go."

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Except everyone is a sinner by default, so what's the downside? That's the problem with these "temptation" parables. Nothing Johnny could do himself would ever avoid that fate, so why act like it?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

I'm just pointing out that within the constructs of the predominant Christian mythologies... Johnny's fucked himself over unless he recognizes he's being a shit and atones for it.

Whether you assign any validity to the underlying dogma is an individual choice. People have a tendency to overlook logical inconsistencies in their faith frameworks, in any case.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

A solid gold fiddle would weigh hundreds of pounds and sound awful. Maybe he just wanted to get rid of it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

johnny has toes of adamantium and leg muscles like steel cable

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Like Johnny wouldn't immediately melt it down or sell it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago

and he even cheated by having a band.