Of course, all of the earth's great evolutionary leaps are accompanied by extreme upheaval and disruption. This is the paradox of Chaos. The process of natural selection is no less traumatic for those who are not being culled. In my opinion, the primary failing of mainstream religion is that it seeks to repress Chaos, blaming it instead on some mythical Devil, or a whim of "God." This is worse than self-delusion: it is the forcing of their delusions on entire cultures. To be truly well-adjusted, we need to accept the fact that Chaos is a natural and essential part of our makeup, and learn to integrate it into our beings accordingly. The one vital thing to remember, however, is not to let it dominate us. Recognising it is there is not the same thing as keeping it in check.
If, therefore, Chaos is not evil, it stands to reason that Set is not either. Set is the incarnate form of individuality, and as such maybe the bible was accurate in it's claim that man was created in the image of God!
The ancient Egyptians believed that the world was formed out of the waters of Chaos, and that it would return to it if law & order broke down. The God Set was their God of Chaos, as well as his other roles, including God of Storms, Foreigners, Desert, and Hostility. Recognising that these forces are neccessary for balance, the Egyptians portrayed Set originally as a benevolent God. Somehow, during the Dynastic Period Set was transformed into an evil deity.
Our society also believes Chaos to be undesirable, as it sees it as the enemy of law & order, as well as disruptive to the status quo. Chaos is usually seen as a negative thing, provoking images of unrestrained calamity and mayhem. This is a narrow and self-destructive view, and few people seem aware that survival would be impossible without it. Chaos, or disorder, is a natural part of life. From it springs all that is new and inovative. All of our great evolutionary leaps were a direct result of chaotic circumstances. Any act which is unexpected and against the generally accepted version of "order" is by definition chaotic, so evolution, climate shifts and, indeed, nature itself, fit this description. Without chaos, stagnation is the only possible outcome, as Chaos forces change, without which progress is impossible. This is in keeping with the principle of eternal opposites, such as day/ night, good/ evil, & similar examples as exemplified by the oriental concept of Yin and Yang.
For those who doubt that chaos is an integral part of man, look at all our earliest myths, legends and philosophies. If every legend contains a central core of fact, the one common denominator of legends like the epic of Gilgamesh, Set and Osiris, Sodom and Gommorah, the Flood, ad infinitum, is that, after all of these obviously chaotic events, the archetypal man concerned found himself driven to progress. To quote the old saying... that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
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