Matt Terrell's brilliant tongue-in-cheek essay about "The Dark Lord" suggests why John Milton began "Paradise Lost" in Hell and why his scathing epic starred Satan, not Jesus or God. Simply put, the Lord of the Underworld is a far more interesting character than his pasteboard Heavenly counterparts. As a matter of fact, Milton, who had served the satanic puritan Lord Cromwell during the English Interregnum, had been tossed out of power after the Restoration. Having barely escaped with his life after King Charles II took over the throne in 1660, Milton shared a lot in common with Satan.

Terrell's scabrous irreverence, as always, animates this monologue. I have a feeling Terrell has been poking fun at pompous goody-goods since he was a bitty little devil in a Savannah day care center. Like Lucifer, Terrell has been aware that the light -- "luz" in Spanish and "lux" in Latin -- is a complex amalgam. To be enlightened is to have choices, to be able to understand Evil fully, not flee from it, blind-sided by Goodness. According to the Old Testament, Satan offered Eve choices she faced fully and accepted, opting to err humanly. But rather than forgive her -- "to err is human, to forgive divine" -- God condemned her and Adam to post-lapsarian suffering. In Terrell's words, "God Himself isn't a very pleasant supreme being."

I won't go into Terrell's analysis of the New Testament or blather on about Milton's "Paradise Regained," where Jesus and Satan have a standoff in the desert. All I want to do is rave that Terrell's piece comprises the smartest, most compact writing I've seen on the subject since Christopher Hitchens met the Deity to duke it out in a recent best-seller. If you missed that book, tune in to this drop-in. Terrell's piece might not fare well on public radio stations in the Bible Belt, though, Lord knows (!), it needs to be heard there most of all.

Hey, it needs to be heard from coast to coast. Listen up and lol: "God is a little bit of a lunatic."