The Universal Democracy of Sinners

The angel and devil on the shoulders motif seems to tell us that we have a choice. The conflict between these two powers torments him until he becomes aware of himself again, says Tolkien. If seeing that can bring us to giggles rather than paroxisms of penitence that can only be because we don't take all this quite as seriously as our ancestors did,. Maybe we don't think it's going to land us in hell.