There is a song by the pop-rock band Cake, Sheep Go to Heaven. It seems like kind of an odd name for a song. Especially when you consider the full chorus: "Sheep go to Heaven / Goats go to Hell." But then again, it's not the kind of thing people think about; the song is catchy, they sing along, and then they forget.

But what is the moral? Sheep go to Heaven. The overbearing metaphor of Christianity is Jesus Christ and God the father as shepards tending to flock. Personally, I've always that it an odd metaphor, considering that typically when we people call "sheep," it is derogatory: a way to denigrate people who don't think for themselves and blindly follow others--whether wisely or foolishly. To me, the moral was you don't question, you're rewarded.

But that criticism is all the more poignant in the contrast this Cake song creates. Goats go to Hell. What is the figure of the goat in Christian mythology? The goat represents the evil; the beast; Satan. Yet the story still doesn't make sense. What is the contrast? Is this about mythology? No. Rather, what else does the goat mean in history? Or more precisely, what would early Christianians have sought to distance themselves from?

Consider the later Cake verse: "The carpenter can take you out to lunch / I just want to play my Pan pipes." Pan was a god to the Greeks and Romans who watched over shepards and flocks and known to have the torso of a man and the hindquarters of a goat; he was associated with the satyrs (similar goat persons) and was known for his alluring charm, as well as playing music, drinking wine, and inspiring sexuality. The pre-Christian version of its modern demons: sex, drugs, and rock & roll.

So the question then is, was Christianity for its own reasons endeavoring to cast down such values. Or was it posing itself in binary opposition to these values, demonizing them in reaction to what it would later deem false gods? Remember, the Old Testament indicated that this God was a jealous god, and thus commanded persons to have no other gods but him. This command would be nonsensical if there were no other gods. Today, with the hegemony of monotheism, we simply call all other gods, false gods, but such a term is really historically inaccurate. In either respect, Cake nails it again when they say, "As soon as you're born you start dying / So you might as well have a good time."

I'll tell you want. When I finish law school, I'll thank Pan.