Satan; Is He Ment To Make People An Escape Goat For All Our Problems?

[LastKing]

Have you every notice that Satan seem to be used as a way get to away with hating some one but claim to love some one. I remember debateing christians who belived in satan and I started to notice a pattern. If they did no like Muslims, it ment muslims worshiped Satan. If they did not like Pagans, it met pagans worship satan, if they did not lik jews then there worshiping satan, ect. However they alway claim that they love these people even if there treating them like crap. They will use Satan as the reason why we must show disrespect, bully, say rude things ect. I notice the people they happen to have grudges against all happen to worship satan. Is this the ture purpose of Satan? To label off those we dont like or dissagree with as bing evil so we can have an exuse to be jerk to them?

[PiracyOfTheHead]

Yes, Xtians 'use' Satan as an excuse to be rude, mean, uncaring, unloving, judgemental and so on.

 

They will go so far as to claim they are speaking to the evil spirit inside the person or the 'Spirit of Anti-Christ' and not the person.

 

This complete disassociation between a person and the supposed evil spirit controlling them is an evil thing to do to somebody, treat them like crap and then tell them that you're only speaking to the evil spirit that controls them....it's just a weak excuse to behave badly.

[Deva]

Yeah, if Christians don't agree with something you say or happen to believe, you are "controlled by the Devil". If you think about it, Satan has more power than God. After all, Satan is supposed to have control over all the kingdoms of the world. Basically he has complete control over this "fallen" world. It would be more logical to worship Satan since he was given authority over the only world we have ever seen or known.

 

This fictitious Garden of Eden perfect world ruled by God - when did it ever exist?

[♦ Fuego ♦]

I could never figure out why Christians were so scared of the devil, when they claim to have God himself living in their bodies. I think this betrays the fear that really keeps them in bondage.

 

Then there are the other Christians that think the whole spirit thing is "ghosts and goblins" and has nothing to do with reality. That is how my 2nd pastor viewed things at first, since his seminary taught him that these were only allegories.

 

I don't think I ever shared the witch story on these forums, so here goes:

 

My pastor's wife started acting strangely. Once in an evening service she took the microphone and went on and on about how great she was, and how wonderful her husband was. I could see the pastor squirming after a while, because she went on about 20 minutes and then started singing a song she was making up on the fly about how great she was... Eventually the pastor stopped her and asked her to sit down. (I know now that she was beginning to have a manic episode). Within a week or so, she had gone over the edge. She said afterward that she was in her kitchen and the devil appeared to her. She told him "I can take you." She said the next part was fuzzy, but she remembers tearing out her eyeball, grabbing the family dog, and driving backwards up a local mountain and sacrificing the dog to Satan. The next day her husband (the pastor) had her in the hospital, and a guy in the congregation that had written books on "spiritual warfare" counseled with them. About a week later, a college aged girl came to the pastor and confessed to being part of a witches coven that was trying to curse him, but she was scared and wanted to become a believer. (I think this is coincidental, because she never seemed all that spooky to me). This unleashed a huge wave of teachings on the devil and warfare. Sadly, after a year or so the girl went up on the mountain and doused herself with gasoline and torched herself. She survived, but is scarred for life. The pastor and his wife are much more stable now and live in another town.

 

I have seen people go manic to the point of ending up in the psycho ward, and my opinion is that this is what was happening to the pastor's wife. But mental illness can make those who are predisposed to belief in demons assume the worst. Hallucinations aren't that uncommon, particularly when the brain chemistry is unbalanced and the person hasn't slept for days. Two other friends of mine have also gone through manic/depression so I recognize it much faster now, and I no longer attribute it to spirits (good or bad). At my last church a man started going off in the morning service, saying some fairly outlandish things (but well within the charismatic spectrum of possibility). The pastor commented to me later that he wasn't sure what to do with the guy. I told him about manic episodes and that the guy would hopefully come down on his own and start sleeping normally again, and that he would be much more calm after that. And he did. Many pastors are not familiar with mental illness, so they automatically assume it is spiritual instead of brain chemistry imbalance or disease.

[rosy_mary]

Many pastors are not familiar with mental illness, so they automatically assume it is spiritual instead of brain chemistry imbalance or disease.

 

This kind of thinking extends to the congregation, too. All kinds of physical or mental abnormalities can be attributed to the work of Satan. When I told my Fundie mother about an episode of sleep paralysis that I had, one of the causes she came up with was demonic oppression. When I was a kid, she used to tell me about face-to-face encounters she'd had with angels and demons over the course of her life, and she's hardly even the most superstitious Christian I've known. Christians live in a strange fantasy land in which the very Forces of Darkness themselves could be lurking around every corner. It's hardly a suprise that they see demons in people, especially when the New Testament is full of stories of demonic possession.

 

And don't forget--logic and reason are also the tools of the Devil! How dare we pesky exChristians demand their religion make sense!

[Mike D]

And don't forget--logic and reason are also the tools of the Devil!

Ah yes, logic and reason, in the top drawer of Satan's toolchest right next to the Fake Dinosaur Bones ™ and his copy of Evolution For Dummies ™, which he uses to trick "secular" scientists into believing his lies

[OpheliaGinger]

And don't forget, "The devil made me do it," as an excuse for not owning up to their actions.

[par4dcourse]

(In my best Flip Wilson "Geraldine" voice) The devil made me buy that dress!

[Sexton Blake]

In the OT, Satan may have killed 10 people (in Job, though god created a diversion at the time, maybe to take the heat off him doing it), while god regularly committed mass murder throughout the OT at the drop of a hat. god is also the guy who created hell and will torture you there forever unless you crawl nicely to him. Why are christians such a bunch of fuckwits that they cannot see it?

 

Christians have seen too many horror films and think Satan is evil. He isn't. He's the good guy in the OT who caught god out in a direct lie (Genesis 2:17 and Genesis 5:5). Matthew and Luke 4 has him tempting Jesus while they look out over a flat world, with Satan offering Jesus what he would already own as son of god. Stupid lies.

 

god does all the good stuff, Satan does all the bad stuff, despite having no power, despite only being able to do what the all powerful god allows him to do. Idiots!!!!!