Is Believing In Satan What Yahweh Warned Against?

[mwc]

Let's discuss Hell. If such a place existed and someone was assigned there wouldn't their soul quickly burn up? It can only burn for so long then it turns to ash. Or is it recycled and Satan starts over. Do souls have nerve endings? Would there really be pain? Wouldn't those nerve endings just burn up, ending the pain. Human's have a fantastic resilience. If a human was able to withstand eternal torture, it seems they would build up a tolerance to it. After a while they may yawn in boredom. Certainly, day after day, year after year your fear of Satan would cease. He's already roasting you continuously so why would he be scary anymore? And why would Satan follow God's instructions to torture you? Seems to me that Satan would be more likely to do the opposite of God's will just to irritate him. Who knows, maybe you and Satan would just end up chillin wit some babes in a hot tub. I don't understand what Satan's motivation would be to torture you for eternity. It's a waste of his time when he could be doing other things.

     Hell was created as a place to put the rebellious angels.  But now they're in charge for some reason instead of being punished they get to do the punishing.  They rebelled to gain the kingdom and get rewarded with what they wanted which is a kingdom.  Humans rebelled by eating some fruit or something and get rewarded not with their own orchards but by getting burned up forever in this other kingdom that exists.

 

     Satan obeys because he knows that if he disobeys that something illogical will happen and he just can't take that shit anymore.

 

          mwc

[SRS]

One of the biggest problems Christianity has is that it cannot solve the mystery of good and evil. Christianity attempts to solve this riddle by placing all blame for evil on Satan. The history of Satan in the Bible is basically he was a created angel, who rebelled against god, was cast out of heaven with other angels, and in Genesis we find him vacationing in the Garden of Eden sunning himself in the tree of knowledge where he is free to introduce Adam and Eve to evil.

 

There are a few hefty problems with this fairytale for those who wish to believe it.

 

1. If God is the creator of all things, and there is evil, than evil must have originated with God.

2. If, as the Bible states, Satan is a created being, than evil existed long before Satan was even a concept. Satan could have only used the powers and choices that were made available to him within the universe he was created into.

 

(The only other possibility is that Satan invented or created evil himself. If this is the case, it would mean that God created the devil with the ability to "invent" or "create" an evil power previously unknown to God. Or an equally absurd idea... that God merely built a devil to use the evil power so that no one would blame God for using it.)

 

How we know all of this is a fairytale is by the absurd contradictions...

 

1. The Bible cannot say that God created everything except evil. Whatever exists, whether principalities or powers, these must have originated with God.

2. The Bible cannot use the devil as a scapegoat, because the devil is a created being who must have used whatever powers were at his disposal.

3. The Bible cannot say that evil is a bad thing, if indeed evil originated with God and is a part of his character.

4. The Bible cannot say that most of the human race will be burned alive for learning and using evil, because evil must exist to give people the power of choice.

5. The Bible cannot say that Satan is evil. If anything, Satan is to be commended for being merely a created being, who was built to introduce the universe to the power of evil, and thereby make all living creatures aware of their power of choice.

6. And lastly, the Bible cannot say that we must choose between God and Satan when God is clearly the one who uses evil.

[Ravenstar]

Christian.. biblical mythology states that satan is a role played by a created being.. or a demigod, however you want to view a 'son of god'.. and El's pantheon.... angels are created beings, and therefore could never come close to having the power and authority god has. It also states that ALL power and authority COMES FROM god.

 

problem solved.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

In Judaism - and especially clear in the book of Job, Satan is generally considered an obedient angel of God (or, in say maimonidean versions of judaism, a metaphor for all the natural phenomena that have similar effects), who does what we could maybe term God's "dirty work".

From what I've seen, Satan evolved in a culture where they saw entrapment as a good way to catch the "bad guys". Basically tempt them into getting caught, whereas they might otherwise have tried avoiding committing a crime, they get the idea rubbed into their face until they actually commit it. Satan is just the personification of that. He's the "accuser", he accuses people of crimes he gets them to commit. Satan is really a testament to what the writers of the OT really had in mind for their religion, a very machiavellian and wishfully orwelllian state. As Orwellian as the iron/classical era could get. I don't even think the Romans had that....