doesn't satan get too much blame for our shortcommings?

Question

c'mon let's give the guy a break already. it's us who sin. let's not blame it on satan. let's take responsibility for our actions. from now on satan get's left out of the mix. what do you say?

Answer 1

Agreed... wholeheartedly.

But you may differ with me on the next part.... Let's get "sin" out of the mix. I don't need religious dogma to tell me when something which hurts another person, or another animal (yes, I said *another* animal), or the planet... is wrong. I have internal guides which are quite sufficient, thank you. They are integrity, empathy, compassion, respect, consideration, honesty, open-mindedness, reason, patience, and courage.

I'd even go so far as to remove religion, itself, from the mix. Over and over, it seems to be at the heart of so many self-righteous, thoughtless, cruel, and irresponsible behaviors.

But I have plenty of friends and family who worship without those downfalls, so I live and let live.

It's the ones who *don't* let live I have a problem with -- a serious one. Look to some current world leaders. I've said it before, and will say it again... Religious bigotry, idiocy, and self-righteousness will be the death of us all.

Answer 2

Sin is not real and neither is satan.

In ancient Jewish tradition Satan is simply an angel doing the work that God assigned to Satan to do.

The word Satan means challenger. With the idea of Satan challenging us, or tempting if you will. This description sees Satan as the angel who is the embodiment of man's challenges. This idea of Satan works closely with God as an integral part of God plan for us. His job is to make choosing good over evil enough of a challenge so that it becomes clear to us that there can be only one meaningful or logical choice.

Contrast this to Christianity, which sees Satan as God's opponent. In Jewish thought, the idea that there exists anything capable of setting itself up as God's opponent would be considered polytheistic or setting up the devil to be an equally powerful polarity to god or a demigod.

Oddly, proof for The Christian satan/devil mythology is supposedly found in the ancient Jewish texts that were borrowed to create the bible. One can’t help but wonder how Christians came up with such a fantastically different interpretation of Gods assistant Satan in their theology.

Other hints about Satan’s role in human relations can be seen if you look at the name Lucifer. It meaning in the original tongue translates as Light bearer or light bringer. Essentially the bringer of enlightenment. The temptations of the Satan idea bring all of us eventually into Gods light. Hardly the Evil entity of Christian mythology.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 3

Fine with me. One of Satan's main sources of power is getting blamed. Crediting Satan with power is like crediting his debit card with cash.

Another major source of power for Satan is believing that we or someone else has sinned. That's why we weren't supposed to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The concept of sin subtracts itself from love. If we think we've sinned, we become afraid of punishment and forget about the love that would have prevented the sin. If we think someone else has sinned, our disapproval pushes love right out the door. And Satan smiles with satisfaction.

The absence of love is indifference. If we delegate our love of humanity to Jesus, we have subtracted from the love we're here to give. Jesus lived his life as an example of how to love all no matter what they do. Remember "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do"? This is not to mention "Judge not, lest ye be judged" and "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".

When we look at others who are greedy, vicious, or otherwise perverted do we feel that self-righteousness is proof that whatever is human is not also ours? Nurture others and we are following the example of Jesus. Condemn others and we are following the path of Satan.

In fact, just believing in Satan is creating a world with Satan in it. Believing in Love is creating a world with love in it.

That's it. Rant finished. May Love prevail.

P.S. The greatest trick Satan ever played was to convince the world he DID exist.

Answer 4

satan was invented for the exact purpose of letting people off the hook for their shortcomings. since christianity came along and started teaching that good deeds were secondary to faith instead of the other way around, people needed something to blame their bad deeds on. voila satan. the true biblical philosophy is that your bad deeds are your own and nobody else but YOU are responsible for them, and you have own up to them and make amends either to God or to the person you wronged, and no amount of faith will save you if you're not a good person.

Answer 5

Satan's blame and our blame co-exist, although we are accountable for the way in which we respond to Satan's temptations. The Bible says that God won't allow us to be tempted beyond what He gives us the strength to bear, if we choose to trust Him and not ourselves. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Of course, the difference between our accountability to God versus Satan's accountability is that Jesus didn't die to save Satan.

Answer 6

Satan is created to be blamed, if everything go wrong.

Answer 7

Depends on your religion. People in general love to blame anyone but themselves for their own shortcomings.

Answer 8

Could be.... but sorry, Satan is still a factor. To completely leave him out is going a little over the top.

Answer 9

there is a saying"the greatest trick satan ever played was to make the world think he does not exist"
think about it.

Answer 10

Yes, humanity is solely to blame for all the pain, misery, and suffering that exists on this planet.

Human beings are evil because they choose to be, not because they have to be.