Do you think Satan as religions use him is a form of mental illness phycosis?

Question

Ive studied a few religions and found that the mormons think Satan is in the water that is his dominion and missionaries cant go swimming while on a mission . Other religions see him as a temptation everywhere,but this sounds like a mental illness to me.

If say you have extreme paranoia and imagine that everyones looking talking about you everywhere you go, isnt that akin to seeing the devil as a temptation trying to lead you away from a righteous path he is everywhere to some religious people.

Answer 1

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 2

The term Satan means adversary. In Christianity the term specifically relates to "the devil", the concept of "the devil" was absorbed into Christianity from the early church's main adversary, the Pagan religion.

The Pagans imagery of demigods for various aspects of nature, included a horned figure, similar to the Greek God Pan, with cloven hoofs and horns.

The devil is merely a concept along with the awful conception of eternal fire and brimstone, which was used by the early church as a "scare tactic" to attract the Pagans(peasants) to the new order.

The church viewed the Pagans who worship God in the form of nature, as primitive and during the development of the church, many perceived heresy's, that did not conform to the views of the governing church body were condemmned, along with the followers of those opposing views, fortunately the absolute political power of the church has now been removed, so there is no longer the fear of the inquisition. Hence we can discuss these fallacies openly.

There is no-one who can seriously compete with God, God is absolute, however there is a devilish situation or a devilish mentality that separates us from God, that is due to the mis-use of our own free-will, which we are all responsible for, rather then abdicate blame onto a mythical concept for our own misgivings, it is far better to learn from our mistakes and attempt to reconcile ourselves with the Supreme via the guidance of a bona-fide spiritual master and a devotional attitude toward the Supreme.

To discuss further:-Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari ([e-mail])

Answer 3

What the ? How go you get to mental illness from Satan? I doubt Mormon missionaries swim, as it would involve near nudity in a public area. People get mentally ill for hundreds of reasons, and it's got naff all to do with religion!
Do you even know what Psychosis is?

Answer 4

I think that Satan has his own religions and put fears into people of different proportions. I believe that mental illness is of Satan and everything that doesn't consist of a sound mind. God and Satan are in competition over our souls. God has already won the battle and Satan knows this, he is trying to take as many people as he can with him because "he wasn't invited to the party upstairs" so to say. Satan is going to do whatever it takes to keep people from Jesus and heaven, even if it means making them afraid of water or mentally instable to believe in God.

Answer 5

No. A psychosis is a mental illness.
People who suffer from a pyschosis are mentally ill and can pick up on any subject and believe it to be true and happening to them now. When the psychosis is treated these thoughts will go away.
Satan is a part of religious history, and true or not, is not a mental illness.

Answer 6

I agree to a small degree as to what you imply,
i work in mental health and have noticed that some relatives(with very strong beliefs) of the persons that have the mental health issue , blame the other persons lack of faith and that it is demons/satan that is the problem and that if they embrace jesus, god etc then they would be cured, which in itself gives the person even more issues.
And if the people would stop preaching it then the person with mental health issues is able to get their life back together quicker and without having to question the spiritual side of their lives.
hope this makes sense! if not then just ignore me

Answer 7

to each his own, however many psychosis are born out of religion
or lack of understanding. out of lonliness and out of self hatred.
i have met satanists whom are quite sane, however, and so your question, like the chicken and egg thing cant really be answered.

Answer 8

Look up Meme's or Memetics, it's quite interesting.

Answer 9

it is just like people how belive in god they have a mental illness

Answer 10

Maybe........ just maybe..Satan is the righteous path !!!