Does Satan exist?

Question

As a Pagan, it has always struck me that Satan is nothing more than a Christian construct to keep the flock in line. A manifestation, if you will, of our conscience...the angel on one shoulder and devil on the other. I also remember a quote from Anton Lavay saying that Satanism was the best thing to ever happen to the Catholic church. Thoughts?

Answer 1

Actually, Satan predates the Christians. Satan was Jewish in origin, though the idea of him being a bad thing is Christian.

Jewish teaching is that like in all things, we need challenge to become strong, adversity to accomplish. If you are a martial artist, you will not get far in most styles without a sparring partner. Your partner will never try to totally demolish you, he will try to provide you a challenge right at or slightly above your skill level. Should he accidentally cause you genuine harm, he would either help you or step back and let a medic help you.

Satan is thus our spiritual sparring partner. That is, he is utterly loyal and given to G-d, he is doing exactly what G-d has ordained him to do. He will never give us more than we can handle, and if he somehow WERE to do so, despite the wisdom granted him by G-d, he would immediately step back and allow G-d to heal the wounds. If we never had an Adversary (Satan means, depending on how you translate it, either 'Adversary' or 'Accuser'), then we would never have a way to work out our spiritual muscles. Our spirits would be weak and atropheyed.

Christian concepts of the devil literally make no sense at ALL. Satan is called the Enemy of G-d, but G-d cannot have an enemy. All that is created is from G-d, and all will return to G-d. To think that something would be cut off forever is to say that G-d would be rendered incomplete, and thus a failure.

Answer 2

How Satan is portrayed in the Book of Job (the oldest book in the Christian text) is a really good example of what many of the other commentators have said about him. He's not evil. He's a creation of God just like all the rest of us. I can believe he's someone or thing that has lost his way and is the leader of forces in the world that run contrary to God, but the pure mainfestation of evil? No way.

One thing I have found really illuminating in the personal understanding I feel I have of Satan is to read the stories of North American aboriginal societies about the trickster. He's a character that is spread throughout all their cultures and looks very much like western mono-theism's Satan. He's never regarded as evil. He certainly isn't a saint though either. He's just out there stirring sh*t up and having a generally positive effect upon the world. I always kinda thought if Christians looked at Satan alot more like he's the Trickster, maybe we might get a more balanced view of the world.

Answer 3

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 Gods 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’s 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 4

I do not believe that Satan exists. I believe that any evil that the world has is born within the hearts of those that choose to be that way. I believe that the character Satan is some people's excuse for their wrong doings, just to pass the blame to someone else. I also believe that he is used as a scare tactic.

Answer 5

Satanism is not a "Christian invention."

Satanism predates Christianity and all other religions.

Satanism is not about spooks, goblins, vampires, Halloween monsters or other related entities.

Satanism is not about "evil."

Satanism is not a "reaction to Christianity."

Satanism is not about death.

True Satanism is about elevating and empowering humanity, which was our True Creator (Satan's) intention.

We know Satan/Lucifer as a real being that has NOTHING to do with the bible's description. He is not the "Devil"! He is the ancient Sumerian God Enki.

Christianity was invented to remove spiritual and occult knowledge (the powers of the mind) from the populace and place this power in the hands of a "chosen" few to the detriment of all humanity. The powers of the mind and soul are very real. People who are unaware of or who do not believe in these powers are easy to control and manipulate by those who are skilled in using these energies.

We practice power meditation to advance spiritually and to elevate ourselves. Power meditation is as essential for the human soul as food is essential for the human body. The serpent, a symbol of Satan represents the firey kundalini force coiled at the base of the spine, which upon ascending, transforms the human mind and soul to a much higher level of understanding and ability. This is the true meaning of "Raising the Devil." The Serpent symbol of Satan also represents the DNA helix of life.

If you want to know about it in this website there is everything you need: www.joyofsatan.org

Answer 6

Satan predates the Christian era by hundreds of years. He is also in other cultures in various parts of the world.

I knew Anton, he was a huckster who saw a way to make money. He believed in all that stuff a lot less that you believe in God.

Answer 7

In Judaism, Satan (the Hebrew word for "adversary") is a being loyal to God. It is his job to test humans, just as a karate instructor fights with students to test their abilities. Satan is not evil in their tradition; sadly, Christians have twisted him into an evil being, saying Lucifer (a pagan god) was him before falling out of Heaven; what farce!

There are evil spirits, and they have a leader among them. Nonetheless, he isn't extremely powerful, he does not cause all the evil in the world, and his name is not Satan.

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Answer 8

Absolutely exists. I'm a Christian and Satan is NOT what keeps me in line at all. It's my desire to please God and using my 120 billion cells and 130 trillion chemical/electronic connections called my brian that keeps me in line.

Answer 9

i do not believe that the christian (all-knowing all-powerfull) God would have made a mistake such as satan and not destoy him right away, dont you think?

as a pagan myself i can look at it from all angles and not be tide down by what the bible says, and i just dont see it happening :)

Answer 10

satan and jesus are just fabrications of the christian belief......if jesus really existed then how come everything we know of him was written after his death.....not one scribe/follower/historain/philospher ever wrote of jesus during his supposed life line......and back then it was easy to convince people and change dates.....so yea,you'll find info that will ''pre-date''.......let the christians have their heaven and hell....talking snakes ....and unrealistic stories of folklore.......i think religious people suffer a slight retardation