2007-01-25 19:38:26 · 13 answers · asked by Jay 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
The goat was seen as a sacred image, and represented a god of fertility in many pagan cultures.
When the Christians came to these cultures with their 'superior' religion (superiority complex) they automatically demonized these people's god. Their way of justifying taking over these people was to make a once benevolent god into what we know as 'satan'.
You will notice this representation of satan does not have a lot of back-up, if any, in The Bible. It's just as irrelevant to the actual religioin as blonde-haired angels with white wings are.
2007-01-25 19:47:16 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
The association of the goat with Satan probably originated in the custom of the scapegoat, as is hinted at here. In Israel the sins of the tribes were ceremonially loaded onto the head of a goat. This "scapegoat" represented the god Azazel, 'Messenger of the Lord', who took these sins away each Day of Atonement. The Horned God Azazel was actually a divine redeemer who took human sins upon himself and atoned for them by his exile and/or death, and you can read this for yourself in Leviticus 16:20 in the Bible: "An when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat; and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of the man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities upon him into a solitary land; and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness."
2007-01-26 03:44:51 · answer #2 · answered by Daniela 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It was the Christian way of demonizing the pagan god Pan. He is a satyr which is a man with a goat lower half. In fact the bible only refers to the devil as a serpent.
Me I am all for the goat man.
2007-01-26 03:48:40 · answer #3 · answered by Dogma 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
A common technique of a new religion is to "demonize" the god of the previous religion. So Pan, a fairly popular god of fertility (and a satyr or faun) was used as a template for how the Christian "Satan" should look.
2007-01-26 03:47:32 · answer #4 · answered by Vaughn 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
sorry to disagree with you. I think Satan represent our imagination and the way we think about it
2007-01-26 03:45:01 · answer #5 · answered by un_1000 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the goat has horns, like satan. He is a goat like demon. With horns. He wasn;t a cow, although I don't know why. Cows have horns as well.
2007-01-26 03:43:19 · answer #6 · answered by Qyn 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
my opinion...you can turn the horns and face into a shape of the upside down star in the pentagram in the star that is in the circle, which is a freemason symbol and wicca symbol.
2007-01-26 07:22:37 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Foolish 'pagan' perversion... Saturnalia, Pan, etc... turned 'evil'... scapegoat... etc.
\\
To comment about 'horns'... horns were a symbol of divinity and godliness... what every changed that?
2007-01-26 03:43:21 · answer #8 · answered by Invisible_Flags 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
come on, look at them! Look at those evil weird eyes! EVIL! (j/k)
http://images.google.nl/images?q=goat%20eye
(also, the horns)
2007-01-26 03:45:22 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the TV hadn't been invented yet.
And neither had the IRS.
2007-01-26 03:47:09 · answer #10 · answered by Boomer Wisdom 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋