The concept of good is nonsense without the concept of bad (or not?). Are God and Satan the poles of the same battery?
2007-07-21 16:27:50 · 27 answers · asked by Lost. at. Sea. 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
To judi juju: Yes I believe the day and night are the same thing. The day and the night are always present in our planet. A day without a night is not possible.
2007-07-21 16:36:37 · update #1
Hi Sailcat,
Most definitely, God and the devil cannot exist without one another. God needs the devil to be the scapegoat for all of the world's misery and to blame all the evil in the world on. If there was only a good and perfect, all-powerful God, then it'd be difficult to explain away all the misery, pain and horror that exists.
Religion also needs the lure of heaven (God), and the threat of hell (Satan) to keep its followers in line. Think good cop/bad cop. The ranks of Christianity would not be so numerous if the church only had the fantasy of a mythical heaven to lure in the gullible afraid of their own mortality. It also needs the threat of hell to win over converts. This is why we daily see Pascal's Wager shoved down our throats. Believers need to be scared of going to hell. The bible worshipers need to believe in both God AND the devil for religion to work.
"The devil and God are components of a Siamese twin. Neither has any existence apart from the other. In denying the existence of the one, Christians have helped to kill the other. If there need to be no fear of hell, people may well ask what is the attraction of heaven? Gods and devils were born together. Gods and devils will die together."
— Chapman Cohen
"A religion can no more afford to degrade its Devil than to degrade its God."
— Havelock Ellis
"If religion cannot restrain evil, it cannot claim effective power for good."
— Morris Cohen
It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
— Helen Keller
We've got just enough religion to hate each other, but not enough religion to love each other.
— Jonathan Swift
2007-07-22 13:02:30 · answer #1 · answered by HawaiianBrian 5 · 1⤊ 3⤋
God and Satan have been known to make wagers with each other. So how could they be the same guy?
Also: Free will was given to mankind as the result of one such wager.
God wagered that he would win the popularity contest, and Satan replied: "You're on."
When God saw that he was losing, he decreed that all who do not vote for him will burn and rot in Hell throughout eternity.
So God and Satan are definitely two different beings.
2007-07-22 01:22:00 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Satan is not the opposite of God until the New Testament. In the OT, he is a faithful servant of God and has an assigned job: he tests men at God's command.
Of course, that made him a bit feared in Jewish folklore, so he became something of a Bogey-man in folk tales.
Most of the authors of the NT had little education in Jewish theology and it showed. They seem to have drawn more from folk tales than actual scripture. Their misinterpretations of Hebrew led to some rather amusing errors when making Jesus compatible with what they believed to be messianic prophecy.
Later, when Mohamed was inventing Islam, he drew from the same erroneous Christian literature.
2007-07-21 16:36:55 · answer #3 · answered by Diminati 5 · 1⤊ 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 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
2007-07-22 02:08:57 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
a fashion or the different they may be seen merely an analogous factor. yet perchance it particularly is extra understood if we evaluate that God is the entire and each little thing else are its fundamental areas. And regardless of acts of any portion of God does, an analogous are the acts of God, who's the entire. That being so, regardless of devil does, an analogous are the acts of God. hence God and devil are one, yet no longer inevitably an analogous factor or entity because of the fact devil isn't the entire!.
2016-10-09 05:36:06 · answer #5 · answered by logston 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is not possible for God and Satan to be the same person or to have the same nature. God is the Creator, who sent Christ to die for our sins and He seeks a relationship with us.
Satan was created by God as an angel, but he is now a fallen angel. The devil seeks to turn people from God and against the Lord, and he seeks to deceive and destroy people.
2007-07-21 17:26:01 · answer #6 · answered by bleu 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yep since god is purported to be in all things. And everywhere omniscent and a mind reader etc. He has to be inside satans head as well.
2007-07-22 04:48:45 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes, they are just an easy way for simple minded people to explain good and bad. Cances are that neither of them exist but the point is that human beings need simple structures and black-and-white thinking, that's why it's so easy to sell the war in Iraq: "either you're with us (with me, George Bush and his team) or you're with the terrorists"
2007-07-21 16:37:19 · answer #8 · answered by innocentANDpc 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
No. God is the eternal all-powerful creator that is good and loving by nature. Satan is a creature created by God as a beautiful angel that rebelled and thus caused evil to emerge. God bless.
2007-07-21 16:30:18 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 3⤋
Sounds like you are moving beyond Western religion and it's dualist beliefs. Perhaps like you are more attuned to Eastern concepts like the Tao.
2007-07-21 16:31:39 · answer #10 · answered by scottr 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋