OPINIONS PLEASE. Would the existence of a God make the existence of a Satan necessary.?

Question

Does there always have to be good and evil, in your opinion?

My son and I were talking today and he told me that there could not be one without the other. I said why?

I think there is a God, or intelligent designer who created my soul. I think Satan is entirely the creation of men who desired to use fear as a means of control.

What do you all think?

I really don't mean to be rude but I could not care less what the buy-bull says.

Please think for yourselves.

Thank you for some really wonderful answers.

I am regularly reminded that we have so many people here who bring so much to the table. We all benefit from the wisdom.

Answer 1

Personally, I think it's all a slick scheme to control people's thoughts, feelings and behavior. Religion, politics and such. Religion all seems to have one of two things to say:

A) Pacifist: be good to one another, live by the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you; and,
B) Militant: go out and kill your neighbor because God said so, and you will receive great rewards in the afterlife

In either case, we are warned to do what our society expects of us, becuase 'God said so'. This alleviates the need to explain, esp to children, why it is good to behave one way, or not good to behave another way. It also provides an easy way to get people to do horrendous things 'in the name of God', that they would not otherwise do...

Somewhere, I've read, "...There is no good or evil beyond that which you make good or evil by your intent." In otherwords, no heaven or hell beyond what you make your life to be in the here and now. If you do evil things, if you are not enjoying your life, if you are paying consequenses for your actions; then, truely you do not have to die to 'go to Hell', as you are already living there; in a hell you created for yourself.

I like to use this example to show how I feel about 'good' and 'evil':
Question: Is it good or evil for a lion to eat a lamb?
Lion's answer: It was good. It was very good.
Lamb's answer: I was murdered by that evil lion, in the prime of my life.

Things always look different from different points of view. Good or Evil cannot exist out of context with how the words are being used. In a common spitting contest between differing religions there is never a consensus of opinion; and many a 'holy war' (an oxymoron, if ever I saw one) have been fought over just such discussions.

In the end, each of us has to work it out for ourselves and settle on that which makes the most sense to us. As Christ suggested, when we pray, don't do it out in public; rather, go into our most private space and pray in silence, that our Father in heaven can hear us in silence, and perhaps answer us in silence. For religion is a very personal issue between you and whatever you percieve as a 'supreme being'; or, if of a scientific inlination; you may refer to it as 'the Universal Life Force Energy', or as in Star Wars, simply as the 'Force'. In any event, it's all the same thing, no matter what nomenclature we place upon it. There is something etherial about all of existence that is indefinable, omnipresent, and is, so far as I can conceive, infinite... and we are all made of it.

Answer 2

While adversity may open some people's eyes to the suffering of others (it doesn't always), leading to, in your words, "emotional maturity," if there were a god that created everything, and was in charge of how everything works, it could have created us with an inborn sense of empathy. In fact, if there really were an all-powerful, all-loving god, suffering would not exist. I know, I know. There's a bible story that explain that humans are responsible for suffering, but unless humans are as powerful as the god in the story, the god would have had to have created the capacity for suffering in order for anyone to experience it. So, it still comes back to the god of the story being responsible for everything, and making some really psychopathic choices. In any event, discussions of why a god might do anything are premature since no evidence has ever been presented that proves that such an entity actually exists. It's "putting the cart before the horse." Nothing real requires faith. .

Answer 3

Here's my take on it: Good and evil are mostly subjective and completely the creations of the human mind. No two people (even within the same general belief system) seem to be able to agree completely on what's good and what's evil. It's certainly not some sort of universal balance that needs to be maintained as some superstitious types would have us all believe. So, if there is a creator, that doesn't necessitate the existence of some kind of contrary influence. God (the Abrahamic version) and Satan are nothing but mythical figures representing carrot and stick to condition and manipulate fearful primitive minds.

Answer 4

No. In the beginning, before the universe was created, there was no Satan. Then one of the angels rebelled, and tried to become higher than God. That angel BECAME the evil spirit we know as Satan.

In the future (very soon, I think) God's justice will kick in (we are in a time of grace at the present), and He will deal swiftly, severely, and surely with all evil. Satan is not going to rule in hell, either, as some believe. He is going to suffer there for all eternity.

Then there will be no more evil; it will have been justly dealt with, and eradicated, along with sickness, death, and all forms of misery. Only good will remain for all the rest of evernity.

Want in on God's great master plan? Jesus is your ticket in. (John 14:6 and the 1st 3 chapters of John, among many other verses)

Answer 5

In a way your son is absolutely correct. In order for there to be good there has to be evil. God isn't a big man in the sky as is commonly conceived. I think of God as "that than which none greater can be thought." God transcendent is the ALL, inclusive of what humankind considers good and evil, the alpha and the omega of which none greater can be conceived. This is the infinite complexity and complete interpendence of this matrix of being and consciousness. This is the God which is the Constant Becoming in this very now of Infinite potential, of the future.

Then there is God in the sense of the highest ideals to which we can aspire. This is the God after whose image we are created every day as we chose this and not that.

In this sense God is Spirit. Spirit is that which moves us, animates us. We call the spirit of loving kindness God.

When the spirit which moves us is pride, lust, avarice, gluttony, sloth, wrath and envy we call it Satan.

Neither the spirit of Satan nor the spirit of God have any power until they wield power over a body.

To carefully observe and attend to the spirit which moves us is to practice religion.
To bind one's self to a code of conduct in the spirit of that than which none greater can be though is to practice religion.

There are those who would, could, can and do use fear, and fear of Satan to manipulate others. Some even do it consciously, but I believe that by-and-large, they are just fearful folks who desperately need others to reinforce their hopes and fears, and the fantasy they've built of them.

Don't be afraid. The dead are not alive and the living shall not die for you have five trees in paradise whose leaves neither wither nor do they fall...
Whoever finds the secret meaning meaning of these words will not taste death.

Answer 6

The existence of GOD does NOT make evil necessary. Those that turn away or hurt others brought evil into their world, and if they can persuade others to follow them then evil grows. As the ones that turned away live in fear they spread this to others. Controlling them.
Although I heard if there was no evil how could you tell anything was good. It's like you need evil to appreciate the good people do in an evil situation.
Perhaps you are both correct, in regards to good-vs-evil.

Answer 7

Sorry this is a post and comment that posted 9 years ago and suddenly I appear here and giving my opinion rn(after 9 years) I really hope that u could notice my comment although this's weird and surprising. I hope u can read my comment below.😀I kinda agree with the example that @John Silver gave in the comment. Lion ate a lamb. From the view of lion, it's good because if the lion don't eat anything as don't 'murder' any living things to eat lion will die, and he got the food to settle the hunger and so, it's good, he can continues to live but not die from hunger.
But from lamb's view, it's not good at all. He just murdered me and eat me, and I'm dead.
I know this's weird but still is the fact (?)

Answer 8

If you are talking God like the Christian god then I think he can exist without an opposing evil force. He is supposed to be all powerful, if an opposition did arise he could just delete him from existance.

In addition the words good and evil are very subjective. We as Americans think certain terrorist groups are evil, but they think the same of us. It's hard to find one thing that every person in the world agrees is evil.

Answer 9

I am of a similar opinion as yours: I do not believe that the existence of Evil is NECESSARY. I do not think there must be "Evil" in order for "Good" to exist. I do not think the Universe would cease to exist if Evil was completely irradicated and all that remained was Goodness. In fact, it is my hope that SomeDay (preferably during OUR lifetime), we Humans will make a conscious effort to rid our planet of Evil, by deciding to help our fellow Humans rather than doing harm to them.

I do not, however, think that Satan came about b/c of Man. He amassed his Power b/c of Man, but he was an Angel (Lucifer) who used his Free Will to disobey and defy God. It was the selfish pride-filled action of an Angel that initially created Evil. When Man was created, Lucifer knew EXACTLY how to gain power: use the Free Will of Man, and exploit it so that he, too, would disobey God.

But if WE were to ever pull together and decide to no longer allow Satan to influence and direct our actions and thoughts, WE could permanently defeat Evil...
And just imagine how utterly pleased God would be if we were to figure out how to do it :) ...

So stick to your opinion on this one! I think one of Satan's tools he uses to confuse Humankind is to promote the idea that Evil HAS to exist in order for there to be "balance". The very concept that we need to "balance Good and Evil" is a sad twisted way to live!! No, we do NOT need a balance b/t Good and Evil; we need Good to overcome and defeat Evil. Once I realised that, I began to see how deceptively Evil that concept of "balanced forces" really is. (Recall in Star Wars how the Jedi made that mistake, too: they always heard about this amazing Jedi who would bring "balance to the force"; and it was Anakin Skywalker...and he DID bring balance, by allowing the Dark Side to come up to the same level as the Good Side...this "balance" was NOT a good thing!)

Peace.

Answer 10

did you know that in Judaism, there is no devil?

theres a "Satan" but its an angel that works for God, not evil, not a rebel, or anything like that.

God created all that is. including "evil".

God is beyond the concepts of Good and Evil, the distinction only matters from a finite perspective. to God, how can ther ebe a difference, not what is?

for US there is Good and Evil, and we need a concept of evil to appriciate a concept of Good. but a true omniscient God, could not be dualistic like that.