If God were pure, meaning nothing but good, wouldn't Satan win?

Question

If God has Satan on a leash, that means he himself has the ability to destroy, but how can pure goodness destroy things without becoming evil?

I wouldn't be surprised if God turned out to be more evil than Satan. The world would make more sense if they just admited to us that we're all living in hell. That's why all our efforts amount to nothing, and there is no one soul alive which isn't suffering or causing suffering to others.

Nothing in existence is without sin, including God. For thou shall not kill, and God brought forth death to the first born of every Egyptian for that was God's will, along with all the men which forgot and disobeyed God and all other creatures, not to mention the death of his son, and everyone's death from the beginning of time to the end.
Blaming it all on Satan, or Adam and Eve, would be like saying they asked for existence. When all is said and done, goodness does not exist, preserving life is preserving suffering. All that's good is evil.

Answer 1

Or maybe, just maybe, neither god nor satan are real. Or is that too simple?

Answer 2

What a great question. Do you believe that the act of destruction is inherently evil or can there be a moral way to end an existence? For example euthanasia (either animal or human). If a creature is suffering, isn't it more humane to end its life than to simply let it suffer until dies on its own? If that's the case, then it follows that some of the carnage that God has brought upon the earth has been merciful.

On the other hand.... the mass punishments that God is said to have caused in the Old Testament just seem arbitrary and capricious. For instance, the flood. Suspending disbelief and assuming that the flood did indeed occur, am I also supposed to believe that amongst all of the people of who inhabited the earth when the rain began to fall, there was not ONE innocent person (save the folks on the ark)? No infants? No children? No one with a birth defect that would have prevented their making a choice? That seems mathematically unlikely.

I believe that actions can be good or evil, but it depends upon the intent of the actor.

Answer 3

Wow, that was a trippy question. But, allow me to attempt to poke holes in your logic:

1) What is sin? Sin is an action that goes against the will of God. Ergo, God cannot sin.

2) If, as stated above, God cannot sin, then God has not sinned, making your first sentence of the third paragraph completely invalid.

3) Good can destroy evil without becoming evil. I do not see how you made the connection you did. Destruction is not bad. Destruction of evil is something that must be done. The Nazi government was destroyed because it was exterminating a group of people. The Tower of Babel was destroyed because people were trying to make themselves like God. Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together.

4) In response to your point about "Thou shalt not kill," we are also told not to judge, and to leave judgment to God. The taking of a human life is also up to God, and not man.

With these points in mind, I contend that your logic is faulty at best. While I commend you for thinking outside the box, I honestly think some of your conceptions are totally wrong, specifically the idea of what sin is and your assumed inherent evil within destruction.

Answer 4

There are those who do believe we are living in hell at this moment. It does seem odd that God would allow suffering if he is good - unless good means something a little grayer to him. There are also beliefs that God and Satan are aspects of the same being - so it depends on whether you are on his good side quite literally and he can be changeable.
I found some resolution to this in looking at the history of the scriptures. When you try to say the entire Book is completely true, there are conflicts. But when you view it as a series of oral histories and dramatizations, written down by a series of authors who were every bit as flawed as you or I, it begins to make more sense. The accounts in the Bible are not actually first hand - not even the books of the New Testament and that is a known fact in spite of the folk-belief that they were written by Jesus actual disciples. The first test you can do it looking for the four disciples that wrote the chapters in the list of 12 - there are names missing there, aren't there? Luke? Where is he sitting in the last supper picture? Not even born yet, I am afraid. So understand that the Bible does its best to tell us about God and about Jesus, but do not expect it to be better knit together than the Matrix series or the Bourne Identity series ;) think about it more like random episodes of Star Wars,Star Trek and Babylon 5 all thrown together as if they were one work. There are concepts common to all, but they do not meet seamlessly or even agree - different authors.

Answer 5

Interesting hypothesis. My daughter and I were talking about this very thing last night. It is hard for us as humans with a finite mind to understand an infinite God. He himself said that our thoughts are not His thoughts and His ways are not our ways. God can not be anything less than righteous, honest and just. That is His nature. Although He is the creator of all things He allows mankind to make our own choices. We are not puppets that He moves at His pleasure. We all have a choice Life or Death and then just to make sure we got it right He gave us the answer "Choose Life".

Answer 6

I really appreciate your thoughts on this but I disagree with you. God is not evil. I do think that we are a long way from the source and therefore lead a very corrupted existence. Luckily we still have some contact with God you will find it where ever you find love, truth, benevolence, and forbearance. And yes our existence on this plane is often defined by our suffering, but that is the nature of this existence its how you handle it that matters. Do you spread suffering and continue its cycle or do you spread harmony.

Answer 7

God is a Holy and a Just God. First off, the Egyptians tried to kill all the Hebrew Boys. Secondly, It was Pharoh who pronounced the judgment upon his own people.

God's Word says that in the end times that people would call evil good and good evil.

Answer 8

the priority with those form of questions as that there is not any sparkling answer. possibly on the day they're battling devil has the flu so god might win. additionally which god is battling? such a lot of variables. Who will win tomorrows horse race. ? All issues being equivalent it ought to no longer be a winner yet a draw. Are they no longer already battling?

Answer 9

I'm not sure if you have children or not, but think of it this way. If you have a child whom you love very much but found out it was destined to be a murderer, would you still have that child or keep him/her alive? Any of us who are parents would say yes, because our love is so strong for that child. You could say the same thing for God, he loved Satan when he was one of his angels, but just like us, he gave his angels free will. That free will is what gets us into trouble.

Answer 10

Satan isn't evil personified. The Bible says that Satan is God's version of a prosecutor to His Public Defenderness.

Answer 11

Doctors destroy viruses and bacteria. Does that make them evil???

God is MORE than just good. He's also all powerful and all knowing. And a good deal smarter than either Satan OR you. So don't worry so much about it.