We're soon due to be locked up for a thousand years then, aren't we!?
Our very own evil inclination causes us to fall and then ascends to the heavens to accuse.
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Is there a Divine Enemy?
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Our very own evil inclination causes us to fall and then ascends to the heavens to accuse.
Jane_the_Bane
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It's fairly obvious to me that reality as a whole is amoral, unthinking and without the kind of directed, goal-oriented purpose that people like to project upon larger-than-life personifications like gods or devils.
Plate tectonics may kill thousands in a matter of minutes, yet they are as unconscious and unintentional as a belch.
To project human morality upon nature as a whole and THEN cleave it in two, attributing all the "good" stuff to one figure and the "bad" to another - well, that sounds extremely unhealthy and dissociative.
Plate tectonics may kill thousands in a matter of minutes, yet they are as unconscious and unintentional as a belch.
To project human morality upon nature as a whole and THEN cleave it in two, attributing all the "good" stuff to one figure and the "bad" to another - well, that sounds extremely unhealthy and dissociative.
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Petros2015
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waitaminute... Satan is from the Quality Control department...?!?!?
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Petros2015
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Just because God is omniscient, it doesn't mean He always uses His omniscience just for Himself.
We benefit from God's tests as well.
What was David's bravest act?
When he slew a lion? No.
When he slew a bear? No.
When he slew Goliath? No.
It's when he said ...
Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Had Abraham not been tested, the world would not have known he was so faithful.
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awitch
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So, God actively decides to stop knowing things so he can explicitly test people? For example, telling Abraham to sacrifice his son? That would be completely unnecessary and exceptionally cruel.
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What you consider "unnecessary and exceptionally cruel" got Abraham into the Hall of Faith chapter.
Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
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awitch
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Let's review: God, who already knows everything, intentionally decides to not know something that he already knows, and chooses to inflict psychological trauma by telling some guy who is already faithful, to sacrifice his own child and only yells, "Psych! Just kidding" after the son is tied down and about to be killed.
Yes, I consider that exceptionally cruel and completely unnecessary.
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He's become a very sympathetic character to me. I guess is true that my ethics fall contrary to the "might makes right" ethics of an omniscient yet for some reason very involved god.
So many things like humanism, liberalism, feminism, scientific advancement, video games, anime, loud music, environmentalism, LGBT acceptance, cosplaying are attributed to Satan I think that I have to side with that guy categorically. I mean, what else is there even left that's part of my identity? I'm basically a certified satanic solider at this point. Ask any Christian on this forum! lol
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In my opinion, he has the Nine Muses doing his handiwork in the science and arts department.
Ezekiel 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Lucifer's job was to provide music for the angels who came to the Garden of Eden to eat from a tree that was off-limits to Adam and Eve.
Just my theory.
And when he fell, he chose nine of them to oversee the halls of academia.
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Oh, I get it.
In a thread asking if there is a "divine enemy," I'm supposed to list people who drive cars, walk their dogs, fill up at the pump, and vote their conscience.
Meanwhile, pagans, who think there's more to reality than meets the eye, and believe in things that go bump in the night, sit and ridicule those who identify the spiritual realm, right down to their names: like Lucifer, Gabriel, Michael, et alii.
Hmmm.
Would it be better if I acted innocent and scratched my head at Christians who speak of other-worldly personages ... even calling some of them by name ... while ... behind a dark moon, I go skyclad and impregnate fallen trees?
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Tiburon
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Is Satan/Mephistopheles/the devil real? Or is this just flaws in our own humanity that lead us to do bad things? This is open to any religions, and what I have below is just my own ramblings about this topic, not apologetics. I'm simply laying out my beliefs & asking you to do the same. The images are supplemental.
Personally, I can't see there not being a divine enemy of some kind. If there is a good God, and people choose bad anyway, there must be a force that leads people away from the good God. Free will chooses what looks good, so there has to be something enticing in the opposite direction. Our own flawed nature can lead us to choose the wrong, but I don't believe it would be sufficiently anti-goodness to account for all the atrocities through all of human history.
Even looking in nature, there is definite beauty, and many religions are built off of seeing something divine in natural creation. Yet the presence of an Enemy is unmistakable, as the beauty of the trees & the water & the butterflies can often be attacked by various parasites.
There is definite conflict in nature, in the world, and in ourselves. There is conflict in every story. How can there be conflict without an enemy to fight? Why do so many sports, movies, and books involve combat? It resonates with all of us at some level.
No there is no "Divine Enemy" It is simply a product of our nature that leads us to do both Good and Bad things.
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