Is there a Satan?

SolomonVII said:

In the inner world of the psyche, the spiritual force named Satan is very real.

Polytheism is based in the disparate forces of the human mind and the structure of the mind.
Polytheisitic 'deities' therefore exist as psychic drives that control the will of the human being preconsciously and unconsciously. The psychic experiences that leads to polytheism belief are real enough, and are experienced by everybody, even those athiests who no longer believe in the supernatural.
Ancient people interpreted their own psychic experiences and nature too as willful agencies, powerful energies indifferent to the well being of the individual and motivated by their own agendas. They could at best be manipulated by those priests with arcane and secret knowledge.
Polytheism therefore descends quickly int magic, and to the extent that we are worshiping the deities that dominate our inner pscyhic life, we are in effect worshiping the meat of our own carnal desires, succumbing to the beast within We in effect are both slaves to our own desires, and to the priestly caste of pharoah magicians who control nature for us through magic.

In the mythic world developed in the Bible, this is the world that Fallen man inhabits. The Bible presents us with a vision of a God who controls all these forces of nature and psyche and offers us freedom.

Click to expand...

Okay so there are a myriad of issues you have with your theories, interesting as they are.

Satan at least the name doesn't appear until 1200 AD in Rome, hooves of Pan (the Israelite God), horns of Ba'al (the Canaanite storm God), tail of Tiamat (the Babylonian dragon God), trident of Poseidon (the Greek sea God), Satan is a mixture of deities from differing polytheistic belief systems.

It is also a misnomer to place all polytheistic beliefs the same, the Egyptians who are Sub-Saharan African's do not have the same belief in the Underworld as the Sumerian's do, hence it is inappropriate to place all polytheistic beliefs or couple them together.

Can you clarify disparate, the term disparate means "essentially different in kind; not allowing comparison." So I guess you are saying that polytheism is "different", yet in your previous statement you couple polytheism together, so which one is it?

SolomonVII said:

Polytheisitic 'deities' therefore exist as psychic drives that control the will of the human being preconsciously and unconsciously.

Click to expand...

Polytheism in ancient Sumer, Babylon, Hurrian cultures viewed their Gods as intervening Gods who would often deliver grain for crops, or bring goods for trade, they weren't see a "psychic drives" (whatever that is). The only "psychic drive" we see with the Israelite's is their prophecy or properly called divination, which we do see divination in Babylon, Sumer, Akkad, and so on, so the Israelite's adopted divination but interpret it as prophecy. But, then again I am not sure what you mean by "psychic" experiences?

I will provide an example, John ends up on Patmos and pens a book called Revelation (I'm sure you have heard of it), on the Island of Patmos a Hippodrome was found, what we know about Hippodrome's is that they were used to horse racing and gambling. John famously pens a about 4 horses bringing about death, famine, etc, and this is called Hippomancy, it is divination via horses. Hence, John engages in divination, yet for Biblical purposes it is seen as "prophecy". In other words John is no more a "psychic" than anyone else who claims to have visions.

SolomonVII said:

Ancient people interpreted their own psychic experiences and nature too as willful agencies, powerful energies indifferent to the well being of the individual and motivated by their own agendas. They could at best be manipulated by those priests with arcane and secret knowledge.

Click to expand...

No, not really, how ancient cultures viewed divination was via warning signs or symbolism that indicated a fall. The Sumerian's would use animal livers to indicate dvination for the day, while the ancient Israelite's would engage in visions or Chaomancy, this is later interpreted by sectarian monotheists as "prophecy".

SolomonVII said:

Polytheism therefore descends quickly int magic, and to the extent that we are worshiping the deities that dominate our inner pscyhic life, we are in effect worshiping the meat of our own carnal desires, succumbing to the beast within We in effect are both slaves to our own desires, and to the priestly caste of pharoah magicians who control nature for us through magic.

Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by magic, for example if someone in Sumer was sick or ill with a stomach ache, the remedy would be a mixture of Myrrh, Frankincense, and Beer poured into the anus, which that has long been replaced by modern day medicines such as Pepto Bismo (keep in mind the Sumerian's didn't have Pepto Bismo, Mylanta, etc...) after the mixture was applied an Isib priest would perform an exorcism asking the Gods to intervene in removing the evil spirit that may have effected the victim. There might also follow (as the Sumerian's were agriculturalist) a prayer to the Gods to bring about rain for the crops. This is no different than when a Catholic performs the Roman ritual or when prayer is given for healing purposes, the only difference is that the Sumerian's engaged in this long before the Catholics did, so I'm not totally sure what you mean.

SolomonVII said:

In the mythic world developed in the Bible, this is the world that Fallen man inhabits. The Bible presents us with a vision of a God who controls all these forces of nature and psyche and offers us freedom.

Click to expand...

Okay so before the Bible adopts the epics, legends, and so on of ancient Sumer, ancient Babylon, ancient Akkad, ancient Hurrian, etc... what we don't see is an adversary or "satan", that is a much later invention. The only time we see adversaries is in Akkad and that is used in legal codex. The "fall of man" epic isn't written until about 1700 BC by Moses, and it's not really a concept prior to that.