Ben Masada
Well-Known Member
Dear Ben,
Since God created man "perfect," and the Devil, in the personification of the snake, enticed and succeeded to mar that perfection in man, is it proper to blame Satan for our shortcomings?
No, it's not; but even if lyou do, it will be as if you didn't. There is no such a thing as Devil or Satan. Therefore, you won't get rid of the blame for your shortcomings. Besides, the whole theory of Creation is metaphorical. So, there is no wisdom in admiting that the narrative is literal.
Some ancient and non-Biblical modern peoples have also their version of creation. Anyway, our version is also a theory; but that God created man, there must be no doubt in our minds. Theories abound but in the realm of how man was crated.
Now, why can't we blame the Devil or whatever for our shortcomings? The name is Freewill and Volition. The choice to do right instead of wrong, and the exercising of
the will to do so, constitutes true characater in man. When life and death were set before man, and man was proposed to choose life, a devil or whatever was not commissioned to induce him to choose death. Man was solely left to choose his own destiny. (Deut. 3:19)
Man will die someday because one day he was born. Anyway, both are part of life. That's absolutely beyond the borders of our power to interfere. But how we will live or manage the span between birth and death is entirely up to us.
There are some who choose to spend all of their lives in the pursuit of pleasure, according to their means. But this kind of life will bring only disatisfaction at the end of it due to the feeling of not having achieved anything worthwhile. Others run all life long after honor, but since honor depends more on the one who gives it rather than on him who gets it, anxiety is prone to strike in due time as a result of disappointments. Still others go on struggling throughout life engulfed in a money-making spree as if wealth can be regarded as an end in itself. With temperance in every area, the contemplative life guides one into the intellectual communion with God.
Ben:rainbow1:
Since God created man "perfect," and the Devil, in the personification of the snake, enticed and succeeded to mar that perfection in man, is it proper to blame Satan for our shortcomings?
No, it's not; but even if lyou do, it will be as if you didn't. There is no such a thing as Devil or Satan. Therefore, you won't get rid of the blame for your shortcomings. Besides, the whole theory of Creation is metaphorical. So, there is no wisdom in admiting that the narrative is literal.
Some ancient and non-Biblical modern peoples have also their version of creation. Anyway, our version is also a theory; but that God created man, there must be no doubt in our minds. Theories abound but in the realm of how man was crated.
Now, why can't we blame the Devil or whatever for our shortcomings? The name is Freewill and Volition. The choice to do right instead of wrong, and the exercising of
the will to do so, constitutes true characater in man. When life and death were set before man, and man was proposed to choose life, a devil or whatever was not commissioned to induce him to choose death. Man was solely left to choose his own destiny. (Deut. 3:19)
Man will die someday because one day he was born. Anyway, both are part of life. That's absolutely beyond the borders of our power to interfere. But how we will live or manage the span between birth and death is entirely up to us.
There are some who choose to spend all of their lives in the pursuit of pleasure, according to their means. But this kind of life will bring only disatisfaction at the end of it due to the feeling of not having achieved anything worthwhile. Others run all life long after honor, but since honor depends more on the one who gives it rather than on him who gets it, anxiety is prone to strike in due time as a result of disappointments. Still others go on struggling throughout life engulfed in a money-making spree as if wealth can be regarded as an end in itself. With temperance in every area, the contemplative life guides one into the intellectual communion with God.
Ben:rainbow1: