Praise God but don't blame it!

[Misty]

God is also the source of all evil. According to your faith God created everything. Which means he created suffering, evil and atheists. Why would he do that? Wait, let me answer that for you. His ways are beyond our understanding. Right. Just another way of saying you don't know how to answer the question without admitting your God is a saddistic monster. Your dogma makes no sense.

I agree.

 

[NeoSeeker]

God is the source of all good things, but since the Fall of Eden we have had Satan in our lives. Just as he slyly obtained Adam & Eve's consent to destroy their lives, he does the same with all of us today.

Satan is a character dreamed up by man along the lines of how we dreamed up God, at least a God with specific characteristics. The Devil is not an external force that works upon us. If anything, it is our short comings at work from within.

God is also the source of all evil. According to your faith God created everything. Which means he created suffering, evil and atheists. Why would he do that? Wait, let me answer that for you. His ways are beyond our understanding. Right. Just another way of saying you don't know how to answer the question without admitting your God is a saddistic monster. Your dogma makes no sense.

I agree.

We exist. Something we have no clue of called "God" may have inadvertently created us or maybe we just popped up due to favorable circumstances and conditions. Who knows??

 

[ChristineES]

I don't really see Satan as a physical being, but a part of our nature. We are flesh and our flesh tempts us to do things that aren't really good for us- eating too much cake to drinking too much, to sleeping around to the point of STDs, etc. Thus, Satan is called "Tempter"

 

[Midnight Pete]

I don't really see Satan as a physical being, but a part of our nature. We are flesh and our flesh tempts us to do things that aren't really good for us- eating too much cake to drinking too much, to sleeping around to the point of STDs, etc. Thus, Satan is called "Tempter"

I agree that Satan is not physical. Like God and the angels, Satan is a spirit. Transcendant. Unconditioned by time or space as we understand them.

And he is indeed the Tempter. :seesaw:

 

[NeoSeeker]

I agree that Satan is not physical. Like God and the angels, Satan is a spirit. Transcendant. Unconditioned by time or space as we understand them.

And he is indeed the Tempter. :seesaw:

Are these determinations based on first hand experience or from what you've read I assume in the Bible?

 

[Midnight Pete]

Are these determinations based on first hand experience or from what you've read I assume in the Bible?

A combination of both. It's not enough just to read about such things if you have no inner experience of them.


You are asking some good questions!

 

[Misty]

What is the difference between god and satan, they both seem pretty nasty?

 

[NeoSeeker]

A combination of both. It's not enough just to read about such things if you have no inner experience of them.

You are asking some good questions!

I enjoy good discussions too, thanks.

Previously I said I thought Satan in reality are humans' short comings, our temptation to be naughty. Now I can see that. What indication have you seen that Satan is an external force acting upon us? It seems obvious that to buy into the story of Adam and Eve, you must place faith into a book as truth, just because it sounds plausible or because it's been drilled into your head since your wee years? BTW knowing of what I know about our historic background, A&E does not sound plausible at all, other than this abstract story that paints God in a mean light.

What is the difference between god and satan, they both seem pretty nasty?

Well, first you'd have to determine if either one really exists or in what manner do they exist.

 

[Midnight Pete]

What is the differnece between god and satan, they both seem pretty nasty?

It is the difference between good and evil, light and darkness. Literally.

 

[PolyHedral]

Wow, I have wondered into a parallel universe or something? Absolutely nobody objected to me directly comparing God to Big Brother?

I agree that Satan is not physical. Like God and the angels, Satan is a spirit. Transcendant. Unconditioned by time or space as we understand them.

So why would they have an interest in us?

 

[Jeremiah]

You are correct. However, as I said, when God created everyting, "it was very good." Humans messed it all up...

So mere humans messed up the perfect creation of an all-powerful, all-knowing, infallible deity?

 

[Falvlun]

The whole "humans cause evil, not God" canard might answer why there is murder and rape and lies, but why devastating earthquakes, drought, cancer, birth defects, etc?

It doesn't make sense to blame humans for this: God must have specifically created the Earth (and DNA, etc) to act in this suffering-inducing manner.

Furthermore, why should all of us be punished for the "sins" of our ancestors? You could argue that some people are driven towards the dark side due to the hard-life circumstances in which they were born. A more sensitive (and fair) test of an individual's love and obedience to God would be to have us all start out in an Eden and let us choose from there.

 

[NeoSeeker]

So mere humans messed up the perfect creation of an all-powerful, all-knowing, infallible deity?

Hmm, I need to ponder on how this could of happened.

:yoda:

 

[Misty]

It is the difference between good and evil, light and darkness. Literally.

HA!HA! The god character in the bible is dark and evil

 

[no-body]

Why do all of Gods creations fail? Look at Satan, God just lets Him do what He wants even before the fall. A creator must take credit for his creations, especially when He is the creator of it all. You can't put the blame on man, that's like putting the blame on the child who doesn't know better and burns down the house.

To say that God has no part of evil means that God is not omnipotent and things are happening without his say so. Perhaps humanity is capable of evolving beyond the strength of God? Maybe the creation of sin so shocked God that he had to throw us out before we could discover more than He.

Makes about as much sense as the rest of the bible. I like the believers who say "we just don't understand" if we don't come up with the same answer as they do. I've read the genesis myth over and over and God always comes out to me as one mean, unfair SOB running a sadistic laboratory experiment.

 

[Midnight Pete]

So mere humans messed up the perfect creation of an all-powerful, all-knowing, infallible deity?

Did you earn your ULC ordination online by any chance?

 

[yourhopeboundheart]

It is the difference between good and evil, light and darkness. Literally.

so it's spectral. and there are times of 'dim' when god and satan are in perfect balance with one another, working cohesively together to produce a medium?

and to live in either ultimate light and ultimate darkness (complete devotion to god or complete devotion to satan) would be blinding?

 

[Jeremiah]

Did you earn your ULC ordination online by any chance?

Do you have anything relevant to say about my actual post?

 

[Madhuri]

How could everything be 'good' if evil existed? Eve was only tempted because bad existed in the first place. Why did God even allow Satan to enter his creation? He knew it would happen, being omniscient. He knew that Eve wasn't equipt with the intelligence or understanding to know the consequences of her actions.

So let me get this straight, God created something evil, or capable of evil, which we know as Satan. He then creates a little heavenly place with two humans in it. With full knowledge, he allows a situation to unfold. One that involves Satan entering his new creation and manipulating an innocent and naive woman into damning an entire species of disillusoned living beings. That's trillions of lives being punished for the mistake of one person who really didn't understand what was happening to her.

Where does 'good' or 'perfection' fit into this situation? I just don't get it.

Strength and Honour, I was hoping you would reply to this.

 

[Gesualdo]

AMEN, sister!

Christians have a very small vision of God.

Some Christians seem to have a weird view of the deity. They believe it created everything but is only responsible for the good in their lives and cannot be blamed when things go wrong! What madcap thinking is that? If God is really responsible for us being here, it should be praised and blamed in equal measure. I am of the opinion that even if the deity does exist it deserves no praise or blame because its only input is in the mind of believers.