Satan

[Ernestine]

There are some people who claim to believe in the existence of God, but they don't believe in the existence of Satan. I don't think you can believe in the one without believing in the other. Your thoughts?

 

[jewscout]

There are some people who claim to believe in the existence of God, but they don't believe in the existence of Satan. I don't think you can believe in the one without believing in the other. Your thoughts?

Christianity claims there is a war going on between G-d and Satan. Many Jewish scholors believe that The satan is not fighting G-d but working for him. He is filling the role of tempter in order that mankind may come closer to G-d. There can't be a war between the two because G-d created The satan and his role and placed him in that position. Everything that exists whether good, evil, or benign serves G-d's greater purpose.
To answer your question i don't think you need to believe in Satan as Christianity has pushed the idea because we are all not christians. There is no requirement anywhere in the Torah on that beleif and i'm pretty sure that is true for the Gospels. The satan is a player in the game, but G-d is still the Manager/coach/owner of the team.

 

[huajiro]

There are some people who claim to believe in the existence of God, but they don't believe in the existence of Satan. I don't think you can believe in the one without believing in the other. Your thoughts?

I think people might discount Satan's existence because there is not voice in our heads telling us to do evil (well, not mine anyway), but we do have conscience telling us to do "good".

 

[painted wolf]

my spirituality does not have a satan concept. People are responcible for their own actions and thier own evils. Creator made everything in ballance and its up to us to choose to live in or out of that ballance.

Personally I find the idea of Satan amusing.

wa:do

 

[linwood]

There are some people who claim to believe in the existence of God, but they don't believe in the existence of Satan. I don't think you can believe in the one without believing in the other. Your thoughts?

I don`t see why not.

If you can convince yourself there is an "omnipotent,omniscent, self-sufficent, pre- eminent, never distant, the divine thiller, the sin and the death killer, the eternal aqau, the never ending saga, the most genreous blood donor, the lord Jesus the christ the author and finisher of all life"

You can believe just about anything.

 

[Khale]

Well, After attending some Bible Lit. classes I stopped believing in Satan as well. The idea of Satan was sort of tacked on to the Hebrew religion not to long before Christ's birth and carried over into the Christian Religion.

 

[kreeden]

There are some people who claim to believe in the existence of God, but they don't believe in the existence of Satan. I don't think you can believe in the one without believing in the other. Your thoughts?

Some could see Satan as a cop out , an excuse .

And I would like to add that the Devil made me say that ...

 

[cardero]

I have never met Satan, though that doesn't mean He doesn't exist, if Satan does exist I am sure He is as misunderstood as GOD is.

 

[Runt]

It really depends on an individual's understanding of God. If you believe God to be the "ultimate good", then an entity who is the "ultimate evil" makes sense. If, like me, you believe God is a metaphor for pretty much everything... good, evil, male, female, creation, destruction, everything within and without human experience... well, then God and Satan are two sides of one coin...

 

[Hope]

Well, After attending some Bible Lit. classes I stopped believing in Satan as well. The idea of Satan was sort of tacked on to the Hebrew religion not to long before Christ's birth and carried over into the Christian Religion.

What about the book of Job? Satan is specifically mentioned in Job....

 

[Doc]

I think not of Satan as a physical oppressor with horn, but more of a temptation in each of us. It tries to swallow the light in each of us. The tempting and seductive voice telling us to do something we know is wrong. Some can resist it better than others. If this being true, that would mean hyst about everything has an opposite. Up and down. Left and right. Good and evil. Love and Hate. Fire and Water!

 

[Dr. Nosophoros]

I guess it depends whose god you are talking about, there were and are many religions that have existed and still exist that had a belief in a god(s) and no comparable concept of satan. Concepts like gods or goddess's etc. is whatever someone makes it as are satans and devils, but they were all made by man , not the other way around. It could be some guy in the sky or a force that is imbedded in and exists around us and in the cosmos at all times. The god could also have his so called "light" and "dark" rolled into one and accepted as such thus negating a need for a satan. So my input is of course people can believe in god(s) without an adversary, people have been doing it for centuries.

In satans case (Satan- the early years LOL) he or a compareable being didn't seem to exist until the Persians created the idea of that type of being six centuries before the common era. He may not have been specifically called satan, but the seed of belief in a supremely evil being was planted, it was assimilated mutated from there. Why would someone create such a being? it seems it was nothing more than greed and power struggles that led to his invention by the clergy which was used as a tool to hurt political opponents. Satan was/is a useful "boogeyman" to those that wish to control hearts and minds and gain control/ power, the belief in him has been used as a scapegoat for all sorts of true evil to be perpetrated in history after his "birth" by the "good" in the name of "good", but if it wasn't satan, it would have been something else.

 

[lilithu]

What about the book of Job? Satan is specifically mentioned in Job....

A character called Satan exists in Job, but that doesn't mean that he is the Satan that Christians believe him to be.

Judaism does have a Satan, but he isn't the prince of darkness and the source of evil. He didn't rebel against God; in fact he serves God. Satan (or "Ha-Satan") means "the Adversary" in Hebrew. It's his job to roam the earth and test humans to see if they measure up.

In Job, you'll notice that the Satan is in heaven along with other angels who have gathered before God. If Satan is THE fallen angel, why are he and God on such friendly speaking terms?

Note also that it is God who draws Satan's attention to Job, not the other way around. God asks Satan what he's been up to and Satan just says that he's been roaming around the earth (doing his job). God asks Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, who is blameless and upright; he fears God and turns away from evil" God's basically asking the Adversary, 'what do you think of Job? Is he as good as he appears to be?' It's the Adversary's job to be the cynic concerning humans - to play the Devil's advocate, so to speak. So of course he says that Job is only good because he gets rewarded. God gives Satan permission to test Job to see if this is true. And thus the trials and tribulations of Job begin.

But God is the one who is charge here. God's the one who points out Job and God gives Satan permission to mess Job up. Satan doesn't do anything without God's consent.

The Satan in Job is a far cry from the Christian concept of the Devil.

 

[lilithu]

if Satan does exist I am sure He is as misunderstood as GOD is.

Amen!

 

[Khale]

What about the book of Job? Satan is specifically mentioned in Job....

The Book of Job was most likely written after the babylonian exile. This was the time that the first ideas of Satan entered the religion, therefore it wouldn't be surprising to find him mentioned there. Also, if take a look at Job Satan isn't portrayed as the being of evil that he is today. He appears as something more like God's drinking buddy (figurative), making bets as to wether or not Job will turn on God.