Who is Satan? Or what does Satan represent to you?

[George-ananda]

Define evil. And do these evil forces and entities have particular names in your religion?

In this case, I was referring to angry malevolent entities that can attack and influence others. I believe they have various names for these type of things in the eastern world but I am not acquainted with all the names.

 

[Segev Moran]

For those of you who believe Satan is a real being/entity, who is Satan? Where did he/it/she/they come from? What is Satan's relationship to other beings/entities, including deities, Angels (if you believe in them) and human beings?

For those of you who view Satan more figuratively or metaphorically, and not as a real being/entity, what does Satan represent to you?

Satan is an excuse for people that cannot really believe how wrong people can be..
People can't handle the fact that humans can cause so much wrong..
That nature can wipe us out without a trace,
That we are nothing but animals who happen to inhabit this amazing planet..
So they invented something called "Satan"...

Why did i kill that guy???? Because the devil possessed me!
Why life is hard? Because Satan tries to ruin my life...
Why I have those urges to have sex and drink alcohol and dance like crazy and scream to the world??? Because SATAN ALWAYS WANTS ME TO BE CORRUPT!

If you ask me (And i guess you don't really ).. It's nothing but an excuse to explain behaviors we can't really explain.

And to me personally, Satan is on the same mythological stories as GOD or GODS or Angels and so on..

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

For those of you who believe Satan is a real being/entity, who is Satan? Where did he/it/she/they come from? What is Satan's relationship to other beings/entities, including deities, Angels (if you believe in them) and human beings?

For those of you who view Satan more figuratively or metaphorically, and not as a real being/entity, what does Satan represent to you?

An archangel whose only downside is that he's a jerk for showing us the darkness within ourselves. Nowhere is he portrayed as a liar. He is CLAIMED to be one, but the claim is completely unsubstantiated in scenes where he actually exists. His job is morally important so that we don't delude ourselves into thinking we are more moral than we are. Other than being a jerk, though, he's not worth thinking much about. God is infinitely more powerful than him, so there's nothing to fear once you realize his only shtick is awfully cliche.

Satan represents an acceptance and pursuit of one's self - physically, mentally, and spiritually if one believes in an eternal soul. In any case, the parameters of life are designed by the individual instead of a predefined religion.

One wonders if one spends an entire lifetime trying to get in Heaven, the ultimate reward where nothing bad ever happens to you again for all eternity, is not ALSO just thinking of the self to the detriment of others.

If Satan is the Dark side of the Force, who is the Force and who is the Light side?

Force = Holy Spirit
Dark Side = Jesus or Satan, depending on your level of cynicism, LOL
Light Side = God or Jesus or Satan, depending on your level of cynicism, LOL

At any rate, see the last season of Clone Wars to get it way more fleshed out.

I thought that was the Serpent?

Actually, the serpent never lied (he actually revealed the true nature of the fruit ban, verified by God Himself later) and neither does Satan either in any scene he's in (which is NOT the Garden of Eden).

Jesus may have called one of the Apostles , 'Satan'.

And then for real fun, substitute said Satan with said apostle's name and the gospels get WAY more fascinating.

 

[Onyx]

From this it sounds like you are saying that Satan is for you more of a concept, an idea - that you understand Satan in a more figurative sense.

Most of the time I use Satan as a metaphor, but sometimes Satan (or Set, etc) as a shortcut for Prince of Darkness as the origin of the conscious will.

But from this it sounds more like Satan is for you an actual, real entity, that has a separate existence from yourself.

I meant to say "mentor or teacher". Basically, this is an analogy for ideas and concepts that are individualistic in nature, whether they come from an external source or your own mind. Those are drawn upon instead of letting someone else choose them for you. (The Bible quote was also used metaphorically, and probably taken completely out of context.)

I guess what I am asking overall here is whether you see Set/Satan as an actual, real entity with a separate existence from us, or as rather a representation of certain key concepts (and not an actual, real entity)?

In terms of a Satan as described by Abrahamic religions, no. It seems plausible that the Prince of Darkness (by whatever name) would have a will of it's own, but I can't say for sure.

My hypothesis is that the universe is divided into unnatural and natural realms, which can interact under the right conditions. The conscious will must come from something, just as our bodies come from the atoms and energy of the physical universe. But I can't say for sure.

 

[Liu]

Can you give me some examples of some of the most important concepts for you?

Mainly these:
(sorry for the wall of text, it is a huge topic and I tried to be concise as possible)

- Satan is the opposer of the god of monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism and, in a way, Zoroastrism). So I consider him the opposer of dogma and one-truth-ism in general.

I believe that if one wants to search for enlightenment or even just mundane personal development it is helpful if not necessary to remain flexible and be able to change one's views. Satan therefore for me stands for the questioning of dogmas and the switching between thought paradigms, and Satanism is a worldview where one tries to free oneself of anything that would hinder one from finding one's true will. Furthermore, also reality is based on eternal change and conflict, so I don't see Satan as a principle of mere opposition to the forces that be, but rather as a fundamental aspect of being.

- Related to that, Satan is also often called Lucifer, meaning bringer of light. And there are some biblical characters that are often equated with him that play a role in which they bring some kind of hidden knowledge to humanity which formerly belonged only to god, e.g. the snake in the garden of Eden, or Azazel in the apocryphal book of Enoch. Therefore I consider him to be the one who helps humans trying to become more than they were by seeking enlightenment and apotheosis.

- Thirdly, there is the aspect of amorality and antinomism. Satan is often seen as the personification of evil, so one can only worship him by questioning the concept of good and evil in general. I believe that there is no objective morality.

- And then there is the concept of sin to which he is supposed to lead humankind. Many of those behaviors that are normally called sins are completely natural, healthy behaviors, or the kinds of behaviors that only help oneself but might be harmful to others. Therefore to follow Satan's call and indulge in sins is basically following one's own will and listening to one's subconscious instead of to the wishes of others. This means, elevating oneself to the god of one's existence and/or believing the divine can be best found within one's own soul (the later is also often done by mystics and gnostics of other religions).

If you don't know whether some of these concepts might be entities or thoughtforms, in what sense is Satan for you a deity?

It is a deity in that sense that I believe that it represents something about reality that I feel like venerating. It might be that it actually exists, as a force or entity, and by imagining it as an entity I can better relate to it.

 

[Neo Deist]

Ha-Satan is indeed the Adversary. Of God and all God's Servants.

Not if you believe in God as omnipotent...which I do. I don't need a supernatural boogeyman to blame things on. I blame humans...some of them are just bad.

 

[Neo Deist]

But by the same token, one could argue that an omnipotent God is also a made-up, mythological concept that we don't need in order to explain things that happen in this world. Why do you hang onto the notion of an omnipotent God but reject the notion of a boogeyman of the likes of ha-Satan?

Because I choose to believe in God based on my personal observations of both nature and the cosmos.

 

[The_Fisher_King]

Satan does not own the corrupting force imho.

Does any entity, then?

If he did, then there would be many corrupting forces because the force might be HAD

I'm afraid I don't follow - could you please explain further.

 

[The_Fisher_King]

Ouch

I don't follow.

 

[The_Fisher_King]

No, Christianity has no place in my religion in any way, shape, or form. I mean the abstract platonic form of order that gives rise to the cosmos.

Ah, okay. That clears things up!

I mean it is not bound to the material, deterministic universe we live in.

Thanks for the clarification.

But Horus, in the end, is equally important as Set.

And yet you call your religion 'Setian' - why is that?

 

[The_Fisher_King]

The theist/Atheist divide is so boring.

Does god/Satan have existence? Are they literal or figurative?

Both. They exist as language abstractions. God describes the collective Nomos, while Satan describes what lay outside of it They both exist in the sense that anything can be categorized exists, but not in any anthropomorphic sense.

I'm struggling a bit to understand what you mean by 'the collective Nomos' - could you please expand on that a bit?

 

[The_Fisher_King]

In this case, I was referring to angry malevolent entities that can attack and influence others.

And where do these entities come from?

 

[The_Fisher_King]

Satan is an excuse for people that cannot really believe how wrong people can be..
People can't handle the fact that humans can cause so much wrong..
That nature can wipe us out without a trace,
That we are nothing but animals who happen to inhabit this amazing planet..
So they invented something called "Satan"...

Why did i kill that guy???? Because the devil possessed me!
Why life is hard? Because Satan tries to ruin my life...
Why I have those urges to have sex and drink alcohol and dance like crazy and scream to the world??? Because SATAN ALWAYS WANTS ME TO BE CORRUPT!

If you ask me (And i guess you don't really ).. It's nothing but an excuse to explain behaviors we can't really explain.

And to me personally, Satan is on the same mythological stories as GOD or GODS or Angels and so on..

Well, I am interested in hearing what other people have to say!

 

[savagewind]

Does any entity, then?

Nobody owns force imo. It might be true that force can own a person.

I'm afraid I don't follow - could you please explain further.

If Satan can have power, then other so called people can have power too and there would be more than one corrupting force. The forces would overwhelm goodness. That does not happen.
.

 

[George-ananda]

And where do these entities come from?

Like us and all entities, from a spark of Atma/God/Brahman encased in a bodily form (physical or above the physical). Through actions of free will some go badly astray.

 

[EtuMalku]

I don't follow.

As in "That is what God tells me."

 

[Satans_Serrated_Edge]

I'm struggling a bit to understand what you mean by 'the collective Nomos' - could you please expand on that a bit?

The Nomos, within a culture or geographic region, is the collective array of things, ideas, concepts, and behaviours that constitute 'normal' or 'acceptable'.

 

[Tumah]

- Satan is the opposer of the god of ... Judaism ...

This is false. Satan is an angel employed by G-d, like all other angels.

 

[Liu]

This is false. Satan is an angel employed by G-d, like all other angels.

Originally yes, in Judaism, but not in all later understandings, and also not in most contemporary versions of the other religions I listed - and since I don't take myths as literally true it doesn't matter to me when they were written. The concept of Satan as the opposer of a monotheistic god exists and is widespread.

 

[Tumah]

Originally yes, in Judaism, but not in all later understandings, and also not in most contemporary versions of the other religions I listed - and since I don't take myths as literally true it doesn't matter to me when they were written. The concept of Satan as the opposer of a monotheistic god exists and is widespread.

Originally, as in before the Tanach was written...?
It doesn't make sense to say that it must be that way in Judaism because all the other religions have got it, when Judaism clearly doesn't have that belief.