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Your opinion on Satan. Poll

opinion on Satan


  • Total voters
    57

Desert Snake

Veteran Member
What is your opinion on Satan? If one reads the forums, seems like there is different opinions as to even the definition is correct, this thread is sort of to gauge the general opinions ideas.
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
As a Jew, I think satan is a title, given to an angel (and not always the same angel) who is the "patron angel" (as it were) of the yetzer ha-ra (chaotic impulse, or urge to do wrong), and is occasionally also tasked with testing the faith of the very righteous.
 

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
As a Jew, I think satan is a title, given to an angel (and not always the same angel) who is the "patron angel" (as it were) of the yetzer ha-ra (chaotic impulse, or urge to do wrong), and is occasionally also tasked with testing the faith of the very righteous.
And what of the adversary encountered by Balaam?
 

factseeker88

factseeker88
What is your opinion on Satan? If one reads the forums, seems like there is different opinions as to even the definition is correct, this thread is sort of to gauge the general opinions ideas.>>

In the Old Testament the real evil villain was God, not Satan. Imagine wiping out all civilization with a flood, just because they didn't worship him.

“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is WHAT WE DO.”
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) [/FONT]
 

Amechania

Daimona of the Helpless
Satan has always been a metaphor to me, except when I overindulged and spent the next morning worshiping at his oval altar. He was then very real and the cause of my distress.
 

StarryNightshade

Spiritually confused Jew
Premium Member
At best, a literary figure/metaphor.

At worst, a punching bag/straw-man for people who don't understand certain religious doctrines.
 

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Staff member
Premium Member
I can't help but see Satan as just another god aside from Yahweh. Not as many worshipers? That's fine. Potently inferior to Yahweh? That's fine. Associated with evil and trickery? That's fine also.

Stop calling him what he's not. He's an adversary to the bigger, centered god, but that doesn't mean he isn't a god. He's far superior to man, I'd even call him near-omniscient. Just another trickster deity or another deity of the underworld.

But in my personal belief, there can't be an opposition to God, as All is God.
 

Gjallarhorn

N'yog-Sothep
I've read that 'devil worshipper' means something other than Satanist, do you think that's just semantics?

All devil worshipers are Satanists, but not all Satanists are devil worshipers.

Wait, not even that's true. They're two commonly overlapping sets.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
I've read that 'devil worshipper' means something other than Satanist, do you think that's just semantics?

Pretty much. LaVeyan Satanists, who are atheists, tend to look down on Theistic Satanists and say that we're not "really" Satanists. They say that "Devil Worshipers" are just "perverted Christians", basically. They're playing games in order to give themselves an air of more validity than anyone else and to lay exclusive claim to the label of Satanist.

Devil Worship can be looked at as a branch of Theistic Satanism. All Theistic Satanists view Satan as a literal being or force, but differ on how He should be approached. Devil Worship, as I understand it, is more devotional and focused on honoring our deity. We don't have problems with prayer or viewing our deity as superior to us. "Worship", "prayer" and viewing Satan as Master are very controversial in Satanism. Also, Devil Worship can include not just Abrahamic Adversarial deities (Demons) but also Adversaries from other cultures. It could be viewed as a sort of Dark Paganism.

This is a good resource on Devil Worship: DEVIL WORSHIP
 
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