Satan?

[Noremac]

Satan, Devil in Christianity, Iblis, and to a certain extant Angra Mainyu are all considered the Devil or the main sorce of all evil in the universe. He is called the "God of this World" and as such he has much power. The fact that he had free will enough to fight against god (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) show he was special among the angels (or jinn) in the fact that he had free will.

How powerful is this thing that stalks our souls? What exactly is he/she/it? His/Her/It's origins? Does H/S/I cause suffering and pain or that because we to have free will? Is H/S/I real, a metaphor, or just a story to get people to worship something not even real itself?

If H/S/I isn't real then what is the main source of evil in the universe? If that's not real then what about god, angels, and the supernatural in genereal?

[Thanatos]

It all depends on what view you are looking at the universe from. I can give you a billion different answers, man.

[Dayman]

If that's not real then what about god, angels, and the supernatural in genereal?

If you want the skeptical answer, odds are none of that kind of stuff exists. Don't worry about it, I used to freak out about demons and stuff when I was Catholic.

Not anymore!

But there isn't a "source" of evil. When someone does something bad, or harmful, it isn't because of some mystical outside force. There is always a normal explanation for things.

[Ummon]

Satan is the shadow of God seen through ignorant eyes.

[Rich86]

I remember watching a telvision programe on BBC a while back - I will try and find the youtube link later - where someone suggested that the Holocaust was proof for Satan - that some things are so evil that only Satan could cause them.

Perhaps Satan (and other figures) are simply a way of denying responsibility - "I am not evil - it was a demon" - a way of disassociating oneself from ones actions in the same way killers have been known in rare cases to claim they are possessed etc.

[Copperknickers II]

Satan is a personification. Evil is a metaphor. What it really is is absence.

[IronBlood]

I think the belief is that all the angels God created had free will. Satan wasn't the only one cast out. But, humans, ultimately, are the source of evil in the world.

...or it could be Winnie the Pooh.

(Contains one or two strong swear words)

[Thanatos]

(Contains one or two strong swear words)

I think I just died laughing.

[gambit]

I think the belief is that all the angels God created had free will. Satan wasn't the only one cast out. But, humans, ultimately, are the source of evil in the world.

Angels were created as servants. They werent supposed to have free will.

Also, Satan is a silly personified figure in our imagination. With all the fallacies of God and religion, Satan (as a living existing being) would be up there in the 'WTF!?' category.

Why would God create the harbinger of destruction? Why wouldn't God see his betrayal coming in the future and stop him? Why didn't God punish Satan for tricking Adam and Eve instead of Adam and Eve? Why was there even a battle between Satans angels and Gods angels? Couldn't God just snap his spiritual fingers and end it? Satan was God's right hand man/angel. Why would he betray God just like that if God is omnipowerful/present/scient? Either Satan knew God had a weakness or it's all just a BS parable.

[Chaigidel]

what ummon said

[sabaku_no_gaara]

wasn't satan originally the prosecutor of mankind in gods "court" (to use modern term) His name apparently comes from the word adversary.

From what I've read, later he became seen ha a corrupting force and the personification of evil.

But I could be wrong...

[Ummon]

Such things are complicated. Very complicated.

If you look superficially, you see a lord of the world. The fact is that there can be no lordship of the world against the will of God.

Dante depicted Satan in that wonderful masterpiece which is the Divine Comedy, and he had three heads. The personification of evil and the forces of chaos has often had three heads in myth, like for example Tiamat.

That could be superficially explained with the idea that the devil is the antimimon pneuma, the spirit who imitates (God).

Therefore, as God is une and trine in Christianity, the devil has also one body and three heads.

Funnily though, this is where is begins to get complicated.

If you look at Solomon's sigil you see how it is composed of two overlapping triangles.

If you consider Job, you see Satan is seen as functional to God's plan (an accuser to man). Otherwise, Satan has been represented as the one who shows you the way to God. Not meaning with this that sin is the way to God, but that by overcoming illusion (Satan is illusion, the father of lies) you arrive to God.

And infact, ultimately one of the names of Satan is Lucifer, which means lightbringer.

There is more, but it would be difficult to understand without a specific knowledge of the field.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Such things are complicated. Very complicated.

If you look superficially, you see a lord of the world. The fact is that there can be no lordship of the world against the will of God.

Dante depicted Satan in that wonderful masterpiece which is the Divine Comedy, and he had three heads. The personification of evil and the forces of chaos has often had three heads in myth, like for example Tiamat.

That could be superficially explained with the idea that the devil is the antimimon pneuma, the spirit who imitates (God).

Therefore, as God is une and trine in Christianity, the devil has also one body and three heads.

Funnily though, this is where is begins to get complicated.

If you look at Solomon's sigil you see how it is composed of two overlapping triangles.

If you consider Job, you see Satan is seen as functional to God's plan (an accuser to man). Otherwise, Satan has been represented as the one who shows you the way to God. Not meaning with this that sin is the way to God, but that by overcoming illusion (Satan is illusion, the father of lies) you arrive to God.

And infact, ultimately one of the names of Satan is Lucifer, which means lightbringer.

There is more, but it would be difficult to understand without a specific knowledge of the field.

The lucifer thing is a misinterpretation of a verse directed to the king of tyre.

Lucifer and satan have nothing to do with eachother

[Ummon]

Who exactly said that I was implying any Biblical reference?

http://www.astrohobby.com/dvc.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentacle

http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_pent.htm

"The folk-symbol of security - for the first time in history - was equated with evil and was called the Witch's Foot."

Mistakes such as the one you describe do not exist in symbology, given that symbols arise in history and stratify with other symbols.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Still the word lightbringer (or lucifer) shouldn't be asociated with satan, the devil etc.... It allways pisses me off in movies because it proves they didn't do their homework.

[Flavius Nevitta]

Wait isn't Satan that guy who put fossils and such stuff into the earth to make some stoopid people think the world is millions of years old? Funny how they can, like, believe this guy, u know. I mean with those horns and goat legs n stuff. It's like, I mean, he looks evil and i mean eeeevil with a deep voice. So how could they actually believe him when he showed them where this dinosaur fossil stuff was...

[Ummon]

Wait isn't Satan that guy who put fossils and such stuff into the earth to make some stoopid people think the world is millions of years old? Funny how they can, like, believe this guy, u know. I mean with those horns and goat legs n stuff. It's like, I mean, he looks evil and i mean eeeevil with a deep voice. So how could they actually believe him when he showed them where this dinosaur fossil stuff was...

The last time I checked the world was several billions years old.

Still the word lightbringer (or lucifer) shouldn't be asociated with satan, the devil etc.... It allways pisses me off in movies because it proves they didn't do their homework.

The "mistake" took hold, it's common and esoteric culture now. We also have other symbols hinting at it, therefore a long story short, why not call him Lucifer.

Besides, the concept that Satan guides you to God by putting obstacles on your path is also a gnostic one.

[Flavius Nevitta]

The last time I checked the world was several billions years old.

and I usually don't speak in such a way...seems like you missed the whole sarcasm in my post...

[Ummon]

and I usually don't speak in such a way...seems like you missed the whole sarcasm in my post...

I didn't. Nor did I miss the mistake.

[gambit]

The idea of Satan and his rebellion simply makes no sense. Wasn't he an archangel (Michael replaced him)? If so, he would probably know more about God than any other. So by all religious knowledge, that would mean he knows that God is superior in all shapes and forms. Why would he rebel? You dont jump into a spikepit just cause.