sophie

Satan was kicked off GOD's team because Satan was not a team player. That is if you believe in this version of supernatural myths.

For those who are not aware of this particular supernatural myth, GOD the supernatural bigwig had a close buddy. There came a time when Satan was contravening all of GOD's mini-series. Satan changed the principal players, rewrote the scripts, and harried all those on the set. When GOD found out, he kicked Satan out of the spotlight and off the stage forever and ever since Satan has been running around in the shadows, bewildered.

Do you think this was the best thing to do, to kick Satan off the team?

Bill Snedden

I think you'll get a better response in GRD...

Primordial Groove

God could have tried intense psychotherapy to bring his buddy back to the home team.

Ok seriously, unless god had a rule against killing his supernatural beings, I think 'unmaking' satan would have been a better option in the long run. And this pov also goes hand in hand with the murderous, deceptive god in the ot anyway.

A question is why not kill satan and be done with it? Why wait thousands(millions?) of years for the 'final battle.' In one fail swoop god could have saved us all alot of heartache and suffering (if you buy into the whole satan is the reason for suffering, etc.).

Jobar

Satan got a bum rap!!

Kilgore Trout

The idea that god can't control his angels is a silly story the christians made up to explain original sin. It is not in the Hebrew bible. Christians like having this big bad guy they can blame for all the evil in the world. The Hebrew bible says that god created everything, both good and evil.

In the book of Job, satan and god are talking with each other and they actually agree on how to test Job. If god can't have evil in his presence, why is he able to talk to satan? The NT says somewhere that satan and Jesus can never agree on anything. Well since Jesus is god, and god and satan agreed with each other, that shows you how little the NT knows about the Hebrew bible.

The angels were not created to have free will, so having them rebel makes no sense. Even if it did happen, it's stupid to let him create havoc. Just get rid of him like Primordial Groove said. They just made him up to explain all the bad things that happen. "Why did the black plague happen? Oh.... Satan did it!"

Come to think of it.... Why does an omnipotent god need angels to serve him in the first place?

Milton

Actually, Satan is part of the characters in the script, and he had no say in whatever the script said. Only one was/is in charge of writing the script, and no one can ever change it.

And never get to know the difference between good and evil?

Leah

can you clerify good and evil?
Isn't the majority of biblical knowlege given about Jahwe's characteristis and doings more evil than any of Lucipher's doings?Lucipher simply encouraged angels and human kind to develop their own ability of freethinking rather than blind obedience.

Am not saying I believed in the existance of either, but if I was to than the former angel whom christians refer to as the devil would get more respect of me than the character that christians refer to as god.

starling

From what little I've read of the Holy Bible, I think Satan (well, Lucifer) started out as God's criticizer. What was he called, the accusor? You know in that side story about Job? I suppose God was supposed to know that critics get old real fast, but apparantly he didn't and let matters get so bad that Lucifer found so many problems he started vying for God's throne. That got a name change, and a quick trip to the slammer, where Satan has been stuck ever since.


Starling
Who never really saw it as being Satan's fault...

Doctor X

Much of the development of Old Scratch from a stn--a thing you trip over, stumbling block, obstacle--occurs outside the biblical texts.

"Lucifer" is a taunt to a prince which compares his rise to that of the Sun--actually the son of the Sun who takes dad's chariot out for a spin without permission and without education on how to operate a stick given most now drive automatic [GET ON WITH IT!!--Ed.]--and therefore he must eventually "fall."

"Fallen angels" is mythmaking based on the "sons of the gods" who come to earth and mate with "da wimmenfolk."

In Job he is, indeed, more of a figure--a prosecutor--hardly the "enemy" portrayed in more modern myth. The story is "old" in that it preserves the polytheism and anthropomorphism. YHWH has to ask Satan where he has been. He has his heavenly host about.

A wonderful book on all of this is:

Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth Princeton University Press.

--J.D.

Milton

i guess good and bad would have been better? in either case, it is still the same.

I believe that the temporality of everything in this world is necessary for us, so that we can appreciate the longer-lasting things of the spiritual world.

Two things:

Who is comparing Lucifer to God? At least I did not, and I don't think that was stated in the original post.

And you are wrong in your statement, because [technically] the Bible states that God is good.

Kinda like that, but not quite. Lucifer is credited with tricking man to believe that he could be equal to God--which would also include all-power, and eternal-life. Man, consequently, found himself in a bad situation--losing most of what he had.

This never crossed my mind.

well, you know, there are those who call themselves Satanists...if you ever change your mind about their existence (G and S), you might want to join them.