supak

I've been lurking here for a long time, often finding information here to support my arguments on other boards. Now I finally wanted to post because a friend of mine (who for obvious reasons wishes to remain anonymous) had me build a new blog for him entitled Satan Wrote the Bible.

The blog is based on his essay Satan Wrote the Bible. He plans to add posts and Bible commentaries that support his contention that Satan wrote the Bible. As he puts it:

The Satan essay is based on what those who believe there is a Satan believe about him. It is a rational argument using empathy. Its purpose is to make people think, nothing more or less. I have no desire to make anyone angry or upset or to change anyone’s belief.

The author, who calls himself Thomas D, makes his case from within the framework of the Bible. He logically steps through his empathic arguments, asking his readers to figure it out for themselves. For him, all the clues are right there in the Bible, all you have to do is think about it. As his tagline says, "Leave your leap of faith behind and use your God-given mind."

Here's an extended clip that offers a good example of what he'll be writing about.

God is such a jerk in the book of Job that one can interpret it as Satan writing a story to make God look bad. After all, Satan is not the Perfect One here so it would make sense that he would want to poke some fun at God. Or perhaps it is just a show of vanity. He has done such a good job getting people to believe in the “God” he created in people’s minds that he wants to bring down this creation of his.

In Chapter I of Job we are introduced to Job, a perfect and upright guy who eschews evil. God recognizes that Job is good. Satan tells God that Job only seems good because God has given him a plush life. God accepts Satan’s challenge and tells him to test Job. Job is tested sorely (his children are killed and all of this wealth is stolen or destroyed) but his faith remains strong.

If God is all powerful–can see into the heart and soul of every person on earth, can do anything he wishes–why couldn’t God see what Satan saw? Was it because he had not walked upon the earth as Satan says? If that is the case, why didn’t he, so he could observe his people and know them as well as Satan? Why did God trust Satan over his own observation?

Job was praying to God and doing everything God asked. God was tempted by Satan. Job was a pawn in the power struggle between God and Satan. Shouldn’t it be discouraging to think that God could be so easily manipulated by Satan?

In Chapter 2 God says to Satan of Job, “..there is none like him in earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.” Satan says you only allowed me to take away his worldly possessions. Let me hurt his body and you’ll see, he’ll curse you. God says, go ahead but don’t kill him.

Why would God portray himself like this? It is more fun to think that Satan wrote these two chapters and that he gives himself away by portraying God as vain, impulsive, unsure of himself, and, frankly, not very bright.

As you can see, his questions are thoughtful and fun as a thought exercise. Of course, there are many people who would prefer to not exercise their thought. The author advises them to read his essay Love for Everybody instead.

In my research for this blog, I found an old thread here in which Pyrrho writes that Satan Wrote the Bible, not God. It's a fun thread, in which Pyrrho notes:

Christians are really all worshiping Satan. He, being a clever fellow, tells them he is God, and they don't know the difference.

This is the thesis that Thomas D follows in the essay, and I hope that many of you here will go support his new effort.

Finally, I'd like to give a big thanks to all of you who take your time to add to this huge body of work that I have tapped into from time to time. What a great world we live in where people like us can share our disbelief.

:devil3:

Dirge

The moral behind the story appears to be that if someone perseveres, they can endure hardship, and still have a decent life, while retaining their optimism. You can't find out how deep the water is by analyzing the reflection on the surface.

supak

I'm familiar with the basic moral of Job. I'm more interested in the writer's use of it as an example that Satan wrote the Bible. It certainly seems like a good argument.

Toto

The usual interpretation of God in Job is that the Hebrews of the time viewed God as the author of everything, both good and evil. This is, after all, a requirement of strict monotheism. The Satan referred to in Job was Shaitan, the adversary or tester, more like the loyal opposition than an evil force on his own. The Jews added Satan to their array of supernatural forces via the Persians, but Satan often appears in the Bible as a tool of God.

Here is an old thread, and you can search this forum for more: http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...ighlight=Satan

Your problem is that an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God is a logical contradiction, given the existence of evil in the world. There are a variety of attempts to deal with this contradiction from the ancients up to Mike Huckabee, who, while Governor of Arkansas, objected to the common insurance term of "Acts of God" because his God would not inflict damage by hurricanes on poor innocent Christian voters. But all of the efforts fail, until you are forced to realize that nature is cruel and doesn't care about you, but that's ok, because there's nothing personal about it.

I haven't read the entire blog, so I don't know how well your friend does in getting people to think.