ccolinh

Seems kinda pointless to say he was a sinless man then, doesn't it. But this isn't a widely held Christian position, I'm guessing, either.

On the Adam thing I was only wondering how "loving" it was for God to either

A. Give Satan earth , then create Adam there or
B. create Adam on earth and then give it to Satan

Or another way to put it - if God saw that all the things he created were good - why then hand them over to Satan's control?

Seems stupid either way you look at it. :down:

Sorry - I know this is pretty easy mental gymnastics for you old pro's but I am still honestly trying to make sense out of the things Christians say.

ccolinh

I've never heard this before - where can I read about it?

Diogenes the Cynic

In Genesis.

Seriously, just read the stuff about the serpent. The text never identifies him as Satan just as the "most subtle" of all the animals.

Satan in Judaism was a post-exhilic invention, influenced by Zoroasrtrianism and acquired after the Creation myth had its currency. Satan in Judaism is not really the same as the Christian "devil" anyway. It was Christians who retrojected "Satan" into the serpent.

The Genesis story has its roots in Mesoptamian creation myths in which talking animals (as with much teleogical mythology) were not unusual.