necromancer

According to the bible there exists both good (God) and evil (satan). BUT we only hear the story from one side. Satan neer wrote a book unlike God (or so the bible claims).

How trustworthy are accusations if you can only hear one party?

Necro.

Darth Dane

Well put, yes it seems unfair somehow, leads me to believe or wonder if Satan somehow did write in the bible, that it contains both good and bad, yin and yang?

Yes, maybe if we understood/understand Satan we would have better grounds for believeing one over the other.





DD - Love Spliff

Evangelion

I don't believe in the mythical "Satan."

Problem solved.

necromancer

well, me neither...but i am curious how x-ians explain it...

to tell something about myself:

I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness and as you might know, they are pretty fundamental. doubts about his religion and the bible itself led to research, plunging me into a vortex of information i went in just over two years from fundie --> normal christian -->Agnostic --> Atheist.

Thank [enter deity here] I am free at last!

Necro

Evangelion

I guess one plausible answer could be "Well, he's had plenty of time to get his story out, if he wanted to!"

CX

Contrary to popular Xian dogma, Satan is hardly mentioned in the OT. Furthermore the stark dualism you describe is really a product of post-exilic Judaism influenced by the dualism of the Perso-Iranian cult of Zoroaster. Originally Satan was not a proper name, but a word ha'Satan (excuse my feeble attempt at Hebrew transliteration) for any of a number of god's envoys sent to "block the path" of man for various reasons. Look at the story of Balaam and the angel in Numbers 22. If your interested in exploring this topic further I'd recommend "The Origin of Satan" by Dr. Elaine Pagels. You can also get a better feel or the early Judaic conception of Satan by reading the book of Job.

scigirl

Apparently Satan publishes by pseudonyms, such as R. Dawkins or J.K. Rowling.

scigirl

scigirl

Welcome, necromancer!

scigirl

Craig

[hijack]

That seems to be a fairly common path for Ex-JWs. I myself am one too, and did a similar transformation. I think part of it is that we are told so much that they have "the Truth (tm)" that once we realize they are full of it, then likely everyone else is too.

[/hijack]

Vinnie

Intelligent Christians are not into dualism. The less systematic and less studied Christians sometimes unknowingly embrace certain features of dualism and pit Satan as the opposite of God. Good God bad God is not a part of the Christian worldview. In reality the view is Good God bad creature

But I lack belief in Satan, anyways.

Vinnie