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How can you be so sure that God was the one influencing the authors? Couldn't Satan have been just as capable of fooling themy into writing and following his agenda?
This is a REALLY good question.
Actually, I've always wondered - if the whole God thing is true - whether Christianity itself is Satanic in origin.
I mean look how polarizing it is, how many horrific murders it inspired over the centuries...even today when there is no longer a torture rack or a burning pyre, it still rips people apart. All the time.
Again, assuming there's any validity to the story as a whole (I don't know that there is), the Book of Job would seem to support that God does in fact allow Satan to override what God would have "wanted." Also, there's that sticky "free will" issue. It's dragged out of a hat every time someone asks "How can God allow a three-year-old child to be raped to death?" and similar questions. "Because the world is imperfect due to Adam and Eve and because God can't override the rapist's (for example) free will," the good Christian will automatically (and thoughtlessly/heartlessly) answer without hesitation.
So if God doesn't necessarily interfere when Satan causes horrific things to happen, even to entirely innocent people, AND if God doesn't interrupt free will - even when that free will is producing horror movie-level results - then why couldn't Christianity, a religion that has dominated, polarized, misinterpreted and harmed for centuries, be from Satan?
It would actually be the PERFECT MO, a wolf in sheep's clothing. I mean if it just OUTRIGHT showed its own evil people would just point to it and go, "Holy cr*p. Avoid that thing!" But wrapped and cloaked in platitudes and full of apologetics and mindbend-esque reasoning ("God loves you! But he also loves the person who strangled your infant and threw it into a garbage can so He didn't interfere with the person's free will, I mean God doesn't want robots...because he LOVES us") and adding a sprinkling of fear masked as helpfulness and overwhelming love ("We're just warning you about hell because we love you...and God loves you too and he doesn't want to have to punish you...it would be your choice...") and now you have something that could (and did/does) sneakily enter into every conceivable aspect of culture and daily life, and does its dirty work (polarization, fear, misunderstandings, scripturally-supported abuse and so on) underhandedly.
Just a thing that makes ya go hmmmm.
ETA: I'm not trying to sit here and be inflammatory. This really is something I've wondered, and more than once.
Ah, mordant. As usual you rail against the vagaries of life we all endure as if there should be some protection from them because they are evil. Except that they are NOT evil if they do not arise from the willful and deliberate actions of human beings. Evil only exists within a consciousness that is aware of the distinction between good and evil actions. We are to overcome and endure the vagaries of this physical life while keeping evil desires from our state of mind and actions (the only place they can exist). We should not confuse the things we perceive as bad with evil if there is no accompanying state of mind. Natural disasters and other natural occurrences, including the actions of prey/predators, microbes and viruses, etc. have nothing to do with good or evil. They just are. The desire for a physically intervening God is of human origin and has nothing to do with God or reality. God is ALL ABOUT our spiritual development and maturity while overcoming the vagaries of this physical existence and enduring to the end. That is ALL ABOUT keeping our state of mind devoid of evil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerZ
Actually, I've always wondered - if the whole God thing is true - whether Christianity itself is Satanic in origin.
I mean look how polarizing it is, how many horrific murders it inspired over the centuries...even today when there is no longer a torture rack or a burning pyre, it still rips people apart. All the time.
Again, assuming there's any validity to the story as a whole (I don't know that there is), the Book of Job would seem to support that God does in fact allow Satan to override what God would have "wanted." Also, there's that sticky "free will" issue. It's dragged out of a hat every time someone asks "How can God allow a three-year-old child to be raped to death?" and similar questions. "Because the world is imperfect due to Adam and Eve and because God can't override the rapist's (for example) free will," the good Christian will automatically (and thoughtlessly/heartlessly) answer without hesitation.
So if God doesn't necessarily interfere when Satan causes horrific things to happen, even to entirely innocent people, AND if God doesn't interrupt free will - even when that free will is producing horror movie-level results - then why couldn't Christianity, a religion that has dominated, polarized, misinterpreted and harmed for centuries, be from Satan?
It would actually be the PERFECT MO, a wolf in sheep's clothing. I mean if it just OUTRIGHT showed its own evil people would just point to it and go, "Holy cr*p. Avoid that thing!" But wrapped and cloaked in platitudes and full of apologetics and mindbend-esque reasoning ("God loves you! But he also loves the person who strangled your infant and threw it into a garbage can so He didn't interfere with the person's free will, I mean God doesn't want robots...because he LOVES us") and adding a sprinkling of fear masked as helpfulness and overwhelming love ("We're just warning you about hell because we love you...and God loves you too and he doesn't want to have to punish you...it would be your choice...") and now you have something that could (and did/does) sneakily enter into every conceivable aspect of culture and daily life, and does its dirty work (polarization, fear, misunderstandings, scripturally-supported abuse and so on) underhandedly.
Just a thing that makes ya go hmmmm.
ETA: I'm not trying to sit here and be inflammatory. This really is something I've wondered, and more than once.
Satan is within us as our selfish and unloving desires. It is our indiscriminate reptilian brain seeking our survival and pleasure with no controls. The only controls come from our consciousness (Spirit). That is why evil only exists within a consciousness as in my post above. Think about it, JerZ. Since the Christian "precepts and doctrines of men" comprise the dogma based on the base human desires and agendas of their authors, of course, some of them they CAN be satanic in origin.
Last edited by MysticPhD; 12-05-2015 at 03:30 PM..
The "Bible" as we know know it has been edited throughout the years by those in power at the time to control the masses.
"Interpreted" by those in power, yes …
"Edited" by them, no …
One of the very interesting discoveries during the last two centuries of VERY serious study of the Text of the Bible -- including its transmission -- is that the copyists and publishers and preservers of the Text have been VERY careful …
The so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, e.g., showed that the Text has been VERY faithfully copied century after century ...
"Interpreted" by those in power, yes …
"Edited" by them, no …
One of the very interesting discoveries during the last two centuries of VERY serious study of the Text of the Bible -- including its transmission -- is that the copyists and publishers and preservers of the Text have been VERY careful …
The so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, e.g., showed that the Text has been VERY faithfully copied century after century ...
Edited 100% sure about that ... Cut what they didn't like, amended what they wanted to enforce.
Catholic by chance? You do know the Roman Empire STOLE the Christian church to control the people.
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