Do you believe in Satan?
That statement from Pat Robertson about Haiti and Hell, which I will not go into, got me to thinking about how little you hear about Satan. It almost makes me nostalgic. The Devil must have really bad PR. You would think there would be a marketing firm willing to sell its soul to pick up the contract.
The idea of salvation is the big selling point of Christianity and this requires that there be eternal damnation for non-believers. Among those of you who are active Christians, do you believe in Satan? Do you believe that there are people who sell their souls? What about demonic possession? Are there still Cotton Mather style preachers talking about fire and brimstone?
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No. I don’t believe in God either.
No. And you know why lol. There’s no reason to.
of course he’s real. and he will try to get you if you’re not careful.
I do. It’s called We Energies (gas and electric company) in Milwaukee.
If you believe in God, then you believe in Satan. Basic Christian teachings.
I don’t believe there are people who sell their souls. I do believe that there are people who do evil, knowing its evil.
I also believe in demonic possessions and the power of an exorcist. (But I don’t believe in ghosts. Ghosts and demons are two different things. One exists and the other doesn’t.)
@Maxmillian, hate to tell you, but God is not strictly a Christian concept.
Yes to a genderless god, no to Satan.
@PandoraBoxx Not what I meant. I know God is also Allah and Yahweh. I was simply using that example. Satan was first known to us through the Jewish faith.
And you definitely nailed the genderless God concept, sort of. He isn’t human, so there is no gender. When we use “He,” it is the human mind trying to connect to Him. Trying to make Him more human.
I’m on this site, am I not?
no I don’t believe in Satan or God. I believe there is definitely a higher power that runs this world. My husband and I just refer to it as the universe, because we don’t know exactly what it is. We are not religious, even if there is a God, we don’t want to follow all the ridiculous rules that go along with some religions.
I believe in a Collective Consciousness, Higher Intelligence and I call that God/ Goddess..
I believe in a lower intelligence and I call that man.
The realm of dangerous ignorance I relegate to persons like Pat Robertson.
From Pat:
“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the Devil said, okay it’s a deal.”
And that last line makes me think that Pat’s having some intimate conversations with Old Red. Is he a cabinet member of the 700 Club?
And shouldn’t you at least get some fancy digs and fine eats from a deal with Beelzebub? The Haitian people have been in abject poverty for years. Hmmmm…It wouldn’t have something to do with their subjugation and rape for centuries under colonial power like Spain and France? And surprise surprise, slaves who led the rebellion against France were ill fit to run a country in a brave new racist world which they knew nothing about….naaa it was the devil….apparently he creates earthquakes too. Oh no that’s God Satan I mean God.
I can’t keep these guys straight.
@SeventhSense Pat Robertson knows this stuff ‘cause he’s on Satan’s Twitter feed.
@6rant6
Now Twitter might be evidence of Satan.~ Follow every stupid action in my life and everyone else’s? The constipation/regularity feed can’t be far off.
Absolutely. Satan’s real name is Jenifer and I was once married to her.
Judging by the tone of the question itself, my serious answer would not be well received. I’m too tired to talk to a brick wall right now. XD
@LostInParadise
This is a great question and really strikes at the heart of Fundamentalism.
It begs the question, can you believe in God and not the devil? The fundamentalist often talks more about the devil than God and sets up a mighty divisive power struggle through wording.
I believe in seitan. I’ve really gotten to like that stuff.
There is no need for Satan. Man is capable of enough evil without outside help.
I believe Satan is a made-up character in the Bible.
I think, if you define Satan as an abstract metaphor for “evil” or something, the closest thing that exists in the real world are psychopaths like Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh who are incapable of feeling empathy for the suffering of their fellow human beings.
@AstroChuck good answer, I hope I never meet the demon Jennifer.
It would not be likely that God would have done that to Haiti. Some preachers in the past said similar things about California. According to the Bible, he would have given them some kind of warning as he always did in the past. It is just time and unforeseen occurrence.
(Ecclesiastes 9:11) I returned to see under the sun that the swift do not have the race, nor the mighty ones the battle, nor do the wise also have the food, nor do the understanding ones also have the riches, nor do even those having knowledge have the favor; because time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.
(Luke 13:1–5) At that very season there were certain ones present that reported to him about the Gal‧i‧le′ans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 So in reply he said to them: “Do YOU imagine that these Gal‧i‧le′ans were proved worse sinners than all other Gal‧i‧le′ans because they have suffered these things? 3 No, indeed, I tell YOU; but, unless YOU repent, YOU will all likewise be destroyed. 4 Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Si‧lo′am fell, thereby killing them, do YOU imagine that they were proved greater debtors than all other men inhabiting Jerusalem? 5 No, indeed, I tell YOU; but, unless YOU repent, YOU will all be destroyed in the same way.”
(Matthew 5:45) that YOU may prove yourselves sons of YOUR Father who is in the heavens, since he makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous.
(Amos 3:7) For the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will not do a thing unless he has revealed his confidential matter to his servants the prophets.
Burning people in a literal fire never even came up into God’s heart.
http://bible.cc/jeremiah/7-31.htm
The God of the Bible does not do that. “The wages sin pays is death”(Romans 6:23),not an immortal soul burning in Hell. “The soul that sins itself will die”(Ez 18:4)
Matthew 5:22 speaks of those liable to “hell fire” or “Gehenna”. To use “hell fire” gives a false idea, for in the original Greek it reads gehenna of fire; gehenna is the Greek for the Hebrew ge′i-Hinnom, meaning “valley of Hinnom”. This valley lay to the west and south of ancient Jerusalem. During the time of the later kings of Judah it was used in the idolatrous worship of Molech, human sacrifices being offered to this god by fire. (Josh. 15:8; 2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31, 32; 32:35) To prevent its use again for such horrible religious purposes faithful King Josiah had it polluted and it came to be the dumping place and incinerator for the refuse of Jerusalem. (2 Ki. 23:10) The dead bodies of animals were thrown in, to be consumed by the fires kept burning there and to which sulphur or brimstone was added to assist the burning. Even bodies of executed criminals thought too vile to have a resurrection were disposed of there. If the bodies did not reach the fires but lodged on a ledge of the deep ravine worms consumed them.
Have you ever noticed how one translation might say hell and at the same verse in another translation might say grave?
Link to several translations of Psalms 16:10 http://bible.cc/psalms/16-10.htm
Link to Acts 2:27 http://bible.cc/acts/2-27.htm Notice that the Greek Hades is the same as the Hebrew Sheol. Translators try to translate Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna as Hell to support that idea. The Douay Rheims actually has Job praying to be protected in Hell. http://bible.cc/job/14-13.htm
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark9:47-48;Jer7:31;2Kings23:10;&version=15;45;9;77;31; /././
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna /././ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/227782/Gehenna
@texasescim I think you made a big mistake using the bible to support your point. This is the same god that told the Jews to commit genocide in the “promised land”. Not a good support for an argument against biblical destruction.
He informs my every thought and guides my every step. And, he has the coolest accent.
No. I agree with @Qingu – It’s a metaphor for evil.
Haiti is in trouble because of plate tectonics and we know about this real dangers for many decades. The country is also in trouble because of decades of corrupt politicians with no interest of building a modern infrastructure which would benefit the people.
@mattbrowne, it’s also in trouble because of centuries of colonialist debt extorsion on the part of Western powers, and our turning a blind eye to their 30-year dictatorial rule (which plunged them further into debt).
I really hope that after this is over the world powers start having a serious conversation about debt forgiveness.
Yes it’s happened in Africa. It’s happened in Haiti. It has happened wherever indigenous people have been exploited by the “civilized world” and it continues to happen today. What’s big oil’s role in the Sudan? What wars are funded by Western money throughout the world? What devastation will be left behind when we’ve gotten what we want and pulled up tracks?
I think that he makes up a lot of what he says, and that is why people don’t put too much stock in it….
No; I do not believe in Satan. Just a metaphor for the evil that has always been here. “Hell” means ‘removal from the presence of God’ doesn’t it?I guess it depends on whom you’re reading. But ghosts? Yep; ghosts (the dead who come back sometimes) are real. They can come to say , “hello; I’m alive” or even save someone from death. JMHO
If I don’t believe in god, why should I believe in satan?
@Ron_C Because they’re separate entities. Unless you must believe God created Satan. /-: Which, even for me is hard to swallow. Or impossible.
@Aster you cannot have satan without god, they represent balance in the universe and both are man’s attempt to find meaning and define his surroundings. Both are fictional.
By the way even the bible says that god created satan, Satan as defined in the bible, is described as a disobedient angle that challenged god and god is said to have created angels.
@Ron_C “Both are fictional.” Sort of cute how we all think we can know these things. As if we’re entitled.
“even the Bible says god created satan.” A: the Bible is chock full of fables, poetry and myths. I am not a Fundamentalist.
“Satan is a disobedient angle!” I’M a disobedient angle. lol
@Aster I don’t even remotely claim to “know all things”. I do know that the more I read the bible, the less believable it becomes.
I figured out when I saw the math that he couldn’t really visit every house in one night and besides that some people don’t have chimneys. So, no, I don’t believe in Santa.
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