i-baster wrote:
Satan seems like a good topic as this is post number 666 for me. Is there such a thing? Is he just a religious bogeyman or a manifestation of evil in us all or a horned beast or what?
My view is that god was created by man and the devil was required in order to drive people to god and therefore the church. It kind of backfired a little when the devil became so popular but that just adds fuel for those who follow god.
I would say these things are representative of dualism, both sides. The good and evil present in man. The sum of two parts. Satan is but one part.
Dualism (from the Latin word duo meaning "two") denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, (e.g. the conflict between good and evil)
Moral dualism is the belief of the great complement or conflict between the benevolent and the malignant.
Like ditheism/bitheism (see below), moral dualism does not imply the absence of monist or monotheistic principles. Moral dualism simply implies that there are two moral opposites at work, independent of any interpretation of what might be "moral" and - unlike ditheism/bitheism - independent of how these may be represented.
For example, Mazdaism (Mazdean Zoroastrianism) is both dualistic and monotheistic (but not monist by definition) since in that philosophy God—the Creator—is purely good, and the antithesis—which is also uncreated—is an absolute one.
Zurvanism (Zurvanite Zoroastrianism), Manichaeism and Mandaeism, are representative of dualistic and monist philosophies since each has a supreme and transcendental First Principle from which the two equal-but-opposite entities then emanate. '
This is also true for the lesser-known Christian gnostic religions, such as Bogomils, Catharism, and so on.
More complex forms of monist dualism also exist, for instance in Hermeticism, where Nous "thought" - that is described to have created man - brings forth both good and evil, dependent on interpretation, whether it receives prompting from the God or from the Demon.
History
Moral dualism began as a theological belief. Dualism was first seen implicitly in Egyptian Religious beliefs by the contrast of the gods Set (disorder, death) and Osiris (order, life).
The first explicit conception of dualism came from the Ancient Persian Religion of Zoroastrianism around the mid-fifth century BC. Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion that believes that Ahura Mazda is the eternal creator of all good things. Any violations of Ahura Mazda's order arise from druj, which is everything uncreated.
From this comes a significant choice for humans to make. Either they fully participate in human life for Ahura Mazda or they do not and give druj power.
Personal dualism is even more distinct in the beliefs of later religions.
The religious dualism of Christianity is not a perfect dualism as God (good) will inevitably destroy Satan (evil). Early Christian Dualism is largely based on Platonic Dualism (See: Neoplatonism and Christianity). There is also a personal dualism in Christianity with a soul-body distinction based on the idea of an immaterial Christian Soul.
More:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism
A little more info...
Before the rise of Christianity, the pseudepigrapha of Enochic Judaism, which enjoyed much popularity during the Second Temple period,[13] gave Satan an expanded role. They interpreted Isaiah 14:12-15 as applicable to Satan, and presented him as a fallen angel cast out of Heaven.[14] Christian tradition, influenced by this presentation,[14] came to use the Latin word for "morning star", lucifer, as a proper name ("Lucifer") for Satan as he was before his fall. As a result, "Lucifer has become a by-word for Satan in the Church and in popular literature",[3] as in Dante Alighieri's Inferno and John Milton's Paradise Lost.
The word Lucifer is taken from the Latin Vulgate,[3] which translates הֵילֵל as lucifer,[4][5] meaning "the morning star, the planet Venus" (or, as an adjective, "light-bringing").
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer
As we can see lucifer is linked to Venus. Some say 'god' is the universe (pantheism), or the sun (sun gives life) ...and religious writings and therefore characters within are allegories for astrolatry and human behaviour.
We see different behaviours depicted in these different entities/characters, as i said i believe it is all representative of different human behaviour.
feather wrote:
There is no good or bad, just context and perspective.
Im sure that point can bring plenty of debate, and the following is a comment purely on human behaviour: yes i agree it depends on one perspective as to whether or not they believe they are doing 'good' or 'bad' things.
