Why Does God Suffer Satan?

[RedEye]

Many Christians will say that Satan is actively messing in the affairs of humankind, leading people away from the path of righteousness and seducing them into sin and immoral behaviour.

I have often wondered why God allows this. Some say that it is all part of God's plan and that there will be a final reckoning sometime in the future where Satan is defeated. The problem is that an omnipotent God does not need tactics or a battle plan. Plans are only required if you have a difficult opponent who you cannot overpower easily. God does not have that issue. He has the ultimate superpower. He can just will Satan out of existence. No devious scheme is required when you are omnipotent.

So the questions are these. Why doesn't God just get it over and done with and zap Satan into oblivion? Does God have a purpose in having Satan around to seduce God's children into wickedness? What could that purpose be? (No "God works in mysterious ways" responses please).

[Peds nurse]

The Biblical God is Satan.

Hi DI, hope all is well in your part of the world!
From where do you obtain this insight?

Does God have a purpose in having Satan around to seduce God's children into wickedness?

Think of how silly that is. If Satan is required to seduce God's children into wickedness then God's children are totally innocent since they would never fall from grace on their own merit.

Satan is not required to seduce us into falling into sin. He however, can certainly tempt us to believing lies and thus falling into sin. We have the ultimate choice in following God or not.

In fact, this is one of the many reasons why the Biblical fables of Adam and Eve falling from grace because they were beguiled by an evil serpent makes no sense. If mankind would not have fallen from grace without being tricked by an evil serpent then mankind is already vindicated of any and all wrongdoing.

Adam and Eve were told to eat of every tree except the tree of good and evil. Satan did tempt them, but ultimately, it was their choice.

Forward to today. Now if we tell our children to not do drugs, but yet they are in a situation where drugs are present and they were being tempted to do so, and they act out on that temptation, it is clearly their parents fault? I disagree, it was their choice.

This would be a God who played a heinous trick on humans plotting to have them beguiled by an evil serpent because the humans would not fall from grace on their own. What a nasty immoral God.

As much as it would calm our own conscious to believe that God somehow set us up for failure, it isn't the truth. God set Adam and Eve up to make the right choices, but they did not. On this earth their will always be the choice to not choose what is right in God's eyes.

What could that purpose be? (No "God works in mysterious ways" responses please).

The only purpose that could possibly be is that the God of the Bible is himself an evil demon who gets off playing heinous immoral tricks on innocent humans.

Where Oh where does your belief that we are innocent come from? Adam and Eve were informed of what not to do, but yet they did it anyway. How does that equal innocence?

Trying to keep these ignorant and immoral fantasies alive by spending a lifetime of making up failed apologies for these poorly thought-out tales is nothing but a waste of time as Christians have so kindly shown us.

If that is true, then isn't it rather silly to be on this forum debating a waste of time religion?

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 101 by Peds nurse]

God set Adam and Eve up to make the right choices, but they did not.

Christians on this forum have been telling us recently that the mythological Yahweh and the mythological Adam and Eve fables are "poetry" and "philosophy" and "psychology" ...

But here you seem to be telling us that we are dealing with genuine historical events ...

And with the real capital G God who is the creator of the universe and everything in it.

Is this true ...?

Can you back it up with anything outside biblical propaganda and your own mind ...?

[Peds nurse]

[Replying to post 101 by Peds nurse]

God set Adam and Eve up to make the right choices, but they did not.

Christians on this forum have been telling us recently that the mythological Yahweh and the mythological Adam and Eve fables are "poetry" and "philosophy" and "psychology" ...

Hello StuartJ! I hope this finds you well!
Although I have been a member of this forum for a while, my attendance has been somewhat sporadic in nature. I don't really share the same thoughts on Adam and Eve being poetry, philosophy, or even psychology. I believe the Bible as the word of God, so I address it as such.

But here you seem to be telling us that we are dealing with genuine historical events ...

And with the real capital G God who is the creator of the universe and everything in it.

Is this true ...?

This is in fact exactly what I am saying.

Can you back it up with anything outside biblical propaganda and your own mind ...?

Let us back up a minute. The OP asks the question of why God suffers Satan. Now, I don't really know of another book, other than the Bible that has the scenario that you are referring to. If indeed it is the Bible, then how can I address the issues of OP which come from the Bible without using the Bible to debate the OP since the Bible is the only source of reference?

[ttruscott]

StuartJ wrote:
But here you seem to be telling us that we are dealing with genuine historical events ...

And with the real capital G God who is the creator of the universe and everything in it.

Is this true ...?


This is in fact exactly what I am saying.

Amen! You ain't alone!!!

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 103 by Peds nurse]

In addressing the OP it's ESSENTIAL to know if we are dealing with fantasy or reality.

If we are dealing with fantasy, things can be just whatever we imagine them to be and we can post faith-based statements of belief and not need to bother about the inconvenience of evidence.

And we can just pretend we are dealing with the "Word of God".

However ...

If you claim that you are dealing with reality, you will, in this case, need to demonstrate with any sort of independently verifiable evidence whatsoever that:

a) Your version of "God" really is God with a capital G - and not another mythological ethnic deity (just believing it isn't enough)

b) The "scriptures" you are referencing came from your version of "God" - and are not just the writings of humans who have imagined your version of "God".

A simple tiny scrap of evidence of ANY sort can put an immediate end to the necessity for enquiries of this nature.

[The Tanager]

[Replying to post 99 by Danmark]

Mine was a general point. I have no problem with anthropology. If someone said that anthropological evidence proves every god is invented (for instance) then we've gone beyond anthropology into philosophy and bad philosophy, at that.

[Danmark]

[Replying to post 99 by Danmark]

Mine was a general point. I have no problem with anthropology. If someone said that anthropological evidence proves every god is invented (for instance) then we've gone beyond anthropology into philosophy and bad philosophy, at that.

Anthropology of course does not say "every god is invented." Science just observes and clarifies. It takes religion to make value judgments. What is important is to be mindful that science observes and describes nature and culture and provides answers that do not require a belief in god to comprehend. IOW, thanks to science, there is no need to call upon an imagined super being to explain the world.

[The Tanager]

Anthropology of course does not say "every god is invented." Science just observes and clarifies. It takes religion to make value judgments. What is important is to be mindful that science observes and describes nature and culture and provides answers that do not require a belief in god to comprehend. IOW, thanks to science, there is no need to call upon an imagined super being to explain the world.

That's a philosophical claim. That's been my whole point. Science and philosophy answer different kinds of questions. Science should inform our philosophical answers, which we all have.