Method of Madness: post-hoc reasoning and confirmation bias.

i would consider myself a theist, actually a christian, and i don't think like this at all.good and bad are subjective terms. i have faith that everything is actually good and that somethings no matter how bad they may seem to me, are in fact good, and serve some other cause.i don't think in terms of god = good, devil = evil, as i don't believe in the devil. i believe in a dual nature to god, male/female, good/evil, wrathful/forgiving, etc.however, these beliefs are abnormal, and they're just mine.

one problem. the torah and tanakh never mentions satan as being evil. the nt kind of hints at it, and finally culminates in his fall in revelation, at the end times. if you believe this is literally referring to hasatan, the spiritual entity, he works entirely for god up until this point. i do not believe this to be referring literally to satan, but a symbolic interpretation of a real person who tested, tests, or will test christians.satan does not have the power to operate outside of god's will. he is man's adversary, here to test us. he is not god's adevrsary. anything else is to say that he challenges god for power, which detracts from god's omnipotence -- blasphemy.similarly, lucifer is a mangled translation of heylel, the morning star, a title for the king of babylon. a title rightly owned by jesus, not satan. so there's no problem when he calls hismelf the morning star in revelation.the whole bit about lucifer = satan = the devil, god's opponent, who fell from the heavens in an epic battle before the creation of man is straight from milton's "paradise lost" -- not the bible.This message has been edited by Arachnophilia, 06-16-2004 07:49 AM