Are we tempted by Satan or by ourselves?

[Terrywoodenpic]

Satan may only exist as an excuse for our own weaknesses to temptation.

If man did not exist there would be no role for Satan. It is perhaps only because man is easily tempted, that we have found the need to invent a being, more powerful than ourselves, to blame for our shortcomings.

Satan does not need tempt man, because man is easily tempted by his own negative traits including, desires, lusts, weaknesses, fears, hates and envies.

This means that the question as to whether we are tempted by Satan is both yes and no. We are tempted by our own weakness and this may or may not be reinforced by Satan. The choice to act on that temptation is always our own.

 

[Majikthise]

You know my answer to this one , good thread though!

 

[Caprice]

The choice to act on that temptation is always our own.

Definetly.

 

[BruceDLimber]

Greetings!

I'm a Baha'i, and the Baha'i scriptures assert that God is One, Supreme, and has no equal or rival! Therefore there is no "devil" competing with Him.

And "satan" simply refers to our own lower (animal) nature when we give it control instead of our higher (spiritual) nature.

There is thus NO ONE ELSE for any adult to blame his or her misdeeds on! EVERY ONE of us (save the insane) is solely and totally responsible for any actions (or for any failure to act when action is needed). Geraldine's "the devil made me do it" won't fly in the least.

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Ori]

God is love, man is everything else.

 

[michel]

I believe that we have free will (and don't let's go into that one again, please) ; the choices I make are either 'Good' or 'evil' - it is my choice.

 

[MagickIsFun]

I agree. The choice is ours as is our perceptions of good or bad.

 

[Stormygale]

I believe I am a christian, just not to the extent of taking action to fit into that mold for the outer world to see. I do not believe that there is this little coniving devil who has nothing better to do than wrap himself around our feet and tempt us to do every little bad thing that he can tempt us into doing. I think the devil is a higher state than that.
I blame us. Our mind, in the workings of being a thinking human mind with intelligence, wars against itself, non-stop. It is not so much a war of right and wrong, yet, a battle of doing things that make the body happy. Does this make sense.
It does to me.
If you sin, place the blame on you. Don't say, 'the devil made me do it, or the devil got me in a time of weakness." You failed. Admit it. God loves a humble man who can admit when HE is wrong.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I think the devil is a higher state than that.
.

I understand and go along with what you say. except I don't think I understand what you mean in the above Quote. Couuld you expand.

 

[john313]

There is a being known as satan. our "selves" let us fall into temptations. Some of these temptations were originally introduced by satan and his companions(alcohol, fornication, pagan idols...), but the choice is definitely up to our "selves" as whether or not to partake in them. Blaming something on the devil is like saying "my friend made me drink and drive, it wasn't my fault." The spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak. People are ruled by pleasures of the flesh rather than logic. we should think with our minds, our soul, then we will not even see these things as temptations, just something from the past which we have evolved beyond.

 

[almifkhar]

i think we tempt ourselves. most people though have what i like to call "the point the finger syndrome" you see when bad things happen to these folks (usually brought on by their own actions) it is always someone elses or satans fault, but never their own.

 

[EnhancedSpirit]

Satan is the sum of our animal instincts. Our fear of survival, and lust of the body, greed, envy and such. All of these is Satan, and we are tempted everyday by our animal instincts. The choice is to be humans with a spirit or be spirits experiencing the world.

So Satan is within ourselves, a part of us. The shadow that is cast by our bodies standing in the light of God.