How can you tell God apart from Satan?

[dgirl1986]

Dunno why but this made me think of Vampire the masquerade bloodlines

 

[Slapstick]

Vampire chicks (females) turn me on. I really like a girl that bites and likes to make it hurt.

 

[crossfire]

I like this^

Perfection=death
perfection=an end
perfection=the void(unchanging)

imperfection=life
imperfection=a beginning
imperfection=creation(always changing)

My opinion {your mileage may vary}

Perfection=boring
Imperfection=interesting, beautiful

Have you ever noticed how it's the exceptions that draw in our attention, and the harmonious way these imperfections come together to form what we call beauty?

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

My opinion {your mileage may vary}

Perfection=boring
Imperfection=interesting, beautiful

Have you ever noticed how it's the exceptions that draw in our attention, and the harmonious way these imperfections come together to form what we call beauty?

And we end up calling those imperfections when together perfection. The line isn't as clear cut as we attempt to make it.

 

[EtuMalku]

Interesting . . . ancient Egyptian religion understood the concept of Maat/Order - Apophis/Chaos - Khperi/Transformation - repeat - - - - -

 

[McBell]

How can you tell God apart from Satan?

Seems the most honest answer to this question is:

If it is what I want to hear and or agrees with what I already believe then it is from God.
If is conflicts (or I think it conflicts) with what I want to hear and or what I already believe it is from The Satan.​

 

[Muffled]

...yeah... and?

Now that I have read up on it a bit I believe I can see that Promethius fits the personality of Hel better. It is difficult with two different traditions to ascertain things exactly. It seems that Hades was younger and took over Hel from the older gods. So I believe by the time that the Bible was written Hades was getting all the credit for what Promethius did. I believe it is enough to make a god angry.

 

[Muffled]

Its simple.

Satan made a book and threatened everyone to believe it comes from God or they will suffer for ecer.

God on the other hand would never use the mobster intimidation model. ( )

i don't believe there is any evidence for this.

I believe He does use intimidation and He has the power to back it up. However it is always carrot and stick. If He is obeyed really good things can happen.

 

[Muffled]

I'm just pitching in with my opinion. I'm new here, hope everyone is respectful of it, even if they disagree.

I believe in God. The reason being what else is the life and death cycle existing in the middle of the universe for no reason? There has to be a reason for everything right?

Why is it that Satan has to exist? What I believe is God has given us the Freedom of Choice. Do good or do bad. It's up to us to do what we want. Why should Satan be responsible for anything we do? Heaven and Hell I don't know. But, I believe there is life after death on Earth.

I believe Satan likes to get people to sin and especially a righteous person like Job if he can. I believe when a person acts absolutely contrary to his nature that Satan is most likely the reason.

 

[ruffen]

I believe Satan likes to get people to sin and especially a righteous person like Job if he can. I believe when a person acts absolutely contrary to his nature that Satan is most likely the reason.

But how can you know what is a sin and what is not? If Satan posed as God and inspired the Bible and inspired millions of Christians to believe that for example homosexuality is a sin, while at the same time inspired them to believe that it is OK to sacrifice your own child if the voice in your head (claiming to be God) demands it - how would you be able to know, and what would it then take for you to say "hold on a bit, this "God" doesn't act the way a real God should - maybe this thing isn't a God at all"?

 

[ruffen]

The Left Hand Path? Interesting, I've never actually heard Satanism referred to as that.
We are only human, imperfect, So leaning on oneself will always take you down an imperfect path, You will always fail because human nature cannot be combatted with human nature.

But I agree, Society does look down on those who practise Satanism with misunderstanding and oppression, But I think the fault lies with misconception and little understanding of the religion.

As a left-handed person myself, I should probably take offense from the expression "left hand path" in the meaning of bad, imperfect, immoral, sinister, etc. In fact the word Sinistro in Italian means left. While "right" shares word with what's correct, nice, righteous etc, "left" is just... what's left.

But my militant left-handedness probably belongs other places than here.

 

[ruffen]

I'm just pitching in with my opinion. I'm new here, hope everyone is respectful of it, even if they disagree.

I believe in God. The reason being what else is the life and death cycle existing in the middle of the universe for no reason? There has to be a reason for everything right?

Why is it that Satan has to exist? What I believe is God has given us the Freedom of Choice. Do good or do bad. It's up to us to do what we want. Why should Satan be responsible for anything we do? Heaven and Hell I don't know. But, I believe there is life after death on Earth.

Welcome to the forum, if nobody else has said that.

There doesn't have to be a "reason" for everything. Concluding that God exists because you want him to exist so badly, doesn't necessarily make God real.

 

[EtuMalku]

As a left-handed person myself, I should probably take offense from the expression "left hand path" in the meaning of bad, imperfect, immoral, sinister, etc. In fact the word Sinistro in Italian means left. While "right" shares word with what's correct, nice, righteous etc, "left" is just... what's left.

But my militant left-handedness probably belongs other places than here.

But the LHP doesn't mean any of that.

Read -> Left-hand path and right-hand path - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Riverwolf]

Now that I have read up on it a bit I believe I can see that Promethius fits the personality of Hel better. It is difficult with two different traditions to ascertain things exactly. It seems that Hades was younger and took over Hel from the older gods. So I believe by the time that the Bible was written Hades was getting all the credit for what Promethius did. I believe it is enough to make a god angry.

I don't take the myths literally, that is, I don't believe they represent actual historical events. Rather, they inform us of our character, and the characters of the Gods. Prometheus is Robin Hood.

Also, be VERY careful when comparing mythologies, even related ones like Greek and Norse. For one thing, we have lots of sources on Greek paganism; very precious little on Germanic paganism and even less on Celtic paganism. One thing to remember is that the details of the myths, and the characters of the Gods, is going to change quite a bit from tribe to tribe, and through the ages. That's what happens when you have a living oral tradition of disconnected stories instead of a central text to refer to.

 

[Riverwolf]

i don't believe there is any evidence for this.

I believe He does use intimidation and He has the power to back it up. However it is always carrot and stick. If He is obeyed really good things can happen.

And, frankly, that sounds like the behavior of a power-mad tyrant rather than a benevolent ruler. I'm immediately reminded of Godking Xerxes from 300(referencing specifically that film because I don't know how accurate it was to the historical King Xerxes I, and cursory research seems to indicate the answer is "not very").

 

[obsidian]

Wouldn't that also explain why said scriptures tell stories about people sacrificing their own children in order to show their obedience to their Lord, and encourage people to blindly follow any command from the Lord instead of thinking for themselves and teach the Lord a thing or two about morality? How do we know that this Lord is good and not evil?

If you were Satan and wanted to lure millions into worshipping you, wouldn't you claim to be God and warn about horrible punishments if people didn't follow your lead?

Head splitting subjection here... you can believe in god without subscribing to ideas of spiritual warfare, and in that specific case, there's no need for a villain or satan. And depending on your set system of belief or religion, that can mean you believe in a supreme being that can fit a broad description of satan or god. But religions that have opposing entities tend to have stories that describe cunning trickery of the negative power to do just as you've described; trick people into believing something. Deception is subjective to perception...good can be bad, bad can be good, and the devil can be god. Again, head splitting subjection based on moral value and interpretation of various scriptures.

 

[User Inactive]

I still think everything should have a reason.

 

[mystic64]

I still think everything should have a reason.

Welcome to the message board!

If it does not have a reason, then it would have to be considered magic and magic is not real. With the understanding that sometimes reasons have nothing to do with us and that sometimes we are just caught in the middle of things. Stuff happens.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

Reason is what people give to things that happen. Things happen, we give them a reason.

And even if there was a reason...would you be any happier if it was a really crappy one?

 

[mystic64]

Reason is what people give to things that happen. Things happen, we give them a reason.

And even if there was a reason...would you be any happier if it was a really crappy one?

"And if there was a reason...would you be any happier if it was a really crappy reason?" good post! And a major problem with understanding reasons.