Is Satan actually the good guy, and Jehovah the evil usurper?

by 10p 41 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  10p

  A few years ago I read Genesis again, and with a more objective mind, got the sense that Satan was actually telling the truth, and that god was just trying to have humans be his slaves. And god's reign over humans hasn't been all that pretty, in fact, its been downright awful.

  'course, I'm atheist now, so I wouldn't believe it even that way around - not literally anyway. But I wondered if the writer/editors of Genesis may have actually had this thought.

  Anyone know of any sources that explore this idea in depth?
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  garybuss

  Read the Bible and count up the number of people Satan killed in one column and the people God killed in the other column and tell me who ya think killed the most people.
  
  I'd say yer on to something . . .
  
  
  
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  Rapunzel

  Perhaps someone with a more profound knowledge of the Bible would disagree with me, but in my opinion, I do not think that the writer[s] of the Genesis account equated or identified the "snake" in the story with Satan. I do not think that the ancient Israelites maintained a conception of Satan. I believe that they developed the notion of Satan much later in their history - probably after being exposed to the idea by the Persians. It was the ancient Persians who introduced the concept of an active, evil force. In the Job story, "Satan" is not banished to Hell or wherever; he's allowed into heaven. He's a character who is hostile to humans, but he has not yet developed into the entity as imagined today. That concept would come into being later. Again, I think it was the Persians, with their dualistic, Manichean world-view who "presented" the idea of "Satan" to the world. The ancient Persians were Zoroastrians whose beliefs profoundly influenced the Jews, and later Christians and Moslems. I believe that the concept of Satan can be traced back to the Persians. When they liberated the Israelites from Babylonian captivity, there occurred a "sea-change" in the Jews'world-view. In turn, Jewish thinking influenced later Christian and Moslem thought.

  It's true that Jesus identifies the snake in the Edenic myth with Satan, but of course, by then, Zoroastrian thought had already influenced many people in the classical world.
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  Rapunzel

  There are also Gnostic accounts that claim that the earth's "Creator" was in fact an evil demiurge. The original intent of this demiurge was to create humans only for the purpose of keeping them as slaves. Some Gnostic teachings do in fact interpret the snake in a positive manner. According to this conception, the role of the snake was essentially the same as that of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. The snake was seen as a liberator. It all depends on the myth that you choose.
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  Eyes Open

  I've kind of got the feeling Satan was onto something before, but not consciously realised to the extent you did. So those devil worshippers might be right after all.
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  potleg

  The whole good vs.evil court case drama put out by the WT is a bunch of bull, but that aside, look at the pictures of armageddon and the descriptions of what god is going to do and tell me it's not evil. If you had an animal that was sick you wouldn' treat it the way god is going to deal with humans. And for what?

  Really what god tells people is, you have the freedom to choose who you worship, but if you don't choose me and give me all your devotion I'm going to kill you in the most wretched way possible.

  If people do bad things because of satans influence then why isn't satan removed to give the earth dwellers a chance? Wouldn't that make sense?

  God is wise, loving, just and righteous...NOT He's more like Hitler according to the WT scenario, get rid of the sub humans that don't measure up. Why there's even a special name for them...worldly. Watch out because if your'e worldly you won't survive the great religious cleansing to come. It's sick.
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  Homerovah the Almighty

  In the imagination of story telling anything is possible .
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  stillajwexelder

  Is Satan actually the good guy, and Jehovah the evil usurper? AL PACINO would tell you yes
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  10p

  AL PACINO would tell you yes

  stillajwexelder, is that from a movie?
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  real one

  well Satan, you got some more followers!