This question is directed at those who believe in a literal Satan-figure, capable of tempting and screwing with mankind.
What would stop such an entity from altering the holy texts?
Well, once you admit the existance of a literal Satan-figure, all bets are off. You can use him to explain biblical inconsistancies, witchcraft, and the common cold.
I asked a Christian fundamentalist in a chat room this once. The answer was something like, ‘No, because it would go against Satan’s interests to tell everyone how to get saved.’ Which demonstrates a woeful lack of imagination, or a crippling inability to consider hypothetical situations.
Great question.
The answer is “yes” if you grant the existence of such figures as gods and devils and give them the kinds of powers they are attributed.
Of course you would be left with the duty of a) convincing fundies of this, not a really open minded crowd unless you are wearing a flashy suit and asking for money these folks are not big on listening. b) What is the nature of truth? Perhaps god tricked Satan into making the bible for him and use one of those “I know you know I know you know I know you know…ad infinitum” scenarios.
I prefer to know what I know and put faith in the fallability of myself and others.
Doesn’t the question assume that Satan is as he is described in the Bible? In that case, why would Satan produce a document accurately describing himself?
Good question!
I’ll tell you up front that I’m not Christian…but what if this Satan fellow wanted to give us a chance? Does hunting for sport have a point if the prey has no chance at all?[sup]1[/sup] I actually don’t think that the question as stated can ever be settled, but wouldn’t it make one hell[sup]2[/sup] of a novel or RPG? It would really make for a killer fantasy story.
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I should also tell you that I don’t hunt for sport.
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No pun intended.
If you posit that Satan can decieve a large number of people, and that the people who transcribed/typeset/word processed the Bible could be decieved by Satan into adding or leaving out lines…
Something to think about.
an interesting take on this can be found in Robert Heinlein’s “Job: a Comedy of Justice”
I recommend it to anyone interested in theories on Satan.
Sorry for the slight hijack, but a question I’d like to tack onto this is if “Jesus” returned to the Earth, what are the signs by which you would know it was him and not the Anti-Christ?
Actually, if Satan had any control at all of his environment, why would he torture sinners? If I were him, I’d make the place like Vegas, but not so tame. If he wants to get souls on his side, why make it hard for them. So, that part I’m sure he wouldn’t have written - just deistic propaganda, I’m sure.
This is sort of like saying: What if you couldn’t trust anything you read (the Bible, for example)? What if you couldn’t trust anyone else’s reasoning? The Satan who theoretically corrupted the Bible could just as easily corrupt your thoughts and perceptions. So what can you trust?
Even if the Bible is largely true, how do you know that some parts aren’t corrupt? What would happen if someone read a corrupted section of the Bible (say, an old version that had mistranslations from the Latin)?
Either:
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The person would notice what they thought was a corruption, and ignore it. No problem.
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The person would not notice the corruption, and misunderstand (or, following the OP, they would be mislaid by Satan). That doesn’t get them off the hook-- they’ve still got to consider the moral and practical implications of what they’ve read. Christians (generally) don’t believe that following the letter of the law (e.g., the Bible) without thinking has any great value.
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The person would not notice the corruption, but assume that it was correct, and try to see the corruption in a different light so that it fit in the larger context of what the Bible presents as right and wrong.
This last, of course, is responsible for a multitude of sins, as the phrase goes. People, as we know, are fond of pulling out a couple quotes from the Bible to prove a point. Often these people know no Greek or Aramaic – and may even not understand their native language particularly well. Obviously, it would be easy for them to make a mistake. But it still doesn’t excuse them from considering the moral and spiritual implications of what it is they think they’ve read.
By the same token, a non-Christian isn’t excused from considering the moral and spiritual implications just because they don’t recognize the authority of the Bible. The Bible says, for example “Do not kill”. Every sane person is morally responsible for a decision to kill someone – it doesn’t matter whether they accept the Bible as true.
If you’re interested in finding truth in the Bible, start with what you do understand and believe, and work outward from that base.
If, on the other hand you want to be utterly confused, take controversial passages from the Bible, don’t read any commentary that explains the historical perspective and the translation considerations. Don’t go somewhere quiet, like a long walk outdoors alone, asking yourself “Why do I believe/disbelieve this passage?” Also make sure you don’t ask somebody with professional training in Christianity or Judaism what the passage means. Using this method, I guarantee you can find the Bible confusing for as long as you want.
It’s sort of an inherent problem in positing beings of who even the lesser, evil ones, are inconcievably more powerful and intelligent than humans: just about all bets are off, all probabilities open and undefined. But its also sort of a “are we just a brain in a jar?” question. If there is a god that’s comfortable letting us get so easily kicked around and completely decieved by his supposedly wimpy nemesis, either he’s not a very good god to begin with, in which case we’re screwed anyway, or he’s VERY understanding of how easy it is to be duped by an super-powerful being given free reign (the the point of the entire exercise of life being sort of pointless from the pespective of it being much a fair test)
The Bible reads like propaganda written by someone on the losing side of a conflict. The ‘good guys’ find opposition everywhere, and many martyrs are made, but we are assured that in the end they will win. If I felt there was a supernatural explanation for the Bible, I would side against it’s followers.
Of course, any Christian fundamentalist worth their salt knows that the Bible is the word of Satan if printed in any form other than the KJV–Satan personally helped the translators write the NRSV, NIV, and of course, any version not written in English or the original languages.
(Disclaimer: These are not my personal views, but rather, those of the “KJV only” strain of Christian fundmentalism. “KJV only” is based on the premise that since the King James version uses a lot of archaic sounding language, it must truly be the only authoritative word of God–and all those scholars with their modern approaches to criticism are just tools of Satan. Also, please refrain from observing that King James I was a homosexual. If someone wants to be “KJV only” and also homophobic, this historical fact really screws with their mind.)
The Bible is just atoms. Lies occur in the heart.
I could just as easily say that robertliguori is one of Satan’s lies.
You can believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, or not. All other arguments are ultimately meaningless.
Since we can’t know the truth now, it comes down to faith.
Drat. They’ve found me out.
Unbelievers are sometimes dismissed as unwitting pawns of Satan. Unwitting, in this case, being a charitable admission that the unbeliever is sincere in saying they are not a pawn of Satan. But if Satan can manipulate people without their knowing, then anyone can be a pawn, at any time.
This is also related to the “If God told you to kill somebody, would you do it?” problem – because in theory Satan can disguise himself as God. A universe containing both a supernatural creator and a supernatural deceiver is simply too confusing.
As a Christian who was friends with Satan while he was resident here, I can assure you that he is quite skeptical regarding the Bible, though fairly knowledgeable about it.
Careful here, or Vezzini will have you trapped in a maze of Sicilian reasoning faster than you can start a land war in Asia.