Pretending, for a moment, that I do believe in the Christian deity and his anti-theosis… how can there be any faith in the Bible when you know how tricky Uncle Scratch can be?
The work of Satan is so often done in the name of God. The devil is a master of forgery and disguise, and “righteousness” is one of his favorite baits.
What could be more clever than hiding wickedness in the gospels, or among the ten commandments?
If you’re interested in promoting evil, you want your holy figures to say things like, “No salvation except through me.” You want to leave the scriptures in a condition where you can argue that good works aren’t necessary, only faith counts. You keep the notion alive that God does have his favorites.
I submit that, if you believe in the Christian cosmology, and if you know anything about the history of the Bible, you’d have to admit that the Bible might include at least one forgery, sneaking in like the snake managed to infiltrate the garden of Eden.
And if you accept that the Bible might contain one single Satanic word, this means that you had better consider well whether every verse you read is tainted.
Well, first being a believer in God and someone who enjoys and respects the bible, does not require that you can’t think for yourself. Doing otherwise is what James Kavanaugh referred to as “mental suicide”.
Saying the bible is inspired by God doesn’t mean that some of the contributors weren’t subjective and/or had an agenda. But that in turn doesn’t mean that Satan (bless his pea-picking heart) had anything to do with it.
This question might more reasonably been aimed at Satanists (bless them, too).
:rolleyes: [sup]And thanks for explaining that you were pretending, we’d have never guessed.[/sup]
Engywook, you raise an interesting point. I have often considered the fact that less-than-honorable religious officials could slip a passage in here and there to suit there own ends, but I hadn’t made this particular leap. (I mean, the Bible has been rewritten/translated what, a couple hundred times?) There is definetly opportunity and motive for someone to do bad things there. I guess depending on who you ask, any time anyone does anything bad the “devil” -or whatever naughty supernatural dude you recognize- is working through them. As Atreyu points out, there really isn’t any way to prove that any evil (or good, for that matter) entity had anything to do with composing the Bible.)
I submit that, if you believe in the Christian cosmology, and if you know anything about the history of the Bible, you’d have to admit that the Bible might include at least one forgery,
Actually no, I don’t have to admit that, nor would I.
I could definitely see Satan trying to deny that the Bible is the word of God, though
What’s your smilie for? Are you being ironic? Or do you mean something like “no offence intended”?
The OP asks the question:
“Can we be sure that the Bible represents the untainted word of God?”
To which you reply that you are sure the Bible is untainted, but also, that to suggest otherwise is somehow Satanic.
So let’s get this straight:
You are right
You know you are right
(those two I guess constitute a “vanilla” faith position)
You know that to question your rightness is in itself a bad thing
Can I ask:
Is it possible that you are wrong in the third of these respects?
Major hijack here but, why is it that no propaganda exists from the other side?
In other words, all Satan did was question authority. nothing evil about that.
So why didn’t he start his own following.
Atheist speaking here so read a little sarcasm into this, but you kinda have to wonder.
The Christian answer of course is “Satan prefers you don’t believe in him”.
Somewhere I missed why it is that Satan supposedly wants souls in the first place.
I’ve had the same ideas as the OP. I can’t imagine anything more insidiously evil as a religious book. Good things have been done in the name of religious books, but so has horrible, horrible evil. I don’t have a cite, but my thoughts are that most of the worst evils in the world have been done in the name of God.
No, the book itself is not responsible for the evil committed. Not at all. There are plenty of good things to be found in them.
It’s the fact that people *use[/] those books as the excuse to do the things they do. Someone said it better in another thread that many evil people don’t think they’re doing evil. They think they’re doing the right thing. It’s when someone holds up the Bible (to use the only example I’m actually familiar with) and says, “The Good Book says I’m supposed to do this in the name of God, so what I’m doing is right,” when what they are doing is pure evil.
No, the book itself is not responsible for the evil committed. Not at all. There are plenty of good things to be found in them.
It’s the fact that people *use[/] those books as the excuse to do the things they do. Someone said it better in another thread that many evil people don’t think they’re doing evil. They think they’re doing the right thing. It’s when someone holds up the Bible (to use the only example I’m actually familiar with) and says, “The Good Book says I’m supposed to do this in the name of God, so what I’m doing is right,” when what they are doing is pure evil.
