# Why does Satan want souls? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2001, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768 "2001-01-12T21:22:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![don\_willard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@don\_willard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_willard)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/21 "2001-01-13T21:44:24Z")
I heard a preacher on tv who doesn’t request that people send money by the way, and he uses Strong’s Concordance all the time and warns that we make sure we get the right word about the Word. He is a fundamentalist, or at least seems to take things literally. He says that when someplace in the Bible says the devil (and bad souls) will be thrown in the lake of fire forever, that word forever meant once and for all, more like forever more will they be completely gone. They are burnt up once and for all, they don’t go on being punished. He also says that their names will be blotted out from the Book of Life, so that let’s say you had a wife you liked but she went to the lake of fire, when you are in heaven you won’t remember her and therefore you won’t be sad that she is gone. He says that let’s say Person A murdered Person B. When they both get to heaven before God, God will leave it up to Person B whether Person A is to be tossed into the lake of fire. He doesn’t mention that if Person B decided to have A sent to the second death, God might then send Person B along with because he wasn’t loving and forgiving! I also will add that this concept of the Second Death (the utter extinction of the soul , of consciousness) is what the ancient Egyptians had, along with the lake of fire. If you didn’t pass the judgement in the Hall of Thoth, you were thrown in the lake of fire and that was the end of you forever (NOT punishment forever but extinction). (In some accounts you are thrown to a hippopotamus monster who swallows you up and that is your extinction). Also, I’m surprised nobody has mentioned so far the doctrine of hell being not fire or punishment from the devil but just being absent from the love of God. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/22 "2001-01-13T22:34:34Z")
> [@](#): > > "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, `Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' "But Abraham replied, `Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ – [Luke 16:22-26](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=LUKE+16:22-26&language=english&version=NIV&showfn=on) (which admittedly is a parable, and maybe not taken literally by even the most literalist of fundamentalists) > [@](#): > > A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.” – [Revelation 14:9-11](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=REV+14:9-11&language=english&version=NIV&showfn=off) Whatever one’s opinions about the morality of this particular self-professed Biblical literalists teachings about hell, they do not appear to square well with the actual words of the Bible on the subject (at least not in the New Testament). ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/23 "2001-01-14T00:12:01Z")
> [@](#): > > … If you follow the ‘teachings’ of the evil one and push God away, you can continue to spend the rest of eternity without God. -me > [@](#): > > Satan wants to hurt God but can’t do it directly so he will hurt something that is very dear to God, namely God’s children (us). > He wants to keep God away from his children. -me earlier > [@](#): > > Also, I’m surprised nobody has mentioned so far the doctrine of hell being not fire or punishment from the devil but just being absent from the love of God. -don willard Well I don’t use the L word but state that the condemmed will be away from God and don’t mention the fire part. ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/24 "2001-01-14T00:52:58Z")
souls pretty. me like pretty ---
**Author:** ![Ad\_Noctum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@Ad\_Noctum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ad_Noctum)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/25 "2001-01-14T02:31:52Z")
maybe they taste like Chicken? plus, when the battle of the Light and the Evil come into play, the Devil wants as many minions on his side as possible; which won’t do him a shitload of good seeing as Nicky will throw down a white orb, Ozzy Osbourne will pop out, and bite the head off of the devil, and all will be right… errr… [rewind] ; which won’t do him a shitload of good seeing as God will Smite him down with White Light, and everyone will reign, Jesus will be at the right hand of the father, and they will Reign in Unison forever and all Eternity. ---
**Author:** ![barstow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90db22/32.png) [@barstow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barstow)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/26 "2001-01-14T10:20:13Z")
If your an athiest, you should know the futility of trying to get straight answers from any religion. They are all built up of collected myths absorbed from prior beliefs and those introduced by war and mingling. The classic form is outlined in Brave New World, where the wilds of future America are inhabited by people with mixed beliefs of Christianity and old Indian gods and rituals. This mixing of strange bedfellows creates a need to explain the old with the new, and pointless relationships between them paper over the gaps. ---
**Author:** ![Mikahw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Mikahw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikahw)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/27 "2001-01-14T10:39:43Z")
The question is: Who chooses who goes to hell or heaven? If Satan did it, wouldn’t everyone go to hell? If God did it, wouldn’t everyone go to heaven because he loves all men regardless of their actions? ---
**Author:** ![Derek\_Mummey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Derek\_Mummey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derek_Mummey)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/28 "2001-01-14T13:25:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \* > \*\*If you collect enough souls, you can trade them in for valuable prizes. \*\* I just saw the movie “Bedazzled” (1967). It’s about a guy, who makes a deal with the Devil. The Devil explains that He is in a game with God, the one who gets 100 billion souls first wins. hmm… I just thought of an idea for a .sig. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/29 "2001-01-14T14:29:03Z")
> [@](#): > > The question is: Who chooses who goes to hell or heaven? What about the person living the life??? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/30 "2001-01-14T21:51:16Z")
> [@](#): > > If God did it, wouldn’t everyone go to heaven because he loves all men regardless of their actions? You’ve never met any Calvinists, have you? “The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.” – [Psalms 5:11](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=PS+11:5&language=english&version=NIV&showfn=off) ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768/31 "2001-01-14T21:58:38Z")
Eh. It was worth a shot. This thread is closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-satan-want-souls/49768.md?page=1)