Ha, I was going to make the same snarky observation.

Satan is dyslexic.

HAIL SANTA!!!!

(Now I will join ring in the corner, and we will play pattycakes while the grownups talk.)

But didn't Christ go around banishing and exorcising demons and devils? So maybe you should be worrying about them and how to get rid of them.

So that's how the zealots rationalized their lack of knowledge in the place they were going to spend eternity at ....

I loose respect for religion daily ...

I don't believe in a literal Satan just because there are so many evil(not regular evil but EVIL evil) people they couldn't possibly be one Satan. Unless.... he can divide himself into different people. :S ha

But, I don't believe in any form of Satan at all.

To all the Christian people, don't you believe in the Bible? If you believe there is a supernatural being that is all powerful, like God, why not Satan? This is not an attack, but I'm curious.
A lot of Christians I've talked to don't believe in Satan, and I can't figure out why not. To me, it's not that much of a stretch from God, except he's "evil."
It's hard, from an atheist perspective, to understand the mechanics of religious belief. Trust me, I try, but it's hard to know what it would be like to believe. Alas, believing is not a choice. I wanna know how you guys feel about certain things, maybe I'll start a more general thread, and religious people here will be kind enough to answer my questions.

Stories have influences
beyond what they could have intended
way back when, when created.

Satan is no more real than Bilbo, but they both continue adventuring through people's minds. Maybe they enjoy it.

Do I believe in a literal Satan? No more than a literal God, sitting on a cloud and wearing a big white beard.

Do I believe in good and bad in people, pulling them one way or the other? Fighting for their souls? You'd better believe it brother.

And some people give in to that evil in the strangest ways... like forcing their idea of "god" on others.

Troublebot, are you sure they are "forcing their idea of God on others" or is that a paranoid way of interpreting the intentions of believers who are just voicing their belief...just like you just did? They have just as much of a right to express their belief as you did in this post of yours. Not every believer is out to get you.

Never said they were. I have many friends who are believers and we can talk about religion without automatically thinking the other is wrong before the discussion starts. I have no problem with people who voice their opinions, but I disagree with anyone who feels they are "right" and anyone who disagrees is "wrong"... in religion or any other subject.

And please don't misunderstand, I'm not lumping you in with the above, only answering the question.

...understood, Troubleshoot...no problem :)

---------- Post added at 01:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:59 AM ----------

Do I believe in a literal satan? Sure, why not? No, I don't believe he has horns and a red tail...but a snake in the Garden of Eden? Yes. Satan appears as any image or non-image that he wishes to in order to win souls.

When God created man He didn't want to create a bunch of robots. He wanted them to have the ability to choose between good and evil, and to choose whether or not to love and obey Him or not. Thus he allowed the very powerful satan to exist. He's real and so are his demons. I shudder when I see people taking this lightly...like playing with ouija boards, witchcraft, astrology, fortune-telling, etc.

I could talk about religion, but it's much easier to talk to god. Satan is window dressing.

...True regarding "easier to talk to God"...but it's not easy
to remember to do that. Man's nature wants to rely on Self.
..."window dressing" trivializes satan's destructive power.
God is THE most powerful but satan is next in line.

Shouldn't God, an omnipotent being, able to stop Satan in his tracks once and for all permanently? If so, why doesn't he? If not, why call him omnipotent?

By the very definition of omnipotent, yes. :)

The Bible has an entire book in the Bible called Job about God letting Satan fuck with a human being and his reasons why, if you gain some measure of truth from such things.

I think it makes sense that a god that would want people to have free will / choice and to do "good" would need to have a system with an opposite, which we can call "evil" for our purposes here. A similar concept to the Yin/Yang, if you are familiar... let's not get bogged down in what would be "good" or "evil" here. If God stopped the process or influenced it in some way, it wouldn't really be a choice in the sense that choices under duress aren't true choices.

I identify myself as a Christian, but I do not claim to have enough conclusive evidence to say whether Satan is a real angel made by God that fell from grace (as written in the Bible) or whether it's some metaphorical story. I don't think that it matters to this discussion, though, because whether the Bible is some factual historical book or not, the concept of an opposing choice exists and it doesn't need to have a physical form.

My mom loves telling me that Satan's greatest trick is convincing the world he doesn't exist.

Guess it worked on me. :P

You should ask her if she is quoting Baudelaire or The Usual Suspects :)