of the Harlan Ellison short story where God edits Genesis to make it even more favorable to Him. I wrote an essay on it, and my mind is failing now. Deathbird?

By initiating "original sin," Satan put in motion the whole misery of humankind under the hand of the unmerciful god. You know, the god who kills people, floods the earth, lets babies die, sacrifices his own son and all the other wonderful things god does throughout the Bible.

But I think the OP is referring to something else. We don't see Lucifer a whole lot in the New Testament, especially after Jesus' death so I'm going to guess it's something in the Old Testament.

God or Satan in that story.

God gave Satan permission to kill those kids, but let's say that it's Satan's fault anyways.

As all he really does is faithfully serve the boss as his agent of free will.

Lucifer refused to acknowledge God as his master.

That's it.

According to the Bible, that's the worst-possible thing you could do. All the murder and human sacrifices and rape and slavery that's happening in the Bible pales in comparison to not accepting the Lord.

Has anything he's done turned out right? He created the angels, and a bunch of them hated his rule so much they attempted a coup. Then he creates human beings and they turned out so badly that he killed off the lot of them except for one family, hoping their descendants will be more righteous. That didn't work, everyone's still sinning, so he kludged up the crucifixion/resurrection thing.

And how's that plan working out? We have thousands of denominations of Christianity, plus who knows how many "independent" and "nondenominational" churches, each one with its own unique interpretation, and each one certain that they're correct and everyone else is doing it wrong. They can't all be right, so one's chance of picking the ONE TRVE Christian church is very slim indeed.

I was taught that God knows all; past, present, and future.

So God knew what S/L was going to do when he created Satan/Lucifer.

All evil done by S/L was pre-approved by God.

Yep, failure to worship the omnipotent ego. That's why the first 3 commandments are all about him. Even murder doesn't rate that high.

Has there ever been a god less worthy of worship than that genocidal maniac on Cloud One?

he led a rebellion against him. I always wondered why he didn't kill Satan for that. Maybe he couldn't kill Satan. Maybe God created Satan to be immortal. It doesn't make since to leave your arch enemy alive to wreak more havoc on Earth, but that's what God did. Is God really perfect, then? He doesn't seem to have much foresight.

OT God was a wrathful and angry god and Satan was no more than a trickster-character, providing OT God with a counterpart to keep the plot going.

NT God is what the followers of the cult-leader Jesus made out of OT God. That's why the NT God is loving, yet at the same time angry: Because they tried to combine two different characters into one.

In the end, he sends everyone who doesn't accept Jesus to Hell for eternity. Eternity? That's a mighty long time, and I don't think anybody deserves to spend that much time in Hell for anything they do over the short span of a human life.

Seriously.

Also, he made a turkey sandwich that was a little dry.

Well, maybe not. God killed 99.9999999999% of all life on Earth in Genesis, so there's not much the Morningstar can do by comparison.

Might want to check under your bed and see if he's gotten to you.

Satan gave us alcohol, blowjobs, and heavy metal. Teletubbies and Home Alone? That shit reeks of the Almighty if you ask me.

I have it on good authority.

stories where old sparky does horrible shit like killing everything in sight are just metaphors for an angry immoral god killing everything in sight.

... stuff.

i think pride led to the rebellion of the angels. might be the worst.

he did not force eve to eat the fruit, the temptation of christ was not any kind of crime. god is the villian in job. what else do you have?

Did you actually read "Paradise Lost" or get that quote from Star Trek?

Or so the story goes.

So Satan's worst crime must be following orders.

In Job, he does make a bet with his boss, which could violate company policies against gambling in the work place. In his favor, it was only that one time and no worse than the basketball betting pool, so management will probably let him off with a warning.

Satan barely shows up in the Bible. How did he get elevated so that he’s almost God’s equal?? That’s just one of many things that has turned me into an atheist. Genesis doesn’t mention Satan at all - that was added much later. If Satan was really God’s enemy, wouldn’t he have followed the Hebrews through the desert, wreaking havoc at every turn? Seems like most of what we believe about Satan comes from Paradise Lost, not the Bible

So as to let God off the hook by those theodicy people.

Last edited Thu Feb 7, 2019, 02:05 PM - Edit history (1)

... was allegedly a horrible sin, caused by Satan. The slippery snake, tempting Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge.

But keep in mind that Satan was actually created by, and worked for, God. So God really wanted or allowed this. First 1) God made knowledge off limits. But then 2) he let us acquire it. Then 3) condemned us for it.

And ever since God allowed this, knowledge and reason and intelligence, have been the main target of Faith.

There are other readings of this ancient myth. But this is a useful one to start with.

God demands total, blind, stupid obedience. And cannot tolerate intelligent questions.

The worst thing Satan/Lucifer did was to try to overthrow God. That's why he was cast out of Heaven/Paradise.

Am I right?

called The Watchers went around having sex with women, which apparently caused such upheaval that they all got locked up in caves until the end of time.

That is some silly shit.