The Devil

[Morgan]

If you believe in God, then you must believe in the Devil?

What is the word on the unholy One? Does hell exist?

These are all unanswered questions i'd be interested to hear your views on, God botherers and unbelivers alike. Logically, Hell must be the opposite of Heaven, therefore if the 10 commandments are to be believed the reverse is true in Hell. Stealing and bearing false wittness will be common place, the pleasures of the flesh and carnal endevours a top pastime.

The other view, possibly could be that Hell is the sin bin for bad Christians and that the unbelieves will go to neither, and what about the other faiths? Do they have their own Heaven and Hell or do they not pass go, do not collect ?200 and end up in limbo?

Any Devil worshippers posting here, time to have your say.

[asdf_admin]

Re: The Devil

God put me on this planet to accomplish a certain amount of tasks, I am so far behind I will never die.

[Kamal]

Re: The Devil

welcome cdj

[asdf_admin]

Re: The Devil

Hey!

[stencil_cp]

Re: The Devil

both are symbolic ideas for things we cannot otherwise define. higher consciousness allows us to meditate on morality and justice and what is right and fair, but our track record is spotty here. there is good, peaceful and harmonious potential we like to dream about and aspire for, and there are hateful, war mongering, and greedy tendencies that don't die or go away. one extreme to the other, and we're stuck in the middle able to think about either but unable to personify our meditative ideals. heaven-hell, good-bad, yin-yang, god-devil. can't have one without the other, i agree.

but it's all here, now. god is the pull toward one extreme, the motivating factor beyond what we can reason in our head, life force in that neural stew beyond facts. devil too, and hell is the tormented mind unable to make peace with the border in that stew between what we are thinking and the factless motivation behind it. but the symbol and myth of religion doesn't work for everyone. lots of people, great. but when people get a tormented head about needing to please god it's just counter productive.

[BSully828]

Re: The Devil

If you believe in God, then you must believe in the Devil?

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with you on that. Well maybe if you specified by saying “If you believe in the Judeo-Christian God…”, then I’d agree, but if you mean God in that more broad, cross cultural sense then I’d disagree. God, by definition, is beyond all forms of comparison and pairs of opposites (good and evil, being one). So one might say to truly understand God – or understand to the best of our human abilities – you have to see through those kinds of categories.

Take Shiva for example: Some portraits show him carrying a flaming sword, wearing a skull necklace and blood dripping down his chin - Pretty scary muthafucka and you’d probably shit a brick if you saw that character walking down Main St. But there’s another idea in the Hindu belief that goes along with that image, the idea that Shiva cuts away all the human trappings and bindings that keep us in this eternal cycle of life-death-life-death. If you’re so immersed in the ordinary, the temporal, the vices of the flesh – then Shiva will come at you like a fuckin demon waving a flaming sword (or, say, pitchfork) and along with it all the fear, pain, sorrow and grief that one would experience by being ripped away from the comfort of mortal life.

But if you realize just how fleeting this existence is, and how truly meaningless the cares and concerns of modern life are, then Shiva is not a demon but a porter – a guide to the next phase who cuts away all the chains of earthly living with his flaming sword. Both images are inherent in that idea of Shiva, and both are true – depending on which side of the fence you stand.

That’s a very weak interpretation of a very old idea, but you get the gist.

[Terry]

Re: The Devil

This is always a good question. i find it harder all the time to believe in the god i was taught to believe in. the christian god. i definately believe in A god but im really confused on the actual form of this being. It might not even be a spiritual god, more of a creator type god. maybe that god is actually a race? point is i just dont know anymore. my new religion/belief is confusionism i guess

[superdave]

Re: The Devil

Read the Bible and check out Revelation specifically. It describes Hell as the Lake of Fire. Not a place you'd want to be.

[Jenks]

Re: The Devil

Imo, there is no devil, no hell, no heaven, no god, as it is written in the bible.

"god," as people like to refer to IT, is "the spirit" "the soul" of ALL things.

Yes. It's really that simple.

Energy.

Religion does a great disservice by casting God/Satan in a human light.

imo anyway.

And that's all i'll ever have to say in these long winded useless arguments people make about god/satan/heaven/hell..

[BSully828]

Re: The Devil

Imo, there is no devil, no hell, no heaven, no god, as it is written in the bible.

"god," as people like to refer to IT, is "the spirit" "the soul" of ALL things.

Yes. It's really that simple.

Energy.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

There is no greater example of arrogance as there is in the man who thinks he can understand God. To think that there is an equal or opposite of God (i.e. Devil) is to think that God operates on the same level as we do.

"Turn everything into what is really is: The abstract, the spirit, the nagual. There is no witchcraft, no evil, no devil. There is only perception." -- Carlos Castaneda

[Steve Graham]

Re: The Devil

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist

[ian]

Re: The Devil

Nice CS Lewis quote there ^ he was always good on the subject of Heaven and Hell. His book The Great Divorce is really thought provoking.

I've heard hell described as a place where you still have all your earthly desires (food, sex, air, companionship etc) but without being able to ever fulfill any of them. Kind of like an eternity of absolutely nothing, but being concious throughout. Heaven on the other hand is complete contentment and fulfillment in every way all the time. Sound good to me!

[Steve Graham]

Re: The Devil

acutally the website i saw that quote just now says..
"This was first said by the famous French poetBaudelaire in an unusual short story about meeting the Devil and having a grand old time."

hell resident dj - tiesto
heaven resident dj - digweed

[dek0021]

Re: The Devil

i don't know about a God...i believe in more of a catalyst...something that sparked existence (i.e., big bang theory). we use God and religion just as we have presidents and laws. it just so happens that God's rules are pretty basic to any species and some societal rules (e.g., you shall not kill - this is for survival of our species...primates are known to kill they're own kind because of territorialism....you shall not lie or bear false witness - this is a society rule just to keep things simple). as far as the devil goes. well that is just folklore. cool stories to read (i.e., morning star ect.). also reading about the 7 events of the apocalypse in the bible is cool.

for the religious buff who absolutely believe in God. don't you realize that you've only heard one side of the story. it's like your ex's friends how they all hate you because according to one source, you're an asshole. maybe he ain't that bad anyhow. i think lucifer/damian/ beazlebub/satan and his dark angel asrael have gotten a bad rap.

thoughts?

[ian]

Re: The Devil

acutally the website i saw that quote just now says..
"This was first said by the famous French poetBaudelaire in an unusual short story about meeting the Devil and having a grand old time."

Ah, well Lewis "borrows" from him in his Screwtape letters book