Why Did God Create Satan?

This pondering upon this subject came to me after reading Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. Obviously the book is a refutation upon Christianity and comes from a Deist point of view; as Thomas Paine self proclaimed.

He questioned why God, if we are to believe Him to be loving of His creation would create a being that would knowingly turn against Him. Why would He allow Satan to seduce Eve in the Garden of Eden? Why would He create a being that would have infinitely increasing powers that would allow him to: escape Hell and have the same powers of omnipotences upon the very people God has professed His love towards?

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Well, if everything is true I dont think "God" purposely created a soul which would turn against him. That soul made that decision. If Good and Evil exist in the afterlife, then they are exactly opposite of eachother. So they may be on different dimensional planes, which some believe. That may explain why some believe Satan or Evil can manifest in this dimension on Earth more than Good can, because Evil is on a lower level closer to us on Earth, especially those who's spirits are not as developed. Just throwing something out there.

reply to post by FPB214


Then I am even more confused, for the Bible tells us that God is an all-knowing, all-powerful being and we are to believe that an angel, which is a creation of God, deceived God?

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Well, I dont follow most of the text in the bible or any other book, religion etc. From my standpoint, I believe "God" only has so much power, it isn't some man in the sky which can do things with the lightning from his finger. Then at the same time, I somewhat feel as if "god" is creation and existence itself, as a whole. You, me, Bob, Lou and everyone else are all interconnected spiritually. In the very end, or beginning, I feel as if I was "God", just a single spirit and with the expanse of the Universe came more free will and creativity and "God" became everything. He's powerful because we have the power within ourselves, within our spirit to achieve whatever it is we feel the need to. He could be all knowing because like I said, we are one. We are all concious and aware, and interconnected. When it comes to Satan, like I said, the only conclusion I can draw is somehow, someway this "Satan" suddenly felt he wanted to be on top, and seperate from the whole. That's just one theory though, when it comes to this type of stuff their is so many different things that could be right or wrong.

If he truly banished Satan to a different dimensional realm, since that's what the soul desired then like I said earlier, they are on two different levels.

reply to post by FPB214


I am more in line with how you think, trust me. This I guess was more directed towards those that do follow the Bible and I was seeking knowledge from their standpoint. That is not to say that I am narrowing the discussion to as such either; all discussion upon the topic is more than welcome.

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Supposedly Satan was created as one of the angels, and I was led to believe that he was a rather high-ranking one...if there is such a thing. Apparantly Satan watched god butcher and slaughter innocent people, and be appeased by burnt goat sacrifices with blood sprinkled all around and decided he might like a slice of that pie for himself. Then, I believe, if I'm not getting my fairy tales mixed up - he was cast out of heaven with a third of the angels (who according to the mormons turned into people with black skin) to earth, I guess. He wasn't barred from heaven, since he went back to chat with god once & god pointed out the dude job & let satan have his way with him, more or less.
Maybe god just doesn't know everything. Maybe he's not ALL powerful, just...a little powerful. After MANY years now we're told (by the church) not to take the book of genesis literally anymore. It would have been handy to have that fact added by the authors of the book during it's writing to avoid all this confusion later on....maybe like a footnote or something. I saw where the pope had stated that they now believed evolution was the method god used in creation. After reading "The Grand Design", it's pretty hard to see how god exactly fits in the picture anymore except as a convenient filler for the gaps (which get smaller, and/or disappear) which we haven't totally figured out yet. If there IS a god, I believe all he has ever done is set off the cosmic firecracker and then sat back and watched. Maybe not even that. A game of cards perhaps? www.youtube.com...

reply to post by sykickvision


While I appreciate your comments and it is a good read, I think you can do some good to not be so cynical in representing your points of view. I want this discussion to remain civil and your post can easily be taken differently in relation to the nature of the discussion.

I am not trying to start an attack upon the Christian faith, but rather discuss its aspects.

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Sorry. I thought we were being serious about things.

Seems like god created him to be his "fall guy"..... Anything good that happens is because god made it happen, everything that's bad happens is satans fault....

Let me preface my comments by stating that I truly do believe in God....however....

I have postulated the following and have yet to get a logical answer:

Why would an omniscient entity create something He KNOWS will fail and turn on Him?

As a scientist, I only set up experiments that I figure I'll get usable data from. I wouldn't bother setting up an experiment that I KNOW will fail. What's the point of doing so?

Why would God create a horrific place of torment for those who turn against Him if He already knew PRIOR to creating said horrific place those who would go there?

I see it as myself having children knowing that one will eventually turn on me. At the same time, I'd create a horrific place for that child. I'd have that horrific place set up such that all of those who followed my child to share his fate.

What I have yet to figure out is why create any of it to begin with??? Why create something you know full well will be sent to a fiery furnace? Why not just skip creating any of them since it isn't logical to create an experiment you know will fail and you know those who are relegated as failures will be subjected to torture for eternity?

I am well familiar with the concept of free will but that does in no way answer my simple question...WHY CREATE A FAILING EXPERIMENT??? Sorry for the all caps but I have asked this of many and the answers are lackluster at best.

I have no biblical authority over the subject and I am stating things from memory. My main question still resides though:

Why is that God created Satan and then allowed Satan to grow his powers to be equal to or greater than God's?

God is a noun ,not singular , God is a title , a description not a name .Understanding the who/what error of the implied God .God did not create Satan , they were Brother siblings .God ( Enil ) and Satan ( Enki) .This implies God had parents and were physical beings who were spirital .Not spirital beings .Enil was given earth as a type of kingdom by his parents , but was usurped by his brother Enki.These are the same players of all religions just known by different names from different languages . So why are all religions fighting over the same deities because of language barriers ?

to show how powerfull and rightous he is...when the time comes god will destrroy him with a single blow meanwhile satan or w e u wanna call him had all the time in the world to try n match the creator...

reply to post by 13th Zodiac


That is an interesting take upon it. It is another to ponder. I guess I should have prefaced my questioning to be that of the Biblical teachings of God though, as that is where my question is currently focused.

reply to post by PublikOUTLAW


Has he (Satan) not matched God's powers by the very teachings of the Christian church? Satan is said to be everywhere, just as God, thus he was elevated at some point, either by Man or by God. In either case, I see flawed logic in the story and belief.

Originally posted by ownbestenemy
reply to post by PublikOUTLAW

 

Has he (Satan) not matched God's powers by the very teachings of the Christian church? Satan is said to be everywhere, just as God, thus he was elevated at some point, either by Man or by God. In either case, I see flawed logic in the story and belief.

You bring up an interesting point that I too have brought up when asking my questions.

Satan/Lucifer is not omnipresent yet any church you attend tells you how every temptation, etc. is brought about by Satan. My question is then...how can he tempt all of us? He's a single entity yet seems to get quite a bit of blame for tempting all of humanity.

I will also have to admit that I dabbled with things as a youth that definitely let me know that the spirit world is quite real and is not something to be dabbled with. At the same time, I highly doubt it was Satan himself I had contact with. He is a single entity yet every church on planet earth blames him for everything. It makes no sense!!!

I fully believe in demons and would not recommend attempting contact with them....but....blaming Satan for every temptation in every mind of every individual defies logic.

Another thing I thought about was that god might not be as powerful as he/she/it is described.... Why else would satan turn against him? Would you pick a fight with a guy that could literally destroy you with the snap of their fingers? To top everything off there is supposed to be a final battle where they face off, why would a battle even take place if god could destroy him without lifting a finger? I guess satan knows or at least thinks he has a fighting chance at winning....

Originally posted by bozzchem
Why would an omniscient entity create something He KNOWS will fail and turn on Him?
Why would God create a horrific place of torment for those who turn against Him if He already knew PRIOR to creating said horrific place those who would go there?

I believe "God" didn't create Satan knowing what would happen. I think Satan, like everything came from God (spiritual existence). For some reason, he eventually chose a different path, just as all souls express themselves in different ways. The soul is an expression. So maybe Satan, in his soul chose to go against God, for whatever reason. Maybe he just awoken and decided "Im free, I can do whatever I can imagine", whether it was good or bad, whether it went along with "God" or not.

I believe if hell is real it simply came from God banishing Satan away, to the lower realms where he was kept. Yet over time he was joined and created an existence of his own on a different dimensional plane. Which is opposite of the positive energy of "God", negative.

Don't know what's true and not, but I do believe in the afterlife and a heaven and hell. Simply because, if an afterlife does indeed exist, than why would Mother Teresa and Hitler go to the same place? I believe in Karma, and just like on Earth you pay the punishment for the crime you commit. I believe in some way we dont understand, Karma is a law of the Universe. It's a law, if your negative energy outweighs the positive in your soul, then you go to hell and vice versa. Yet, I believe even souls in hell will eventually be cleansed and gain the energy to move out of that realm. I believe life, creation, existence, and consciousness are eternal, and eternity is now and forever. So if everything is eternal, than your soul will eventually be cleansed and within eternity you will continue on and eventually pay your time, just as people do on Earth. Just my beliefs.

reply to post by jheated5


I think the "battle" is just good vs evil. If im right, I believe Satan is in the lower realms, spiritually. The people on Earth are more easily affected by Satan than God because most people do not find thier true inner self's along with everything in existence. I think only by developing your mind and spirit do you get closer to "God." I believe the "battle" is on the Earth, because of course if God and Satan are real they both know of Earth, they both probably want plans for this Earth. There is a mix of evil on this Earth as well as Good. So I think any battle would be here on Earth, and "God" is trying to free Satans grip on this Earth for good, but to do that he needs us. He needs mankind to open their mind, body, and soul to not only him and the afterlife, but to the Universe and existence as a whole.

reply to post by FPB214


Well that's another concept I can't really wrap my head around... The whole Ying Yang factor, one side is going to win over the other so everything will always be good after evil is defeated.... Seems like it's always destined to be like that, good/evil, light/dark, hot/cold....