No Place For the Devil? Why?

Inquisitor

"For centuries, many people thought of the Devil as a horned, cloven-hoofed creature clad in red and using a pitchfork to cast wicked humans into a fiery hell...Undoubtedly, however, such misconceptions have caused millions to question the existence of the Devil or to think that the term applies only to a principle of evil." w06 Jan 15 p.21

So the FDS thinks that people no longer believe in the Devil because:

1) they laugh at his appearance... too old school.. need the metrosexual touch

2) they do not agree with his career choice

Two questions to the rest of you, who do not live in ivory towers waited on by nodding monkeys:

1) What do you think are the reasons for people's waning belief in the devil? Is it merely another effect of the rise in secularism? atheism? scepticism?

2) How did certain theologians come to the conclusion that Satan is merely the concept of Evil and is not an actual spirit creature?

INQ

daystar

1) What do you think are the reasons for people's waning belief in the devil? Is it merely another effect of the rise in secularism? atheism? scepticism?
2) How did certain theologians come to the conclusion that Satan is merely the concept of Evil and is not an actual spirit creature?

1) Because as a species, we are evolving beyond the primitive necessity for superstitious explanations for the universe.

2) See the answer to #1.

the devil himself sends out influence to foster that belief ,if you are not forwarned of an enmy he can quickly defeat you rev12:9;1st peter 5:8 but throughout the scriptures consistantly christians are reminded of the dangerthe next question on the concept of evil there is a scripture that some religions believe according to their dooctrine and not according to the bible that not only is the kingdom in their hearts but also jehovah ,jesus,and holy spririt,not a bible teaching.jesus said to some people the kingdom was in their midst some renderings say within you,of course thats not possible because jesus said that the kingdom is in the heavens and his kingdom is no part of this world.but they took this manmade teaching of the kingdom being ewithin people and took it one step further by removing god from the picture and daying that the concept of good is within us and then took it another step farther and say good and evil coexists in us and there is no god or satan,how convenient then obviously at that point people have no need for religion they are their own gods.people naturally because they are not perfect resist instruction to a certain point and some resist a little more aggressively than others ,you get god out of the way and you are not personally responsible to answer to a god given consciensce you make ethics and morality as you go along ,we can see the dramatic result of that today

daystar

I wonder if there is some sort of an award for the longest freaking run-on sentence?

peacefulpete

Not surprisingly nearly all poll results of the last 50 years show a greater number of people believe in "God" over the "Devil" and "demons". The churches have simply not marketed the devil as aggressively as they used to. Ironically as fewer people feel bound to creed and tradition the role of the media seems to be growing and displacing the churches' input. Sadly the better the movie makers get at depicting convincing demons and ghosts the more people are unconsciously adopting belief in them. According to Gallop polls belief in demons has risen from 55% in 1990 to 70% in 2004. Other polls confirm this pattern of return to superstition as the education system weakens and the media exploits sensationalism.

Leolaia

That'd be really something....if Hollywood has more influence on ppl's belief of demons/evil/Devil than the churches themselves....

peacefulpete

I read an article in this month's Skeptical Inquirer that did another poll of exclusively college students. They were horrified to find that belief in paranormal actually rose as the students advanced in college. Clearly they were not learning it from their textbooks so the questions are where were they drawing their rational from? The answer seems to be TV and movies.

poppers

"I wonder if there is some sort of an award for the longest freaking run-on sentence?"
Makes reading them fun, doesn't it? Sheesh!

Inquisitor

you get god out of the way and you are not personally responsible to answer to a god given consciensce you make ethics and morality as you go along ,we can see the dramatic result of that today - ezra

Are you saying that people who deny God's existence construct wrong moral/ethical standards? That such rules cannot exist outside of religion?

Tell me, was it the bible or civil society that outlawed slavery, recognized minority rights, encouraged interaction between religious faiths to promote understanding in pluralist societies, etc?

You're probably enjoying the benefits of such progress in our society and yet you have the cheek to wave your Bible and speak of gloom and doom of humanity!

You're a nodding monkey aren't you?

INQ

Hellrider

Most christians have a very naive view on "evil" and "the devil". To many, the devil is the source of all evil. He is evil incarnate, and all that is evil stems from this devil. That always puzzled me, though. When Lucifer rebelled, what de did was an act of evil. He chose to rebel against God, and disobey God, so this is in itself an act of evil. Before this,he was just another angel. So, obviously, the "evil" came from somewhere else, or it existed "outside" of Lucifer himself. It existed before the devil came into play. And if the snake that tempte Adam and Eve was not the devil (and I believe it was not, from what I`ve learned on this forum) - then Adam and Eve chose evil, not as a result of the devils influence, they just chose it just...because. And consequently, the devil is an unnecessary character in the Bible. He wouldn`t even have had to be in there. Man can come up with all sorts of evil all by himself, no devil is necessary for that.

No Place For the Devil? Why?

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