When do we say adiós to the Satan construct?

by AK - Jeff 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  AK - Jeff

  I don't know when it 'hit' me. It was not like a locomotive, more like a brush with a bush in the night-woods. Nonetheless, it was clarion. At first I doubled back to assure that I had not missed it, that I was still on the marked trail. All the signs were in agreement with my compass. Sure enough, my logical movement along the road had not allowed me to drift outside the groomed pathway. I had not been confused by the shadows. I was standing clearly at a crossroads - I had to choose a direction. All the evidence showed that although there appeared to be two legs to this crossroads, only one could ever lead out of the darkness. The compass and map did not lie.

  I found my way through the wood and to the open light shortly thereafter. I knew now. It was no more mystery to me. All the fear that had confused me earlier on the trail was but superstition. An explanation for all the unknown. A scapegoat for all the misery. A dark side to match the light.

  I ran yelling to the sun ahead: "He is vanquished!" I knew the truth. His name was no longer a mystery. His creation was not hidden now. He had been constructed by my ancestors, painted by them, interpreted by them. He was a shadow with no real substance. Now I was given the task to dismantle him, to deconstruct the monster of monsters that had been haunting my mind for a lifetime. The odd thing is that I didn't know I had begun the task until it was nearly complete. He vanished with the same smoothness that a child vanquishes Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. He had already faded when I realized that the sun was illuminating a stone, a grave marker directly in my pathway. I approached the stone and read with great rejoicing the name of the deceased:

  Satan - Diablo - Devil

  Constructed by man

  10,000 BC

  Eradicated by Reason

  2004 Ce
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  WalkTall

  Very eloquently illustrated AK Jeff! When I came to realize that Satan was just another villian formulated by the human mind to attribute the badness of the world to, it was so freeing. The shackles of fear unlocked and fell right off.
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  wobble

  Yup, me too, but it was a long time before I could actually say, "Jehovah and Satan do not exist."

  Of course with freedom comes responsibility, you relalise that all Human Folly is down to humans, and the problems we face must be solved by us, but that realisation makes it more likely we will address the problems, not less.

  We cannot sit around waiting for a Sky Daddy (God) to fix things, any more than we can blaim a wicked Sky Uncle (Satan) for the bad that happens.

  With me it has been a case of Adios WT, Adios God (if that is not an oxymoron), Adios Satan, hello Brave New World.

  Love,

  Wobble
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  cantleave

  The concept of Satan being a construct hit me very early on along my path to freedom. Whern I started to realise I had been duped I could see the Satan construct for what it is, a mechanism with which to control people by fear.
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  ziddina

  Daaa-Ang! Satan came along before the bible did??? Waitasec, I think the concept of an "Evil" one came along waaay back in human history, but I think the personal designation of "Satan" has only existed in the 'bible' - the last 3,500 years or so...

  Getting back to the point, however... Congrats on your freedom from superstition!!

  (I always say, "God" and "Satan" are opposite sides of the same coin. And the name of the coin is "Control Through Fear"...)

  Zid
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  superpunk

  http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/ingersup.htm

  To deny the existence of these evil spirits, to deny the existence of the Devil, is to deny the truth of the New Testament. To deny the existence of these imps of darkness is to contradict the words of Jesus Christ. If these devils do not exist, if they do not cause disease, if they do not tempt and mislead their victims, then Christ was an ignorant, superstitious man, insane, an impostor, or the New Testament is not a true record of what he said and what he pretended to do. If we give up the belief in devils, we must give up the inspiration of the Old and New Testament. We must give up the divinity of Christ. To deny the existence of evil spirits is to utterly destroy the foundation of Christianity. There is no half-way ground. Compromise is impossible. If all the accounts in the New Testament of casting out devils are false, what part of the Blessed Book is true?

  As a matter of fact, the success of the Devil in the Garden of Eden made the coming of Christ a necessity, laid the foundation for the atonement, crucified the Savior and gave us the Trinity.

  If the Devil does not exist, the Christian creeds all crumble, and the superstructure known as "Christianity," built by the fathers, by popes, by priests and theologians -- built with mistakes and falsehoods, with miracles and wonders, with blood and flame, with lies and legends borrowed from the savage world, becomes a shapeless ruin.

  If we give up the belief in devils and evil spirits, we are compelled to say that a witch never lived. No sensible human being now believes in witchcraft. We know that it was a delusion. We now know that thousands and thousands of innocent men, women and children were tortured and burned for having been found guilty of an impossible crime, and we also know, if our minds have not been deformed by faith, that all the books in which the existence of witches is taught were written by ignorant and superstitious men. We also know that the Old Testament asserted the existence of witches. According to that Holy Book, Jehovah was a believer in witchcraft, and said to his chosen people: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

  This one commandment -- this simple line -- demonstrates that Jehovah was not only not God, but that he was a poor, ignorant, superstitious savage. This one line proves beyond all possible doubt that the Old Testament was written by men, by barbarians.

  John Wesley was right when he said that to give up a belief in witchcraft was to give up the Bible.

  Give up the Devil, and what can you do with the Book of Job? How will you account for the lying spirits that Jehovah sent to mislead Ahab?

  Ministers who admit that witchcraft is a superstition will read the story of the Witch of Endor -- will read it in a solemn, reverential voice -- with a theological voice -- and will have the impudence to say that they believe it.
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  OnTheWayOut

  

  As long as it's just constructed, we might as well build it right:

  

  The freedom is marvelous.
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  thetrueone

  When do we say adiós to the Satan construct?

  Answer : the saying adiós of this construct should occur at the very same time of saying goodbye to

  all forms of spirituality including the supposedly good god, since both were derived from human

  imagination and ignorance.

  Gods fulfilled a necessary purpose to give answer to the unknown of himself and of the world we live in.

  Through self examination and discovery mankind need for gods has diminished.
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  Wasanelder Once

  When we realize that Jehovah does the same thing as Satan, murders, misdirects and lies. W.Once
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  VoidEater

  When we get old enough to take responsibility for our own fears, cruelty and temptations.