Satan is a construct and a scapegoat to explain 'evil' and how the ancients and present day believers explain why bad things happen.
In Hebrew, the term is related to an Aramaic verb that means “to lie in wait,” “to oppose,” or “to set oneself in opposition to.” As a separate 'person' or being, he is not part of the Pagan belief system. Good and bad lie within all people. In the old testament, it is Yahweh who created evil (see KJV Isaiah 45:7). God was all things to the Hebrews. But Christianity was troubled by this logic. Loving does not equal evil. So Christianity adapted this by creating a separate being. They gave evil person-hood and elevated its importance by giving it a proper name - Satan, God's special but fallen angel. There... it's no longer 'our' responsibility. 'The Devil made me do it!'
I think it is essential for all believers to, first off, actually read the entire Bible. Many have not. This exercise alone has made many a believer an atheist.
Then research the history and origins of the Bible including the pre-Judaism beliefs. The Bible is not a book like we think of a book. It is a compilation of stories spanning 1500 to 2000 years. The "Egyptian Book of the Dead" was written before this and contains many similarities to the Jesus myth. I find Christianity to be an adoption and adaptation of previous beliefs. Bart Ehrman's research points out we do not have the original writings of the Bible. And, as you said, the authors of the gospels never met Jesus (actually, none of the authors of the Bible met Jesus). Their accounts are from oral stories passed down over decades even centuries later. What happens to stories handled this way? They change.
Put yourself in the position of the early Christians. How can they gain membership? Well our God is better than all the other gods. Exaggerations of Jesus' power crept in. And the elevation of him to a god occurred. They made him better than Yahweh, more loving and somewhat accepting of all because well, Yahweh was really a douche bag.
But when people didn't buy in at first, the early Christians physically tortured people who would not convert. Later, after that wasn't exactly effective, they decided to tell people if they don't sign up they will be judged upon their death and if found unworthy, tortured for all eternity in a burning lake of fire. Why is it religion has to keep sliding back to the ugliness of threats and hurting people to prop up their agenda? (As a side note, there are still polytheists in the world today. Hindus and Pagans do still exist. The early Christians were unsuccessful in wiping out 'the heathens'.)
So once you know all this (and there is much more I could state but won't for the interest of some brevity), you can't unknow it. And you come to a fork in the road - do you continue with the somewhat easy, but ultimately useless, delusional path of belief/faith or do you decide to follow the more difficult, logical, rational, fact-based, intellectually honest path. I think every believer comes to this point sooner or later.
schnell said: * As I wrote in another thread, I personally do believe there was a
historical Jesus. However, I don't believe all that has been attributed
to him, or in the integrity of the Bible.
Erhman agrees with you. He states Paul's
letters are a kind of proof of Jesus' existence. He also states that Jesus
was an apocalyptic Jewish preacher who thought God was going to fix all
the world's problems in his lifetime. Sound familiar? I often like to
think if Jesus of Nazareth were alive today, how many of us would consider him to be a religious nut bag?
To paraphrase Hitchens "Ask yourself the following question... What is more
likely? That the laws of nature and the Universe have been suspended or
that an unmarried Jewish girl told a fib?"
