Because this God and Devil are real, even if you don't believe so.So then, given how many deities people believe in, I suppose we are all making thousands of indirect decisions. Why should I care about this one then?
How powerful is Satan?
- Thread starter El_Machinae
- Start date
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
This kind of "good" and "evil" religion is very strange to me. This kind of Christian belief where you profess that all other faiths + atheists have their hearts hardened by Satan is something I have not come in contact with. I have never heard a priest talk about it (Lutheran priests), nor any Christians I have talked to.
It seems almost outrageous, in fact!
Still amazed...
They are real because you believe so?!?Elrohir said:
Innoruuk is powerful enough to destroy a planet, but not the universe. He has in the past; but he would not want to destroy the universe.
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
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- 16,208
If I have sex with Satan who gets pregnant me or him?
omg, I have been marked by the Dark One
but whatever makes you sleep at night, I guess
Thanks!
Can the Devil determine what people are thinking?
It seems, for you, that my 'power scale' made sense?
Sure, but what changes do you think/assume he can affect on reality?
Who is the battle between, and what is it a battle over?
Ah, so we're talking hypothetically? In that case, I'd assume Satan has the power to give suggestions to turn against God. Not to say that our own sinful inclinations are somehow not the cause of our evil, but I think Satan has the ability of temptation to even the strongest believer.
As to his physical capabilities, I can't even guess. Notice that demons in Scripture only injure people through possession, which is another mystery I really can't fathom.
Okay, so can he read our thoughts? If he's able to directly communicate with our brains, does he modify the brain to make the idea seem internally-generated or does he get the idea into our heads in another way?
I honestly don't know. Jesus warned us to beware the temptations of the evil one. However he implements those temptations is not really the point, let alone able to be known. We just know they are dangerous.
Erik Mesoy
Core Tester / Intern
I don't know; I'd speculate that he can. But even if not, he's probably very good at guessing due to long experience.
Intuitively, it does, so I ran with that. When scrutinized closely, though, it's a bit like the definition of "Fire" as an element.
Ugh. This is even worse with regards to close scrutiny. First, there's the concept of "modify the brain". If I say something to you, verbally, your brain is arguably modified in processing the statement, but I wouldn't say I did that. Who Second, "internally-generated" is false by definition since what Satan says, well, isn't, but must appear true to be of use, except where Satan is dealing with people willing to listen to him already.
An easy "out" for this is to consider that Satan has the power to bump air molecules or the like just strongly enough that we subvocally "hear" his suggestion and think it's an idea we had. I don't accept this, since I was already of the opinion that Satan doesn't affect macro-events, so I'm stuck mumbling something about free will, which I only believe in half-heartedly, and the soul and non-physical consciousness.
Gah, difficult question.
An "out" regarding the above is to posit a non-physical soul which Satan can transmit ideas to, so we don't have to worry about molecular interaction in the physical brain, but at that point, I might as well wave my hands and say "God works in mysterious ways", which I hate to do when there might be a better answer, as in this case.
I'll think on it...
The battle is between God and Satan and is over living happily ever after.
You're amazed that we believe in good and evil?
No - my belief is irrelevant to their existence. They are real because they exist, not because I believe that they are existent.They are real because you believe so?!?
Again - we don't know. The Bible doesn't claim to hold all the knowledge to answer any possible question, it just claims to hold enough knowledge that man may be saved by believing what he reads in it.
If you're asking my personal opinion, no, I don't think he can read our thoughts. As for how he could communicate with us without our being concious of it....how should I know? Maybe he can affect us just by "touching" his soul to ours. Maybe he can make tiny changes in brain chemistry. I don't know, and to be honest, it's kind of trivial.
Love and greed. It's a battle for the service of all mankind. Does a man choose to sacrifice himself for the greater good, or serve only his own desires?
Oh, my brain is very much modified by the text you write to us. It's modified even more if I attend to what you write. But it's sensory input coming into my brain which modifies it. So I wonder if Satan's communication is elementally different, such that he's changing specific thoughts to make temptations.
When he tempted Jesus, it seemed to be more of a "pal talking to a pal" kinda thing. The Satan people tell me about seems to be more subtle than that. So this thread is exploring whether people think he's weaker than that.
It seems one can be neutral, then, no? A balance of serving my own desires and yet contributing to the greater good at the same time?
azzaman333
meh
Assuming Satan and God both exist, they are probably equal in power, just one likes helping humans and the other likes screwing human stuff up. Like a couple of kids with an ant colony.
If God were to create a rock too heavy for God to lift, Satan would be powerful enough to lift it.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
His power level is over 9000!
Dividing people into two camps: "good" and "evil" is completely amazing to me. While I am ready to admit that a minority of acts could possibly be classified as either "purely evil" or "purely good", most acts cannot. And individuals certainly can't at all, so that's an amazingly harmful and bad classification system.You're amazed that we believe in good and evil?
(I might even say it's an "evil" classification system
)Well, you're free to believe that
You could equally well say:
for all the good it will do. It is not a falsifiable statement and is hence is just faith/belief.
