The Devil

[Doward]

Well I am just going to gracefully bow out of this topic . Mainly because I just dont care enough to debate .

What debate? If your faith (in whatever you choose) is strong, why would you feel the need to debate anything at all?

That's what I respect most about my truly Christian friend, Austin. He knows that he and I do not see eye to eye about many religious things. He presents his view in as non-confrontational of a way as possible, and we have had MANY theological discussions.

I know his belief in his faith is unshakable. In my opinion, that is how anyone that claims to have faith should be - your faith should be your own, and it should be a rock solid foundation for you.

Heh, I should tell you guys about Austin's 'rain moments' some time - though I seriously doubt any of you would believe me - or worse, try to twist it into something for your own theological gains.

 

[mattsplat72]

No Not really just maybe just being able to see beyond the "face value' of a question. My use of the devil was the only way I saw to express my self . The proper way to state this question would be.

How does ____ manifest itself in your life. Mine is the women on my route or the packages in my truck tempting me to steal. But for the sake of clarity in my mind I added the devil so that the sentence as a whole made sense to me. The term devil is an abstract it can mean anything you personally need it to mean. In Christian terms it is the fallen angel Lucifer . To me it is the part of me that is morally wrong . This just seems to be a case people reacting to a small part of the greater whole

 

[SupaMan]

the devil is inside my car.

 

[OneJoeZee]

The devil

"I'm inside your 7Mz

Blowin ur gasketz."

 

[Mr.PFloyd]

well since my thread got locked in response to this. I will post.
I am the super devil. fear me.

 

[Supracentral]

No Not really just maybe just being able to see beyond the "face value' of a question. My use of the devil was the only way I saw to express my self .

You specifically used "the Devil shows himself".

Note: Capitalization indicates proper noun status.

Nouns name people, places, and things. Every noun can further be classified as common or proper. A proper noun has two distinctive features: 1) it will name a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and 2) it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in a sentence.

I'm not trying to be a dick. We're discussing topics over the Internet. As such, I don't have the benefit of seeing your face, your body language or in this case knowing you from a hole in the wall.

I reacted to what you posted, not what you meant. You used all the indicators "the Devil shows himself". This indicates you are speaking about a specific being, with a proper name. You now react in horror that I reacted to what you posted and not what you meant, which you now say was some nebulous concept about man's urge to do wrong...

Simply put, if you are going to be complete pussy and get your feelings hurt, you had better do a much better job of mastering the English language.

You can't be ambiguous and expect precise replies.

Now to answer your original (rephrased) question, I don't think what you describe does manifest itself in any way in my life. I don't struggle over moral/ethical issues. I'm pretty much sure of what I think is right and wrong and act accordingly.

Mostly all actions I take are the result of rational self interest. Is that evil? I don't think so, your opinion might vary.

 

[AaronsSupraMKIII]

I am the Devil!!!

Religion is the biggest Lie ever told. Christianity,muslim, whatever, they have killed more people than the plague, and diseases. Now did the devil make them do it? They claim GOD did....looks awful damn evil to me...

Sorry about such a bad post...THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT! HA HA :icon_evil

 

[suprahero]

Aaron, you may have just fallen out of my wife's good graces. Hopefully she won't read this. She normally doesn't read these threads because she feels very strongly about Christianity. She would rather not know that alot of if not most of the members on Supramania don't believe in God so she tries to avoid these topics as much as possible, because there will be no winner and only hard feelings.

 

[Keros]

The very moment we like/hate someone soley on the foundation that we've discovered their true theist/atheist beliefs, something is very wrong:

"Hello, is this God? NO! oh, it's the church... yes, close enough. I'd love for you to define my life completely for me, yes, here's my money too."

The Devil vs God? Good vs Evil... it's ying and yang. Which is ying and which is yang? I never could figure that out... And why is it that the classical saying "In the name of God" seems to kill more people than in the name of Satan? What's with that? When religous radicalists are yelling into mics, there never seems to be any mention of the Devil, ect, next to killing people and their kids. I guess God needs to do the killing and Satan takes credit? I dunno, maybe they did mention Satan and I had already tuned the sound of their voices out.

As doward pointed out, faith is a powerful thing that can do both alot of good and/or alot of bad. Some of the most cruel and demented tourcher techniques in written history were used in the name of God... as well plenty of genocides and slaughters. And also alot of charity and compassion.

It's easy to forget the good that religous groups have done when weighed against the bad. The obvious problem is that the good will never exist without the bad, something has to give. Missionary Orphanages and such, while very aimaible pursuits, could exist without the zealotry that burns them down if you remove the missionary and keep the orphanage.

How does the devil show himself in my daily life? He doesn't... I play poker with him the first tuesday of every month. Allah, Moses, Jesus, Odin, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and even Zues are there to, and every odd month Jupiter shows up and takes everyone's money. That bastard can really bluff I tell you what...

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

:blah: Same old same old with some of you on this topic.

I read the first post and instantly knew two individuals who would hop off topic, exactly what would be said, and that the nutswingers would be jumping right on board with it.

I will be forever amazed at how much energy you all waste on something you say is nothing more than a fairytale. What would a deep thinking intellectual make of that, I wonder?

Anyway, there's no point in saying more, so by all means carry on...

 

[Supracentral]

I will be forever amazed at how much energy you all waste on something you say is nothing more than a fairytale.

When religion gets out of public policy and politics, I won't give it a second though. But as long as theists insist upon forcing religion into law, I'll invest a WHOLE lot of energy into it.

And all thought I generally don't think it’s necessary to point out that not all Christians are holier-than-thou, outwardly moralistic bigots, it might be necessary in this case...

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Point out whatever you'd like. I make any claims to holiness, just an observation that a normal reaction to something one does not believe in is indifference - read this thread and you will see that nonbelievers here are far from indifferent, which says a lot. Making a personal attack on me appears to be a natural reaction to being called out on something that is at least in part, true.

We've gone round and round on religion and politics and don't care to go there again since little will come of it. You can all go on pointing out every failure that humans have made in religion, but realize that there is a profound amount of good that has come of it as well. Glass half full or empty? Your choice. Just don't get mad at me for getting a kick out of such hatred for something that justifies nothing more than indifference if you are at all truthful about what you believe or don't believe in.

 

[Supracentral]

Again, your mock superiority doesn't impress me.

Why can't you wrap your head around the idea that I don't care what you believe in? You can believe in the flying spaghetti monster for all I care.

What I do care about is your seeming need to legislate your religion into the lives of people who don't share you beliefs. The ire is not directed at your silly god, nor any of your beliefs. It is directed at your repeated and insistent attempts to make your religion the law of the land.

The hostility is not directed at your religion, it's directed at your actions & words, not your god.

I had a T-shirt years ago that summed it up rather nicely; "Jesus is just alright with me! (But his fan club scares the shit out of me...)

Teach your kids, teach your family, stand on your pulpit and preach. Just leave me the right to do the same for mine. When muslims try to make religion the law, you folks get 101 different kinds of upset, but then you go off and do the same. Can you be shallow enough to not see that? I think not.

That's a simple concept. You are not a stupid man. Your inability to grasp this is an ACT. It shows a lack of moral character that *I* get a kick out of from someone who pretends to be my moral superior...

 

[lagged]

You can all go on pointing out every failure that humans have made in religion, but realize that there is a profound amount of good that has come of it as well. Glass half full or empty?

Countless lives destroyed in the name of religion. The Crusades, the spanish inquisition, so on and so forth, since the beginning of organized religion.

that glass is pretty damn empty in my eyes. and that is but ONE example of the horrors perpetrated in the name of religion.

But how about a recent failure that effects ALL donating roman catholic church goers? All that money they have dumped in the collection bin, a large portion of it went to legally defending pedophile priests who have ruined COUNTLESS numbers of innocent childrens lives.

 

[TurboFreak]

:blah: Same old same old with some of you on this topic.

I read the first post and instantly knew two individuals who would hop off topic, exactly what would be said, and that the nutswingers would be jumping right on board with it.

I will be forever amazed at how much energy you all waste on something you say is nothing more than a fairytale. What would a deep thinking intellectual make of that, I wonder?

Anyway, there's no point in saying more, so by all means carry on...

x2

And love how everyone lumps all religions into one when saying how bad they are and have been in the past.

 

[Keros]

x2

And love how everyone lumps all religions into one when saying how bad they are and have been in the past.

No matter how you slice it, theistic beliefs all center around the same concept. The only exception i know of is Buddism, which is more of a way of life than a belief. But then again, I've never heard of buddist extremists taking over a plane and demanding their country be rid of the infedels.

The thing is that everyone's all happy and well with their own gods, goddesses, whatever... but the problem arises when one person's God writes that all other gods are fasle. And then the followers of other gods are like "wtf dude, our god's real, yours is false!", and then the other followers are like "fuck that, our god says you're wrong".

Queue religous war.

It seems no one stops to notice that two entirely different gods supposedly created the universe, accorrding to two very large, and very different, portions of the world's population. I find this tiny fact very interesting.

EDIT: heh, this thread got completely blown offtopic.

 

[Element256]

Supra Status:Gone.
Jeep Status: Being used as it should.

that right there shows there is no God.



Also imagine a world without religion. I'm fairly sure once religion is disproved and denounced the fortold armegeddon will insue, which in turn will bring back the nut jobs to "SEE I TOLD YOU SO, It's IN THE BIBLE !!!"

 

[Doward]

that right there shows there is no God.



Also imagine a world without religion. I'm fairly sure once religion is disproved and denounced the fortold armegeddon will insue, which in turn will bring back the nut jobs to "SEE I TOLD YOU SO, It's IN THE BIBLE !!!"

Imagine a world ruled by reason and logic.

 

[Anomili]

Sidestepping the whole who is right debate for a moment, the world is entirely logical. Read into Terror Management Theory if you have some time and actually care about this topic. It basically states that everything we do we do because we are afraid of death. We are born with the instinct to survive, yet also with the capacity to know that we will eventually fail and die. (It is really more complex, but this is an extreme simplification to keep this short.) Religion is a way of dealing the the meaninglessness associated with our inevitable death.

Why religious war? Because if you believe in your god and Bob in his, than the very fact that Bob's god exists means that you might have it all wrong and hence not be protected from death. (If Bob's god is real, you are going to hell in most religions). Hence, the only way to rectify the conflict is to prove that your god is the real god. So you both do what your gods asks (Kill each other) and the one with the real god is the one still alive at the end.

 

[Mk3Jesse]

I think there is a higher beeing of some sort, but i dont believe in what a lot of the churches try to teach you.
The bible stories mean different things to different people, they are just stories to teach people a lesson. But i think there has to be some sort of higher power at work.