I don't believe in The Devil

I think this is probably based on the fact that people didn't know what caused bad things. But to really believe the devil made me do it. Or God is angry at us a very ignorant way of thinking. As we learn what causes natural disasters we realize there is a physical reason for these things. And as people take responsibility for their actions they don't have to claim they are being tempted by the devil. It might be a convenient way to explain bad things but it sounds more like a fairy tale to me

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BlueSkyKing · M

"SATAN, n. One of the Creator's lamentable mistakes, repented in sashcloth and axes. Being instated as an archangel, Satan made himself multifariously objectionable and was finally expelled from Heaven. Halfway in his descent he paused, bent his head in thought a moment and at last went back.

"There is one favor that I should like to ask," said he.

"Name it."

"Man, I understand, is about to be created. He will need laws."

"What, wretch! You his appointed adversary, charged from the dawn of eternity with hatred of his soul—you ask for the right to make his laws?"

"Pardon; what I have to ask is that he be permitted to make them himself."

It was so ordered.”

― Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

LordShadowfire · 100+, M

@BlueSkyKing I've never read that. Fascinating. So Ambrose Bierce did not believe God was infallible.

BlueSkyKing · M

@LordShadowfire The Devil’s Dictionary is a book of humor, easy to find on e-book formats. Lots of entries that still bite two hundred years later.

“Redemption, n. Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. The doctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religions, and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlasting life in which to try to understand it.”
― Ambrose Bierce