God Vs Satan

[SagansHeroes]

So I haven't actually read the bible, well maybe a kiddy version when I was a kid and forced into church by the parents... But I can't recall anything except the basic stories (from which at no point in my life I could distinguish their realism from normal fairy tales)...

ANYWAY, I was wondering if anyone knew how much nastiness was actually told about Satan in the Bible. I mean I know there is a lot of nasty crap that God does, and he comes off pretty damn evil through what I've seen/heard about it, however does anyone know how bad Satan is actually as in the number of "evil" deeds he does compared to God?

Simply put, I'm curious if anyone has ever tallied up the bad things done by God and done by Satan as represented in the Bible... or does the bible just say "Satan is evil" and everyone takes it's word that he is worse than everything else. I have a sneaky suspicion God comes out as more evil according to the bible than Satan if you really tallied it up, but I'm not entirely sure what it even says about Satan.

Anyone know/wonder similar things?

 

[JustBusiness17]

Good question but don't forget to factor in eternal torture into the equation... Spending forever without sin :shock: Kill me!

 

[Netheralian]

http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2006/08/who-has-killed-more-satan-or-god.html

 

[SagansHeroes]

Good question but don't forget to factor in eternal torture into the equation... Spending forever without sin :shock: Kill me!

Haha, that's gold, and I do concur. From what I've learned about heaven and hell, if there were a choice after we die, then... "Hi-Ho Hi-Ho, it's off to Hell I go"..... apart from having no physical form to actually feel the "pain" and the fact of Habituation meaning it wouldn't matter after X amount of time anyway, eternity itself would be pretty painful/boring, but eternity hanging around the kind of people that make it into heaven would be even more unbearable.


In regards to Netheralian (and as a fellow Netheralian myself ) I was about to ask "surely that list can't include the entire world in noah's flood" but then I visited the link

Numbered killings | Estimated total killings
God | 2,391,421 | 33 million
Satan | 10 | 10

 

[JustBusiness17]

Numbered killings | Estimated total killings
God | 2,391,421 | 33 million
Satan | 10 | 10

Don't forget, god is supposedly omnipotent so "he" is also responsible for the death of every person that has ever lived...

Estimates of "the total number of people who have ever lived" published in the 2000s range approximately from 100 to 115 billion

 

[Commander Eagle]

ANYWAY, I was wondering if anyone knew how much nastiness was actually told about Satan in the Bible. I mean I know there is a lot of nasty crap that God does, and he comes off pretty damn evil through what I've seen/heard about it, however does anyone know how bad Satan is actually as in the number of "evil" deeds he does compared to God?

Very, very little. And another thing about Satan is that he always gives you a choice. He doesn't say "My way or the thunderbolts". He lets you choose your own fate.
I find him a much more sympathetic character than Yaweh.

Simply put, I'm curious if anyone has ever tallied up the bad things done by God and done by Satan as represented in the Bible... or does the bible just say "Satan is evil" and everyone takes it's word that he is worse than everything else.

The second one.

I have a sneaky suspicion God comes out as more evil according to the bible than Satan if you really tallied it up

That's because he does.

 

[Ibis3]

This really isn't an easy question to answer. Let's take just the OT to start. There isn't much mention of Satan at all. He appears as God's...henchman in the story of Job. He's an angel acting under God's jurisdiction with his consent. He might be the angel referred to in the story of Balaam (again, acting as a messenger of God), and in Chronicles, David's desire to conduct a census is attributed to the action of Satan (but attributed to God in Samuel). So far, no evil.

But outside the biblical texts a whole mythology about Satan and demons etc. grows and is conflated with all the things Israelites didn't like about Canaanite gods like Baal, and likely some accretion from Zoroastrian dualism. So by the time Christianity comes along, a lot of the bad stuff has been attached to the Satan character: leader of a war of rebellious angels in heaven, the serpent of Eden is no longer an actual snake but Satan in disguise, control of a bunch of demons that he rules which cause disease and death etc. Glom onto that the dragon/serpent of the apocalyptic imagination exemplified by Revelation, well you have a pretty evil creature indeed (from a Christian theological standpoint). All death is attributable to him (and Eve of course).

I'm currently reading Paradise Lost, and though Milton sticks to an orthodox view, Satan, from a modern Enlightened perspective can be seen as a champion of liberty.

ETA: Of course, since God (which, incidentally, are really multiple gods from different mythologies) is supposedly the omniscient & omnipotent deity he is, he's really responsible for all evil, isn't he? Plus, he actually is a genocidal, monomaniacal asshole by all accounts. And the creator of a place of eternal torment for flawed human beings and fallen angels. I think that alone tops for evil anything Satan is responsible for in the bible or outside of it.

 

[Doc.]

I think Satan has been misunderstood by humans due to the godly propaganda regarding him being responsible for all the starvations and diseases. really though, rebellion against a god is not a bad deed at all, especially when you consider that indeed, like Ibis said, god is racist, a sadist, simply a murderer maniac in every way. too bad their little revolt has failed.

I've imagined angels and rebellious angels having swordfights in the clouds. and eventually archangel Michael, all in shiny cool-looking armor charging towards Lucifer with a flaming sword yelling "IN HIS NAME!!" and striking him in the chest (slow motion) after which rebels flee and Satan falls from the clouds into the deepest pit in the earth. then the screen goes turned black, then you see bits of lava, chains and forges. and there you hear the monologue on Lucifer saying a prophesy of him coming back to heavens and striking god down after which we all will rejoice!