Sanders' Religion Thread, Begun @ LC Forum Options

[Sanders]

e-Dog and I have decided to re-constitute this from LC. It is a thread about the 3 major religions of the world. The goal was to follow the path of each from their common origins to the present day. We (a number of LC posters and I) got as far as the begining of the First Crusade while the thread was active.

What becomes of this thread when all the copying is done is not clear. It may be just a read-only thread for the Religion topic. Or it may be left open to posting, so we can finish the journey.

[Guest_librarian_*]

Posted by: Daniels Jul 31 2006, 07:09 AM

BUT ... i dont think Satan exsists.  and even if he/she did ... it would be because of a physical manifestation because of the massive belief in the entity.

Good point pr0mythius

Baha'is believe that Satan as referred to in the Scriptures means the self or the ego.

The 'self' is personified as 'Satan' to make it easier to identify.

That is the human condition. We have a choice -- to do good, or to do bad.

In the spiritual world we don't have that choice. Or, to be more exact, we do have the choice but faced with the overwhelming glory and loveliness of the Unknowable Essence we would never even think of doing anything ungodly.

Every moment of every day of our earthly lives we are faced with that choice.

The more choices to do good, the more saintly we become. The more choices to do bad, or to look after number 1 at the expense of others, the more satanic we become.

"Follow not the promptings of your own desires, nor the whisperings of the Evil One in your souls."

In the above quote, "your own desires" and "the Evil One" mean the same thing.

Those who believe that Satan is a separate creature, to my mind, believe in two gods, God and an anti-god.

Baha'is believe that God, the Unknowable Essence, is omnipotent. Being omnipotent means that there cannot exist anything but that it exists at His pleasure. Meaning that 'Satan', as a separate entity, cannot exist.



BTW Good work on your self exploration. I commend you for it.