Do you think there is wickedness. evilness? Do you think there is a Devil/Satan?

And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and angels were thrown down with him. Revelation 12:9---NASB

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When a man sleeps in his bed, his soul leaves him to soar above, each soul according to its own way.......
The Zohar

Well, I think there is human evil, without a doubt. Some people want to pretend that evil is "realtive" but, while sometimes people think that things that simply don't go the way they want are "evil" (while they might be perfectly good for someone else), I think that some things would be evil, no matter what.

There are in fact people for whom the old Russian joke is very clearly their rational for the way their behave. (Joke: One day, god went to to Ivan and told him that he would grant any wish that Ivan made for himself. "But," god told Ivan "Remember, whatever I grant you, I will give twice as much to your neighbour, Pyotr." Ivan thought about it for a second and answered god, "God, make me blind in one eye.")

People also mistake the occassions of life for evil quite frequently, as well. People say things like the Boxing Day Tsunami, or Hurricaien Katrina are evil. But, they are not. We live in a cosmos in which destruction and creation go hand in hand; we may not always like to be on the recieving end of destruction, but it is the only way that new things come into being. Calamity may not be good for us, but that does not make it evil.

Evil requires a malicious ill-will, and human acts that proceed from that are evil acts.

No human, of course, is totally evil; does that mean, then, that total evil doesn't exist?? I always find it funny that people who profess that they can imagine and believe in something totally good (such as the Christain god), say that they cannot imagine or believe in the polar opposite. But it seems logical that if one pole exists, then the other must exist, too.

[/quote]And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and angels were thrown down with him. Revelation 12:9---NASB[/quote]

While I'm not Christian, there is some wisdom in this quote. The connection between evil and deception is very real, and those who act from malicious ill-will always try to decieve others.

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Grassaf, Eolas

Dear Shylady,
Thanks for sharing that revelation with us. It is a validation for what I believe. Satan represents to me the "bad" as angels represent to me the "good" but God is above duality, above good and bad. God is perfect. Spirit is perfect.

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May your awareness be perfection

Me too. The concept of good and evil, whether it's marginal or total, is a relative relationship. Just the same as hot and cold.

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[belief is NOT the same as TRUTH]

The Bible makes it clear that there is a spiritual battle with a literal Satan and his demons.

Ephesians 6

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

And why, then, did God create "The Evil One?"

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evangelicalhumanist: Greek "eu"=good and "angelos"=messenger. Spreading the good news of Humanism.

God created Lucifer and not Satan. The better theological questions are:
why did God allow Satan to live when Lucifer rebelled against God? God has the power to destroy Satan at any point in history. Why did God allow Satan in the garden to tempt Eve, causing the fall of mankind? Why did God create Lucifier with the ability to disobey and rebel. In the book of 1 Timothy, it reveals that God created Elect Angels (those who cannot fall), and non-elect conditional Angels.

In Genesis we read that God created all and each day "he" looked back at "his" creation and said it was good. If "bad" exists in this world who created "it" other then we humans in our mind, believing in the separation from God and that which God created?

I don't believe God created duality: good and bad. I believe we humans did believing that we could be separated from God's creation. Did Jesus not say: As you believe so be it done? Can we not comprehend that we are that powerful to create something (an illusion) that could reflect something else than God? And if we can imagine that, can't we see that that which we created has no power over us unless we believe it does?

God has all power, there is no power outside of God.

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May your awareness be perfection

Hi Vivamis,
I have to agree and disagree with your post. I agree that God created declared it to be good. Therefore, it is impossible for God to create anything wicked or evil. However, the Bible reveals that mankind did not create evil. Look at Genesis 3 and the fall of mankind. Evil existed apart from man's creation of it.

Genesis 3
The Fall of Man
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring [a] and hers;
he will crush [b] your head,
and you will strike his heel."

16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

20 Adam [c] named his wife Eve, [d] because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side [e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Good post "Light of Christ". So, if God did not create evil and man did not create it, how "real" is it? LOL

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May your awareness be perfection