lol that's funny. But, that brings up more questions. Can Satan ever decide to repent and stop deceiving people? If so, why doesn't Satan just repent now? This would "prove" the Bible wrong considering it describes his fate. If Satan repents, then the book of revelation would be wrong and he would show God to be a liar. It seems to me this would be Satan's goal: to show God to be a liar lol If Satan can't repent, then is he a robot programmed to only do bad things? If so, who programmed him that way? If he made a choice to be bad, why can't he make a choice to be good again? Can Satan repent but God wouldn't forgive him? If God won't forgive him, then how do we know God will forgive anyone in the first place? I forget the philosopher who said it but it went something like: "If a Christian is a person who believes in Jesus, then Satan would be considered a Christian because he obviously knows that Jesus is real and died for our sins." Theology is fun.
lol thanks These are things I've been thinking about since 1999 when I was 14 and discovered the whole "God debate." I have read all kinds of things on forums over the past 14 years. I can usually picture how theists are going to respond to questions because I've read so many debates over the past 14 years. I started out as a believer when I was younger and used to post on forums trying to "prove" God is real to atheists. When they responded to me, I was surprised and realized that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. That got me thinking about things more.
"Live and let live! (if you aren't harming anyone)." In all seriousness, atheist right now, but I'm open to the possibility of anything. I just see no reason to invoke God(s), although I have been reading about immaterialism in a different thread and it made me think a lot. it also depends on the person's definition of God. If someone defines "God" as "the universe" then I guess I would believe in "God" considering I believe in the universe but I'm not sure what that would even mean anyway. 2 different words for the same thing?
I completely agree I think that people should be able to practice whatever the fuck they want as long as they aren't harming anyone else
tagged an extreme christian who i've gotten into a lot of intense debates with, and this was his response:
Very good point......although praying doesn't always need to be for believing in god, you can pray for someone's soul. I think that mark twain is stating here that satan needs love almost god has an infinite amount of love and look where he is hahaha sorry I'm not very educated on this subject I apologize
Even if all that is true, he makes God sound like a tyrannical dictator: "They have seen me and rebelled! They will now be punished for refusing to stay with me!" It sounds more like a bully who beats people up if they don't want to be his friend. Certainly doesn't sound like anything resembling "love." I imagine he would have a tough time winning converts with his view of God.
I didn't necessarily mean love exactly more like "positive energies" if praying is as powerful as they say it is it should be able to influence evil
i think the point was the the demons and angels (fallen angels as well) could see that all god wanted was love, peace, and harmony.. and they refused that. so god cast them away from his love, sent them to the ends of the universe that opposed what he tried to teach, away from his influence. love, peace, and harmony cannot cover everything in the universe.. there will always be a counter.. and those who subscribe to it. sadly, in this ideal, god could not win over all of his contemporaries, and some of them subscribed to hate, war, and chaos... the exact opposite of what god taught. does this mean they are undeserving of a 2nd chance? idk, i'm not god. but i don't see why not.. unless it costs heavenly beings their chance at heaven... i'd say that's a tough decision to make. what is your opinion?
I wasn't responding to you. Anyway, I was saying that he makes God sound cruel. For example, if someone doesn't want to be my friend, I'm not gonna beat them up and force them to stay with me. I will say, "OK fine we aren't friends" and we go our separate ways. No need for me to "torture the person in chains in darkness forever." The guy who wrote that about God seems to have a fetish with punishment.