Dear Internet,
Today, I want to talk about Satan.
I don't think he exists.
Think about it-- when does Jesus mention the presence of Satan in the Bible? Can you recall any specific mention of Jesus talking about Satan? Sure, there's the incident when Jesus went out into the desert and was "tempted by Satan", but I really think that story was more of a pilgrimage for Jesus, and that instead of being tormented by Satan, he was actually being tormented by his human body, by its wants and needs, the "wants of the flesh." (I shall expand on this topic shortly, and why I put it in quotation marks. But until then, back to the point.) Now, I don't have a Bible next to me, but as being raised Catholic by some very Catholic parents and extended family, I'm pretty confident in my claim that if Jesus ever mentioned Satan's existence, it was very rarely.
Why is that? If God and Satan are at war with each other, as the Old Testament proclaims, then why did Jesus not talk at length about this battle?
Could it be because Satan doesn't exist?
I've already commented on the very arrogant nature of humans. Historically, and even today, humans tend to be very self-absorbed, egotistical beings who would like to believe that the world revolves around them. (In psychological terms, this tendency is called being "egocentric.") Because of the egocentricity of humans, we, as a race, wanted to explain all the bad things that happen- disease, famine, plague, death, heartbreak, mental abnormalities, physical deformities, misfortune in general- and so someone, somewhere along the line, came up with the idea that there is a supreme, evil being called The Devil, or Satan, or Lucifer, who has legions of demons sent out to do these evils in the world.
According to this theory, there are demons everywhere tempting us to do wrong things. In ye olden days, it was believed that people with psychological abnormalities, such a schizophrenia, were being possessed by demons. (Of course, nowadays, we know that this is not the case.) Possessions of humans by demons were a rather regular occurrence, and priests were paid to exorcise the demons from their bodies with primitive chants and earnest, if corny and self-righteous, prayers to God. It was believed that following the Ten Commandments, going to church, and going to confession regularly would lessen the chances of being possessed, and that if one was born in a bad condition, then the parents must have committed some large sin to have a deformed/diseased child. (Again, nowadays we know that this is not the case.)
However, even in the Bible, there are obvious holes in this Satan theory-- for example, it was also believed that psychological abnormalities, disease, and such were punishments from God to those who had sinned. Everything from famine to birth defects was a punishment for a sin. --Well then, if all the misfortune in the world is a punishment from God because someone committed a sin, then where is there room for the Devil to do his torment? Answer: there is none.
It is my theory that Satan was invented by humans in order to explain the bad things that people do, and that Satan does not exist. The Bible re-iterates over and over that "The flesh is weak, but the spirit is strong." They are referring to the physical body of a human when they say "the flesh", and our "immortal soul" when they say "the spirit." (Immortal soul is put in quotation marks because it will be discussed later.) Well, just for a minute, let's think about Freud. He hypothesized that the human consciousness has three major forces controlling it: the id, the ego, and the superego. It sounds to me as if "the flesh" is the id, and "the spirit" is the superego. (Our actions are decided and carried out by the ego.)
This means that whenever "the flesh" is being tempted by Satan, what is actually happening is that the human body is having a primitive urge. (You name one sin that this theory doesn't work for, I DARE you.) So what do we do? We think about what we want to do versus what we 'should' do, according to our personal morals, and we act. Worded differently, our "spirit"/superego tells us what the 'right' thing to do is, and we do that via our ego.
If you don't believe Freud, or you if you are skeptical of Freud, for some reason (Note: I do not encourage anyone to blindly accept theories from any source. You should really think things over for yourself and take everything with a grain of salt, no matter how convincing it is, and ultimately, do not let anyone else tell you what to believe. Decide for yourself; see what sits right with you.), then I shall word the basic concept differently one more time: Everyone has basic urges- thirst, hunger, lust, to name a few. If we could, we would have sex with every attractive person we wanted, and we'd eat until our stomachs burst (Note: stomachs cannot actually burst. It was an expression). According to the Bible, this is the weakness of the flesh. However, we have morals which prevent us from sleeping with every attractive person that we see, and common sense to tell us that we should not eat until we are sick. The Bible refers to this as the spirit. So our urges and our morals conflict, and we decide what to do.
This takes me to another topic: "the spirit." Aka, the "soul."
I don't think souls exist. (Which also means that I do not believe in Heaven or Hell, or an afterlife of any sort.)
I think (Note: I am saying "I think"; this is a theory, a hypothesis, an idea. Feel free to believe what you want.) that humans created the idea of souls because they wanted to believe that they were immortal. They created the idea of an afterlife because they want to live forever. For hundreds and hundreds of years, humans were obsessed with staying young and living as long as possible. So, egocentric, arrogant, egotistical beings that we are, humans decided that this "spirit" part of us is immortal, and that if we are "bad" and give in to our primitive urges, we are going to Hell with Satan (who does not exist), but that if we are "good" and follow our morals, we are going to Heaven with God (who probably exists).
Basics of religion (any religion, not just Christianity): Be good, and you will be rewarded. For some religions, you are promoted to a higher life form in your next life via reincarnation. For others, you are rewarded by going to a place with an eternal supply of food and virgins, or worship and praise, forever. (The problem I find with most heavens is that they offer joys of the flesh, which we will (according to these religions) no longer have once we get to heaven.)
Well, if there is no Satan, then there is no Hell. So that means we all go to Heaven, no matter how we act. This certainly does not fit in with the views of Christians. According to them, if you do not act "good", or if you do not accept Jesus Christ as your savior, you are going to Hell.
Now, my idea of God has always been that of a forgiving, loving figure. If he lovingly created us in his image and sent his only son to "save" us, then doesn't he sound like the kind of guy that, no matter what religion you are, if you lived a good life, you'd go to Heaven? --That question really bothered me for years.
And given our new definition of "flesh" and "spirit", isn't "soul" just a misnamed term for our conscience? If so, nobody goes to Heaven because there is no Heaven, and we do not have souls.
To me, Christianity sounds more and more like just a set of rules for behavior. A certain elite group wanted people to act a certain way, so they manipulated us into believing it all.
Now, that makes people like the twelve apostles look really stupid. They started a lot of this stuff, including all of the traditions of the Catholic church. They believed without doubt that Jesus was the son of God (except for Thomas, who insisted on feeling the holes in Jesus's hands) (but how do we know that the story of Jesus's ghost visiting them is not just another fabrication, an exaggeration?).
No matter how convincing some of the stuff in the Bible is, and putting aside supposedly historically accurate things (like ancestry), nothing in it can be proven, especially in a concrete, undoubtable way. Mostly, it is the collective works of philosophers and the recording of legends passed down by oral tradition. Some of it is pure fiction, like the story of creation.
Mom talks to me all the time about how American society is brainwashing us, but she is blind to the fact that religion does the same thing: insisting that we believe certain things because some elite group wants us to. (Yes, I realize this claim makes me a conspiracy theorist, to an extent. I have no problem with that, as it is true.)
I shall probably read a Bible again some time in the near future, with all this skepticism in mind, and blog again about the results of my research (for reading the Bible through cynical eyes will be research).
Until then, I leave you to ponder what I have said and examine your own beliefs. Don't be afraid to do this; if you find good reasons that I am wrong, then your faith will be all the stronger for it, and your convictions as well. And I say, sincerely, that if that is what happens, then I congratulate you. If, however, you find yourself forming your own theories about religion, then I also congratulate you, because you are doing something that many people are afraid to do: search for the truth.
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