lady_dw
2003-07-08, 05:41
This is not about disproving god's existence. This is about disproving the existence of the Christian Satan. This has been researched very thoroughly. There is a bibliograhy reference at the end.
Does Lucifer Exist?
To understand my thesis, you first have to understand who or what Lucifer is. In Job 1 & 2, Q (I refer to God as Q to remove the emotional attachments and examine the concept of Q without clouding the issue. I use X in place of Christ in the word Christianity and it’s derivatives for the same reason) is impressed with a man named Job, who has lived an upright life. A satan, who is described as a member of the Court of Heaven, suggests that he is only a righteous man because he has lived a fortunate life and that all of it would change if he were more misfortunate. So Q instructs the satan to destroy all that Job owns including his innocent children. In spite of his troubles, Job still praises Q, so he decides to send the satan down again, this time to deteriorate his health. In Zechariah 3:1-7 another member of Qs counsel is described as a satan. In this story he objects to Joshua’s high priesthood. Then in Numbers 22:20- 22 Q says to Balaam "If men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them.” When the men come to call on him, he does as god has instructed and goes with them. Q is angered by this and sends a satan to prevent Balaam from going. (Which is rather confusing because Balaam was only doing exactly what Q instructed). In these stories most Xians make it sound as if these three instances involve the same character, however, some bible scholars say that the stories use the word “satan” simply to describe a person who obstructs or disagrees with someone else1. The Hebrew word “Satan” translates directly to adversary2.
Possibly the most popular reference to evil in the Bible is the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. In this story a character called the “serpent” tempts Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was forbidden by god, but is this character a reference to an evil demigod? Judging by what the Bible says later in Genesis 3:14 “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” This seems to be referring to a type of animal, the snake, not to one specific being who opposes god.
The first time the name “Lucifer” actually appears in the Bible is in Isaiah, however Lucifer is a Latin name. How could a Latin name be in the original Hebrew texts of the Bible before Latin was ever spoken? It was actually an accumulated mistranslation. The original story was about a Babylonian King who persecuted the children of Israel, not about a fallen angel; a being which never existed in the original Hebrew text of the Bible until then3. The reason given for this mistranslation starts with a Hebrew expression that was used to describe the Babylonian King as “Helal, son of Shahar”, which can best be translated as "Day star, son of the Dawn." The expression was simply used to illustrate his royalty. In the first translation into Latin St. Jerome mistakenly translated this as Lucifer which means “bearer of light.” Somehow, as time progressed, the story of the Babylonian King changed into the story of the fallen angel we now know.
In the older Hebrew scriptures, Satan never appears as the separate entity of “the devil” who opposes all humanity and Q, but is used as a description which could be applied to more than one being. This is because early Hebrews viewed Q as a neutral being rather than as an infinitely altruistic deity. The dichotomy between the two supernatural forces of good and evil in the form of the protagonist Q and antagonist Lucifer doesn’t come into play until the New Testament. This philosophy is known as dualism. The Xian idea of dualism is that you either worship Q or you worship Lucifer.
The positive side of dualism is that it provides an exact definition of good and evil, providing the individual with a sense of pride and satisfaction in what they hold as truth. A dualist does not question his or her beliefs, so it instills confidence. Dualism also has the attraction of a great reward at the end of one’s life providing that they followed the rules and led a good life in the eyes of their people.
The negative side of this philosophy of dualism is that it offers only a very ignorant viewpoint. Since there is no neutrality, you are either right or you are wrong. This philosophy is often used to justify the oppression of people who hold different views. Two good examples of this are the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. During the Crusades European Xians fought and killed to enforce their beliefs upon Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Xians, heretics and basically anyone they disagreed with. Generally references to the Crusades are only about the Xians invading in the middle east, however there were many other crusades conducted on other religious factions. For example The Spanish Inquisition that started with Pope Gregory IX in 1231 CE. There is no official total count of the people who were tortured and burned at the stake from the inquisition, but historians do know various accounts of individual inquisitors. Examples of such are Bernard Fui who convicted at least 930 people, and Robert le Bourge who sent 183 people to the stake in a single week. It wasn’t until 1917 that torture was officially taken off the list of legal options for the church.
Believing in this philosophy also hinders the development of society, because if there is already an explanation that they take as valid, wheather it is wrong or right, it will not be tested against other theories. This explains the troubles of various scientists such as Galileo Galilee, who was forced to denounce all of his scientific research in the name of Q and then spend the rest of his life under house arrest.
Another problem with a dualistic society is that it has no concept of other cultures, and therefor will try to convert others to their way of thinking without any respect for the traditions of the people they convert. An example of this is found in the introduction of Xianity to the Americas. When early European settlers came to America they brought with them their Idealism, and since they had no concept of the religions that the native people practiced, they thought it was their duty and right to change them.
Why did the later writers of the bible decide to implement dualism? A possible reason is for power. When you control how the people see right and wrong you have absolute power over them, and since no new ideas can be spoken of without the label of blasphemy, their power goes unchallenged. Also with the possible threat of an eternal damnation looming over their heads, fear keeps the people from speaking up, no matter how they feel.
Another possible reason for the introduction of dualism to Xianity was to help enforce the laws of the time. If the people have a greater fear of the punishment for committing a crime, they are less likely to commit them, or so the leaders of the time may have thought. The threat of an eternal pain would have been a great motivator to keep people in line.
In conclusion, in the minds of the original writers of the bible, evil was merely a concept that had no actual face. When the Apocrypha and the New Testament were added the translators changed a few things to better suit their society, which, they thought, would benefit from the idea of dualism. To make it more acceptable they created the separate entity of Lucifer to be the antagonist to Q. This is detrimental to our society because it provides very little room for human error, by saying that everything is either good or evil, never both or in between.
____________________________________________
1 & 2 “Satan in the Old Testament and In Early Jewish Apocryphal Writings,” Rob Sheldon, http://cspar181.uah.edu/RbS/JOB/ss0.html
3 “A Pilgrim's Path,” John J. Robinson, pp. 47-48
Bibliography
“Satan in the Old Testament and In Early Jewish Apocryphal Writings,” Rob Sheldon, http://cspar181.uah.edu/RbS/JOB/ss0.html
“The Skeptics Annotated Bible,” Steve Wells http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com
“Christian Violence,” Austin Cline http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/christian/blfaq_viol_index.htm
“The Atheist Attic,” Vincent M. Wales http://www.bee.net/cardigan/attic/attic.htm
“A Pilgrim's Path,” John J. Robinson
“Atheist Debater’s Handbook,” B. C. Johnson
“Lucifer Genesis to Anno Domini,” Abraham B. Doe
Does Lucifer Exist?
To understand my thesis, you first have to understand who or what Lucifer is. In Job 1 & 2, Q (I refer to God as Q to remove the emotional attachments and examine the concept of Q without clouding the issue. I use X in place of Christ in the word Christianity and it’s derivatives for the same reason) is impressed with a man named Job, who has lived an upright life. A satan, who is described as a member of the Court of Heaven, suggests that he is only a righteous man because he has lived a fortunate life and that all of it would change if he were more misfortunate. So Q instructs the satan to destroy all that Job owns including his innocent children. In spite of his troubles, Job still praises Q, so he decides to send the satan down again, this time to deteriorate his health. In Zechariah 3:1-7 another member of Qs counsel is described as a satan. In this story he objects to Joshua’s high priesthood. Then in Numbers 22:20- 22 Q says to Balaam "If men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them.” When the men come to call on him, he does as god has instructed and goes with them. Q is angered by this and sends a satan to prevent Balaam from going. (Which is rather confusing because Balaam was only doing exactly what Q instructed). In these stories most Xians make it sound as if these three instances involve the same character, however, some bible scholars say that the stories use the word “satan” simply to describe a person who obstructs or disagrees with someone else1. The Hebrew word “Satan” translates directly to adversary2.
Possibly the most popular reference to evil in the Bible is the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. In this story a character called the “serpent” tempts Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was forbidden by god, but is this character a reference to an evil demigod? Judging by what the Bible says later in Genesis 3:14 “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” This seems to be referring to a type of animal, the snake, not to one specific being who opposes god.
The first time the name “Lucifer” actually appears in the Bible is in Isaiah, however Lucifer is a Latin name. How could a Latin name be in the original Hebrew texts of the Bible before Latin was ever spoken? It was actually an accumulated mistranslation. The original story was about a Babylonian King who persecuted the children of Israel, not about a fallen angel; a being which never existed in the original Hebrew text of the Bible until then3. The reason given for this mistranslation starts with a Hebrew expression that was used to describe the Babylonian King as “Helal, son of Shahar”, which can best be translated as "Day star, son of the Dawn." The expression was simply used to illustrate his royalty. In the first translation into Latin St. Jerome mistakenly translated this as Lucifer which means “bearer of light.” Somehow, as time progressed, the story of the Babylonian King changed into the story of the fallen angel we now know.
In the older Hebrew scriptures, Satan never appears as the separate entity of “the devil” who opposes all humanity and Q, but is used as a description which could be applied to more than one being. This is because early Hebrews viewed Q as a neutral being rather than as an infinitely altruistic deity. The dichotomy between the two supernatural forces of good and evil in the form of the protagonist Q and antagonist Lucifer doesn’t come into play until the New Testament. This philosophy is known as dualism. The Xian idea of dualism is that you either worship Q or you worship Lucifer.
The positive side of dualism is that it provides an exact definition of good and evil, providing the individual with a sense of pride and satisfaction in what they hold as truth. A dualist does not question his or her beliefs, so it instills confidence. Dualism also has the attraction of a great reward at the end of one’s life providing that they followed the rules and led a good life in the eyes of their people.
The negative side of this philosophy of dualism is that it offers only a very ignorant viewpoint. Since there is no neutrality, you are either right or you are wrong. This philosophy is often used to justify the oppression of people who hold different views. Two good examples of this are the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. During the Crusades European Xians fought and killed to enforce their beliefs upon Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Xians, heretics and basically anyone they disagreed with. Generally references to the Crusades are only about the Xians invading in the middle east, however there were many other crusades conducted on other religious factions. For example The Spanish Inquisition that started with Pope Gregory IX in 1231 CE. There is no official total count of the people who were tortured and burned at the stake from the inquisition, but historians do know various accounts of individual inquisitors. Examples of such are Bernard Fui who convicted at least 930 people, and Robert le Bourge who sent 183 people to the stake in a single week. It wasn’t until 1917 that torture was officially taken off the list of legal options for the church.
Believing in this philosophy also hinders the development of society, because if there is already an explanation that they take as valid, wheather it is wrong or right, it will not be tested against other theories. This explains the troubles of various scientists such as Galileo Galilee, who was forced to denounce all of his scientific research in the name of Q and then spend the rest of his life under house arrest.
Another problem with a dualistic society is that it has no concept of other cultures, and therefor will try to convert others to their way of thinking without any respect for the traditions of the people they convert. An example of this is found in the introduction of Xianity to the Americas. When early European settlers came to America they brought with them their Idealism, and since they had no concept of the religions that the native people practiced, they thought it was their duty and right to change them.
Why did the later writers of the bible decide to implement dualism? A possible reason is for power. When you control how the people see right and wrong you have absolute power over them, and since no new ideas can be spoken of without the label of blasphemy, their power goes unchallenged. Also with the possible threat of an eternal damnation looming over their heads, fear keeps the people from speaking up, no matter how they feel.
Another possible reason for the introduction of dualism to Xianity was to help enforce the laws of the time. If the people have a greater fear of the punishment for committing a crime, they are less likely to commit them, or so the leaders of the time may have thought. The threat of an eternal pain would have been a great motivator to keep people in line.
In conclusion, in the minds of the original writers of the bible, evil was merely a concept that had no actual face. When the Apocrypha and the New Testament were added the translators changed a few things to better suit their society, which, they thought, would benefit from the idea of dualism. To make it more acceptable they created the separate entity of Lucifer to be the antagonist to Q. This is detrimental to our society because it provides very little room for human error, by saying that everything is either good or evil, never both or in between.
____________________________________________
1 & 2 “Satan in the Old Testament and In Early Jewish Apocryphal Writings,” Rob Sheldon, http://cspar181.uah.edu/RbS/JOB/ss0.html
3 “A Pilgrim's Path,” John J. Robinson, pp. 47-48
Bibliography
“Satan in the Old Testament and In Early Jewish Apocryphal Writings,” Rob Sheldon, http://cspar181.uah.edu/RbS/JOB/ss0.html
“The Skeptics Annotated Bible,” Steve Wells http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com
“Christian Violence,” Austin Cline http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/christian/blfaq_viol_index.htm
“The Atheist Attic,” Vincent M. Wales http://www.bee.net/cardigan/attic/attic.htm
“A Pilgrim's Path,” John J. Robinson
“Atheist Debater’s Handbook,” B. C. Johnson
“Lucifer Genesis to Anno Domini,” Abraham B. Doe