Philosophy Part E - There Is No Such Thing as the Devil..
“There is no such thing as the devil; it is people that are evil”
This statement suggests that the evil that occurs on the earth is not the fault of Satan or the devil, but of people, that are evil. Evil is defined as anything that is harmful, malicious or disastrous.
Some Christians believe that god banished the arch angel Lucifer from heaven because he was questioning God’s work. This story of the devils origin is not found in the bible, but in other religious books called the Apocrypha, which are not thought to be suitable to include the Bible. The story says that Lucifer was an angel that refused to bow down to the first human God created, so God threw Lucifer out of heaven and he fell to hell where he resides as the Devil. The quote “you choose to become bad, because you thought you were beautiful” suggests that because Lucifer was too proud and refused to bow down to the human he brought it upon himself to become the devil. The quote “called the Devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray” suggests that the devil is the causer or evil in the world. However there is a problem with the idea that evil is caused by the devil, because if the devil is Lucifer God must have created the devil, and is therefore the causer of evil. God is the creator of everything, because it says “in the beginning there was nothing”, therefor god must have caused evil/the devil. Subsequently if God created the devil he must be responsible for his actions. If God and the devil both exist they are locked in a constant battle, because they are closely matched there is a case of dualism, where good and evil are almost equal in power. This is a problem for Christianity because it is a monotheistic religion, and if god isn’t the only power he is not omnipotent. Because god is omnipotent and omnibenevolent there should be no evil in the world.
Other people believe that people cause their own evil, because evil is the result of our own decisions. For example a murder is the murderers
This statement suggests that the evil that occurs on the earth is not the fault of Satan or the devil, but of people, that are evil. Evil is defined as anything that is harmful, malicious or disastrous.
Some Christians believe that god banished the arch angel Lucifer from heaven because he was questioning God’s work. This story of the devils origin is not found in the bible, but in other religious books called the Apocrypha, which are not thought to be suitable to include the Bible. The story says that Lucifer was an angel that refused to bow down to the first human God created, so God threw Lucifer out of heaven and he fell to hell where he resides as the Devil. The quote “you choose to become bad, because you thought you were beautiful” suggests that because Lucifer was too proud and refused to bow down to the human he brought it upon himself to become the devil. The quote “called the Devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray” suggests that the devil is the causer or evil in the world. However there is a problem with the idea that evil is caused by the devil, because if the devil is Lucifer God must have created the devil, and is therefore the causer of evil. God is the creator of everything, because it says “in the beginning there was nothing”, therefor god must have caused evil/the devil. Subsequently if God created the devil he must be responsible for his actions. If God and the devil both exist they are locked in a constant battle, because they are closely matched there is a case of dualism, where good and evil are almost equal in power. This is a problem for Christianity because it is a monotheistic religion, and if god isn’t the only power he is not omnipotent. Because god is omnipotent and omnibenevolent there should be no evil in the world.
Other people believe that people cause their own evil, because evil is the result of our own decisions. For example a murder is the murderers