Catherine !ttGirlsPl2 started this discussion 7 years ago#77,351
Human beings are apparently such a shit species that the only way we have to behave ourselves and not annihilate one another is through stories of eternal torment by some Devilish figure. Nobody is talking about the exceptions here. This thread isn't about you so butt out. This is mostly for a large majority of r-words who think that they should be good because then they wouldn't be sent to some fiery lake to be the sex slave of the Devil. The Devil ? is a necessary evil, even in a secular sense, since it likely prevents such people from going on murderous rampages. And this notion is what depresses the ? out of me.
Meta !Sober//iZs joined in and replied with this 7 years ago, 19 minutes later[^][v]#905,733
There's no "I" in "team" but there is "evil" in "devil"!
Kook !!a6qjFG7HF joined in and replied with this 7 years ago, 1 minute later, 20 minutes after the original post[^][v]#905,734
Are non Christian countries more violent?
Catherine !ttGirlsPl2 (OP) replied with this 7 years ago, 5 minutes later, 25 minutes after the original post[^][v]#905,735
@previous (Kook !!a6qjFG7HF)
Good question, I heard Scandinavian countries were peaceful societies and they are non-religious...
@905,733 (Meta !Sober//iZs)
I have never fucking noticed that before. What the fuck? Why is this something that I haven't noticed?
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 7 years ago, 2 minutes later, 28 minutes after the original post[^][v]#905,736
@previous (Catherine !ttGirlsPl2) > I have never fucking noticed that before. What the fuck? Why is this something that I haven't noticed?
let's keep asking the tough q's
Meta !Sober//iZs replied with this 7 years ago, 9 minutes later, 37 minutes after the original post[^][v]#905,738
@905,735 (Catherine !ttGirlsPl2)
It's subliminal. So every time you read "devil" you also read "evil" to remind you he's evil.
Anonymous E joined in and replied with this 7 years ago, 1 hour later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#905,743
> the only way we have to behave ourselves and not annihilate one another is through stories of eternal torment by some Devilish figure.
I think the fire and brimstone bullshit is a pretty recent invention. History is full of empires and civilizations that had laws, kept order, and flourished without having to hang the threat of personal torment by some supernatural boogeyman over everyone's heads.
Catherine !ttGirlsPl2 (OP) replied with this 7 years ago, 5 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#905,745
@previous (E)
Didn't Zoroastrianism have a Devil figure?
Anonymous F joined in and replied with this 7 years ago, 3 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#905,746
@previous (Catherine !ttGirlsPl2)
Dem Jews no gots da Devil.
Anonymous E replied with this 7 years ago, 1 hour later, 4 hours after the original post[^][v]#905,750
@905,745 (Catherine !ttGirlsPl2)
Not in the modern Christian sense of a goat-devil that will personally torment you for eternity. There are forces of light and dark, good and evil, present in Zoroastrianism, but the religion is so old that it is hard to say what is original and what has been understood or interpreted through syncretism over time. Just because there is a character or characters that you could call a devil figure, chaos, or a god of the underworld, it doesn't mean those people just had a different name for your concept of a devil.
The concept of Satan is also a little hard to pin down even within Christianity. The Satan that punishes Job is doing so according to God's will to test his faith. Here Satan is acting in accordance with God's will, not actively trying to thwart God's plans. Jesus seems to struggle with the devil, or Satan, as lies and earthly temptations that lead men astray. The modern Christian conception of an anti-God that runs an eternal burning torture factory has had to grow over time, and not all Christian sects buy that version of the story. There are Christian faiths that teach varying degrees of unconditional salvation, conditional immortality, selective resurrection, hell as exclusion from God, whateverthefuck the Mormon multi-layered onion version of the afterlife is called, and a bunch -isms that don't involve eternal torment. Islam also has it's own varying takes on the idea, but I don't remember enough to point you to the right suras.
(Edited 1 minute later.)
Syntax joined in and replied with this 7 years ago, 13 hours later, 17 hours after the original post[^][v]#905,824
The devil wasn’t invented to scare people, it was invented as an excuse for bad people to explain why they did something wrong.
Anonymous H joined in and replied with this 7 years ago, 6 hours later, 1 day after the original post[^][v]#905,876