Atheism: The Ultimate Guide (COMPLETED)

13. God vs. Satan

I'd like everyone to think about who Satan is as an entity. In Christianity, Satan is defined as a former angel who rebelled against God, tricked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, and...

I can't think of anything else terribly "awful" Satan did. There is no biblical record of Satan murdering or torturing anyone. I'm not sure if anywhere in the Bible it even states what Satan specifically does to people when they get to Hell.

If Christianity happens to somehow be true, I'm going to Hell. I'd appreciate it if any Christians could let me know what to expect when I head down there, if there's anything I can do to prepare.

Satan is revered as a horrible, deceitful, lying, ultimate evil being in the Christian faith. 

But why? Why is he so evil? 

One important thing to consider is why he rebelled. Why did Lucifer rebel against God in the first place? I find it odd how we're not treated to Satan's side of the story. This may sound crazy, but I think Satan is actually a better being than God is. 

Think about it. When Eve took from the tree, God literally punished all of humanity for her own sin. Seems a bit harsh for a supposedly loving and merciful God. He also destroyed all life on Earth when he deemed them to be unworthy of living. Why were they deemed unworthy of living? Because, according to God's morality, they were bad people. No matter how terrible, is genocide really the answer? 

One of God's plagues upon Egypt was the unjustified murder of all firstborns - undoubtedly including children and infants. That means God slaughtered innocent children and infants to prove a point because he was merely upset at the creations he created whom he knew would rebel because he planned it to be so. 

But, the excuse he created for himself was that he "hardened the Pharaoh's heart" so he wouldn't let the Israelites go, so then he'd have an excuse for all the horrible plagues.

3,000 lives were lost when God ordered the Levites to kill "every man and his neighbor" for worshiping another god (Exodus 32:27). Sure, in God's book that's a sin. But killing everyone for that sin? Really?

In Exodus 32:35, God sent a plague upon the Israelites after some good ol' mass murder.

When Onan refused to impregnate his dead brother's (who God had also killed) wife, God killed him. It seems that God's only solution for wrongdoers so far is to just kill them. 

Here's some more for mass-slaughter: God killed the entire populations of Soddom and Gammorah, including women, children, and infants for practicing certain sexual techniques, gave all Philistines hemorrhoids in their private parts (1 Samuel 5:9), killed over 50,000 people for looking at an ark (1 Samuel 6:19),  and also killed 70,000 people because King David decided to have a census (1 Chronicles 21:7-14).

God also approves of slavery and instructs owners to beat their slaves (Proverbs 29:19) (I've heard several Christians try to justify this, and frankly I don't buy it). 

Also, God makes sure that if you simply don't worship him as your only god, you shall be punished endlessly for all eternity. Hey, that's pretty fuckin' awful! 

But God is still revered as a kind, loving, and merciful God? It seems his only methods of punishment are just to kill the person or entire race that's sinning. Why don't we see this today? If that's God's preferred method of punishment, why don't we see more genocide today?

Anyway, I've been looking into LaVeyan Satanism lately, and their followers don't believe Satan is real, but rather worship him as an archetype. They believe Satan embodies these traits:

"pride, liberty, and individualism", which seems like it could be true. I mean, Satan rebelled against God - but why? According to these facts stated above, God doesn't sound like such a great guy. I could understand why Satan could be viewed as having these traits. 

Here's an excerpt from the Church of Satan's website that I find to be extremely true:

 "As Anton LaVey explained in his classic work: Man—using his brain—invented all the Gods, doing so because many of our species cannot accept or control their personal egos, feeling compelled to conjure up one or a multiplicity of characters who can act without hindrance or guilt upon whims and desires. All Gods are thus externalized forms, magnified projections of the true nature of their creators, personifying aspects of the universe or personal temperaments which many of their followers find to be troubling. Worshiping any God is thus worshiping by proxy those who invented that God"

I resonate with this, for it makes complete sense to me.

The Nine Satanic Sins are much better than any 10 Commandments are: 

"stupidity, pretentiousness, solipsism, self-deceit, herd conformity, lack of perspective, forgetfulness of past orthodoxies, counterproductive pride, and lack of aesthetics"

And their commandments are gold...

-Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.

-Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.

-When in another's lair, show him respect or else do not go there.

-If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.

-Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.

-Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.

-Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.

-Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.

-Do not harm little children.

-Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

-When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

Dramatic? Yes, but they're much more modernized than any other religion is. Anyway, sorry for the tangent, but this religion idolizes Satan. He doesn't seem like such a bad guy, right? 

Another compelling thing about Satan is that he gave us true curiosity and knowledge. God just wanted us all to blindly obey all of his orders, while Lucifer thought that God was wrong in that and rebelled.. He wanted humanity to have actual choices and free will. While God simply punished all of humanity, Satan was the real hero of the story. He's also considered not a bad guy in other cultures.