Is Satan evil?

[pocaracas]

According to Drich, god is good because god itself claims to be good (Am I right, Drich?).
Anything that goes against the goodness of god is evil.
According to the story, Satan did go against the will of god and has since been considered evil.
Period. End of story.

Take a step back and realize that (almost) all religions have a the god as good and some evil force as the bad guy.
Yin and Yang.
Luke and Vader. (is star wars an official religion yet?)
Sun and moon.
etc...

[The Grand Nudger]

Could also be merely a thinly disguised rip off of the Prometheus myth, too. Prometheus was chained to a rock and condemned to have his liver eaten by an eagle every day for bringing fire to man.

The moral of the story, apparently, being that you don't help "the help". It only makes them uppity.

[Confused Ape]

Could also be merely a thinly disguised rip off of the Prometheus myth, too. Prometheus was chained to a rock and condemned to have his liver eaten by an eagle every day for bringing fire to man.

Lucifer's name has nothing to do with fire.

 The word Lucifer is taken from the Latin Vulgate,[2] which translates הֵילֵל as lucifer,[3][4] meaning "the morning star, the planet Venus" (or, as an adjective, "light-bringing").[5] The Septuagint renders הֵילֵל in Greek as ἑωσφόρος[6][7] (heōsphoros),[8][9][10] a name, literally "bringer of dawn", for the morning star.[11] Kaufmann Kohler says that the Greek Septuagint translation is "Phosphoros".[2]

Phosphorus

Phosphorus (Greek Φωσφόρος Phōsphoros), a name meaning "Light-Bringer", is the Morning Star, the planet Venus in its morning appearance. Φαοσφόρος (Phaosphoros) and Φαεσφόρος (Phaesphoros) are forms of the same name in some Greek dialects.

Etymology Of Prometheus

The ancients believed that the name Prometheus derived from the Greek pro (before) + manthano (learn) and the agent suffix -eus, thus meaning "Forethinker". Plato contrasts Prometheus with his dull-witted brother Epimetheus, "Afterthinker".[3] Writing in late antiquity, the Latin commentator Servius explains that Prometheus was so named because he was a man of great foresight (vir prudentissimus), possessing the abstract quality of providentia, the Latin equivalent of Greek promētheia (ἀπὸ τής πρόμηθείας).[4]

[tokutter]

Good, glad its a matter of perspective. Since it's a matter of perspective, the rest of your post falls into the category of pious drivel. I'm willing to propose, with complete confidence, that the punctuation marks in the sentences above hold more insight into the nature of "evil" than what's been wedged between them.

(my italic)
ROFLMAO, Rhythm you always manage to scratch me where I itch.....Welcome back haven't read you around here in a little while.

[The Grand Nudger]

Busy busy bee, burning churches, oppressing the religious, organizing orgies, engaging in drunken debauchery, etc.

[EGross]

Here is the Satan thing from the Jewish perspective, since the Christians got it from the Jews, and the Muslims probably got it from them.

In Genesis it speaks of a well call "sitna" (סטנה) after a big fight between two groups that wanted it, so it means "adversary", although in this case, it is in the feminine form (a woman satan? Yup!). That's the only place it is in the 5 books. It does appear a handfull of times in Zacharia and Psalm 109, but the bulk of it is in Job, which was written by - nobody is really sure. Even the Jewish sages struggle with that one.

They also struggle with this in trying to make free will work as a theological argument, because if you are being tricked, coerced, or seduced, that isn't free will.

Ok, that's the sources. But there is no devil in Jewish theology. The sahtahn, as he is pronounced, is seen as a metaphysical creation who serves his creator. He wears 3 hats, the "Evil Inclination", to see if you can resist, for example, eating that last box of Ben & Jerry's all by yoursel ("eeeeeeat meeeee....eaaaat...meeee"). The second hat is a prosecutor (a tattletale to says "see! look at the glutton eating ice cream that isn't even his!"). And the third is the angel of death ("hope you liked the ice cream...sucker!") who picks you up and puts you in the Sheol
(a black well where the souls are disabled from consciousness and don't wake up until the world is over - everyone goes there, even if you are good or evil. But don't worry, you have no conscious thoughts anyhow).
Weird, huh?

It isn't a devil, but an expression of god who likes to test his humans since he has nothing else to do, being god and all. The sahtahn is not in charge of another realm where he is trying to overthrow the good god. Just a wacky expression of a schizophrenic deity (who also appears to be bi-polar, based on some of the reported actions).

That is not to say that there are no demons in Jewish philosophy. There are also shaydim or demons. And even when I was deep into it, most of us just skimmed by that stuff. Most people felt weird about demons, ghosts, people never dying, and stuff like that. That should always be a clue. If there is something that really embarasses you about your religion, you know, something that you would never consider in 100 years to say before an audience, then it's time to get out.

Finally, I once hung out with some Satanists. Each and every one were just Christians gone wacky. The guy who originally founded the church of Satan (Anton Lavey) was a circus performer and did it to see how gullible people were, and he made a good living off of it. I never participated in any ceremony since I like cats too much. But if a demon or a satan ever did appear with one of their frug induced rituals, they would have all lossed their bowels right there!

[Minimalist]

Lucifer's name has nothing to do with fire.

The Latin Vulgate was derived from Greek texts...no one gave a shit about "Hebrew" in the 4th century. Lucifer is derived from the Latin words "lux" (light) and "ferre" (to carry). Before electricity there was little light in the world without fire.

[EGross]

 The word Lucifer is taken from the Latin Vulgate,[2] which translates הֵילֵל as lucifer,[3][4] meaning "the morning star, the planet Venus" (or, as an adjective, "light-bringing").[5] The Septuagint renders הֵילֵל in Greek as ἑωσφόρος[6][7] (heōsphoros),[8][9][10] a name, literally "bringer of dawn", for the morning star.[11] Kaufmann Kohler says that the Greek Septuagint translation is "Phosphoros".[2]

Yes, the Christians read Isaiah 14:12 (the only place it exists as a proper noun):
[quote="KJV"]Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

So they can get a fallen angel from that. I prefer this translation (my own):

How have you fallen from the heavens, Lucifer (Venus), son of the morning, who has been cut off, [falling] to the Earth, controlling the nations (goyim)?"

(There is a theological belief that this represented the fall of the Babylonian kingdom, which was the rising star (morning), until the fall of that kingdom. But since the word "Gehinnom" appears multiple times, and they wrongly equate this as "Hell", well, Lucifer and a lot of hell makes for a nice story.)

[Confused Ape]

Here is the Satan thing from the Jewish perspective, since the Christians got it from the Jews, and the Muslims probably got it from them.

Thanks for the information.

Finally, I once hung out with some Satanists. Each and every one were just Christians gone wacky. The guy who originally founded the church of Satan (Anton Lavey) was a circus performer and did it to see how gullible people were, and he made a good living off of it. I never participated in any ceremony since I like cats too much. But if a demon or a satan ever did appear with one of their frug induced rituals, they would have all lossed their bowels right there!

They shouldn't have been sacrificing cats if they were members of Lavey's Church Of Satan.

The Eleven Satanic Rules Of The Earth

Do not harm young children, for they are the future.
Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked.

More Information From Religious Tolerance org

Some of their beliefs and practices are:

They do not worship a living deity. Members are Agnostics or Atheists.

Major emphasis is placed on the power and authority of the individual Satanist, rather than on a god or goddess.

They believe that "no redeemer liveth" - that each person is their own redeemer, fully responsible for the direction of their own life.

"Satanism respects and exalts life. Children and animals are the purest expressions of that life force, and as such are held sacred and precious..." 1

[Drich]

Like in any history, there is the good guy and the bad guy. In a nutshell that is all about it.

I do not think satan is the bad guy in the traditional sense.(A somewhat equal opposing force to God) Satan repersents choice. even if it is of the deceptive nature, he brings an alternitive to what God offers. Not in an uncontrolable opposition to God, but as someone subservieant to God. Look at His role in the Garden, be was limited to just trying to verbably tempt Eve. In the Book of Job we see him having to run what he did to Job, by God for approval before he could do or say any against him. And one final time look at how he 'tempted' Christ. Look at how and when it happened (In a time set aside by God for this to happen.)

Where the 'church' has pictured satan as being this opposing force is from some of the other religions that have been assimlated into Christianity. (as you pointed out, all of them have the antagonist figure) I believe it is from this need to fill the empty void where the bad guy usally is in a religion, And from mis interpertating all of the 'bad' things that will happen in revelations. Most assume because these are bad things and because of the false doctrine of omnibenevolent God.. satan was responsiable for the end of this world. when in fact the end of this world will be triggered by us, and our willingness to adopt Evil into our 'moralities.' thus allowing us to accept whatever man is the current version of the Anti Christ. (I believe there has been one on standby since the time of Christ.) It's just the world is not completely ready for him yet.
That said, crap like the subject matter of this thread tells me we are way closer to being ready to accept the anti Christ, than at any other point in recent history.
Back to the bad stuff in Revelations, It's not caused by Satan (Satan makes a move because he has been puffed up by all of the support the nations give him.) But in the end it is God that rains down death and destruction, and puts and end to everything, because He is tired of our collective BS.
Of which defending/adopting satan's evil is most definatly adding to that pile..

Also side note, defending/supporting satan's evil takes you guys out of the realm of atheists.