(March 8, 2019 at 8:09 am)Der/die AtheistIn Wrote: So this man I know believes the devil existsl. I did say the word devil a few times and I have a plush devil, because of this the guy thinks I will get "negative energy". I once told him I don't believe in demons and he gesticulated a circle, said that God is in the center and the devil somewhere in that circle as well. Then I lied that I believe him so that he'll leave me alone.
The same guy said he doesn't believe in Hell. He specifically stated there is no Hell, after you die, God won't judge you, you're going to regret what you did wrong yourself.
What if someone doesn't regret their deeds? morality is subjective after all. There are evil people who don't regret hurting others. Are they gonna get away scot free? I do believe that some get scot free in real life (not in the afterlife, I don't believe in it), but I'm not claiming there is a great moral force.
I really don't get this guy. He claims the Earth is round and the people who wrote the Bible were wrong about it being flat, but God created men and evolution is wrong. He also doesn't believe that the atrocities made by God in the old Testament are literally real, but believes that there is a devil.
He already peeks and chooses what to believe, why believe in the Devil? It's not comforting. Why doesn't he just say the devil is a metaphor? Nobody else he knows is afraid of a plush devil, so why him?
In superstition, people do cherry pick, even Jews. Many say heaven exists but not hell. Even some Christians depending on individual will say there is no hell, just a separation from God in the afterlife, you don't burn in hell, you simply are separated from God.
But again, the idea of punishment reward in an afterlife isn't unique to the monotheism of Abraham. Even in places like China and Japan, they to have concepts of ancestor worship, and superstitions about punishment reward in the afterlife.
It is easy to get stuck in the west on Christianity because that is what we run into the most in the west. But once you survey the world history of all religions, you see that superstitions exist in every single one, bar none.
