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Nonoxynol9 said:
If you're familiar with the Bible you'll understand that God rectified his former "fire and brimstone" portrayel with the life and death of Christ. God does an abrupt about-face between the Old and New Testaments. There are several reasons for this. If you're interested, I'll explain further.



God, the all-powerful, all-knowing, omni-present being who has existed since before time began, did an "abrupt about-face"?

That seems quite un-Godly. Why would a God want to change? Why would a God need to change?

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How come it's easy for people to accept the Buddhist idea of Yin-Yang (a perfect balance between good and evil), but find it utterly imcomprehensible to accept the idea of God and Satan?



I find the basic idea behind the Yin-Yang(that nature and society generally have a balance to them) to be logical, because it's rooted in human and animal pyschology, as well as mathematics and physics. The odds of one particular idea or concept(those probably aren't the right words to use, but it's the best I can come up with) remaining dominant forever are slim. Everything has a backlash. It's like a pendulum. In any event, I don't really associate words like "good" and "evil" with it.

Also, tehcnically the Yin-Yang isn't two things, it's one thing, with two distinct parts. So, if you were to suggest that God and Satan are, infact, the same thing, I'd be more likely to consider it.

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Every major religion has its devils and demons. But just because it's unfashionable to be a Christian these days, referring to "Satan" is seen as a "cop-out".



I don't recall mentioning Christianity. We were discussing the idea of Satan, something that exists in numerous forms in numerous other religions.

Frankly, and I sense myself drifting off-topic here, I laugh when people say it's "unfashionable to be a Christian", or that modern society has something against Christians. I wonder if the people who say stuff like that have ever stepped foot in the southern half of the United States. Honestly, try telling a non-Christian southerner that it's "unfashionable to be Christian". See what kind of response you get.

Brief rant. Everyone thinks they're being oppressed. Everyone. Because of their race, because of their creed, because of their sexual preference, whatever. Everybody thinks the world is somehow against them, that the masses are conspiring to take away their right to be who they are.

If you're insecure about being Christian, I'm very sorry to hear it, but please don't tell me that being Christian is "unfashionable", because even in the most diverse country in the world, we still have over 150 million(a good 80%) other people who are, too.

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And besides, what you just said is EXACTLY the point I'm trying to make. IF Satan was real, don't you think it would be in his best interest to convince you he didn't exist?



Then, conversely, wouldn't it be in God's best interests to convince us he did?

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With all of us being sci-fi and comic book fans, is this stuff REALLY that hard to believe?



Well, you see, I'm one of those odd fellows who doesn't think Superman or Batman exists, either.

(insert smiley here)

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Someone else already explained this for me, but if you'd like me to elaborate, I will.



I didn't notice who did, what page was the explanation on?

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.