Lark_Truth wrote:Would Satan try and divide people against each other?
According to Genesis, when the Lord saw the city and tower of Babel and that the people were as one, and realised if this is what they begin to do then nothing they plan will be impossible for them, he said let us go down and confuse their language so they won't understand each other, and he scattered them across the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city.
By confusing their language, the Lord effectively divided the people and obstructed their plans to build.
It may be assumed that "the Lord" is God, but "the Lord" could actually be Satan, or it may be that God is the primary obstructive and divisive force and Satan is trying to unite us ... Who can tell ... All that can be known is that there appear to be divisive forces at play and it may be less important to identify who is driving these forces than to understand the nature of these forces.
Lark_Truth wrote:I would think that the devil, Humanist or malign, would do his best to make people miserable.
Let's explore the nature of misery and suffering ...
At the heart of any suffering there will be an internal conflict. This could be a conflict between two sensory systems (eg, visual and vestibular (sense of balance)), a conflict of ideas (eg, "I want to eat chocolate" + "I don't want to get fat"), or a conflict between perceptions of reality and ideas about what
should be.
An internal conflict indicates something is wrong, prompting feelings of discomfort to help drive some action to resolve the conflict. A low level conflict, like between visual and vestibular sensory systems, suggests something serious is wrong, like something poisonous has been eaten, prompting motion sickness - strong physical discomfort that may result in vomiting to try and get rid of the suspected source of the conflict. A higher level conflict, like between two opposing ideas, may indicate something less serious is wrong, resulting in mild psychological discomfort. However, the discomfort may be greater if the conflict involves an idea that one strongly identifies with. The greater the discomfort, the greater the urge to do something to end the discomfort. Suffering results when this discomfort continues.
An internal conflict between perceptions of how the world is and ideas about how the world should be can be resolved by changing the world to agree with the ideas, or changing the ideas to agree with how the world really is. If it is too difficult to change the world and ideas are attached too strongly to let go of them, then the conflict and discomfort will persist and suffering will be experienced.
Desire and judgement (that some things are better than others) give birth to ideas and plans to change the world, causing internal conflict and suffering.
A lot of suffering can be avoided by ending judgement and desire. What drives judgement and desire?
Most people don't enjoy suffering so it may be argued that sources of suffering are evil and the work of the devil, but perhaps suffering has some positive effects?
Suffering drives people to take action, try different things, explore new territories, invent new things, etc, in an attempt to ease suffering. Without some discomfort, people would be content to stay where they are, keep things as they are, and not develop anything.
Other animals like rats also look to occupy new territories. Suffering may be part and parcel of nature. Species that aren't driven by suffering to try different things may be more vulnerable to extinction?
Lark_Truth wrote:Just a thought: Could the work of the devil be an attention act?
Who pays attention to the devil?
Lark_Truth wrote:From what I believe, most Christian dogma teaches that the devil "warred" with God and was cast out of heaven with his angels. Even in the Mormon Church, we believe that Lucifer wanted all of the glory to himself instead of God, and for that he was cast out of God's presence. Could it all be an attention act?
It could all be a distraction ... If God favoured the plan that gave glory to himself instead of Lucifer, and they both warred against each other, then what is the essential difference between them? "Satan" means to oppose, obstruct, plot or plan against. If God and Lucifer were/are warring against each other and obstructing each other's plans, then they are effectively each other's Satan?
This discussion is about evil's war against religions, but it may be more interesting to consider religions' war against evil ...
The reality of evil may be questionable if there is no way to objectively measure it, but it is possible to be against imaginary things. Ideas can be included in internal conflicts. Religions can be against evil. If opposition is viewed as evil then how can this be fought against without participating in opposition?