Love thy Enemy

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Provita

Provita
Registered Senior Member
Jesus teaches us (or atleast Christians) to Love your enemies...

An interesting question an athiest asked me a while ago:

If so, mustn't you also love Satan?
 
Satan and Hell are just allegories for the human id. Its something to be transcended, not hated.
 
Provita said:
Jesus teaches us (or atleast Christians) to Love your enemies...

An interesting question an athiest asked me a while ago:

If so, mustn't you also love Satan?
Click to expand...

Interesting question.

If you read the Words of Jesus in context it is clear Jesus is talking about loving our fellow human beings, even if they are our enemies. satan is not a human being.



All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
yes you should love satan for god created him and so he must be good somewhere deep down inside but he has such a lack of good he should be pitied out of love because he is not as close to god as he could have been for he was a great angel and fell far but to hate is to only create a lack of love and where there is a lack of love there is a lack of god
 
satan... is surely not a happy guy... he is literally at the bottom.
and in his rage his only joy is too drag down others with him.

why?? so he wont be alone.... he wanted to be like.. and be GOD... to have heaven.... he could not ...

he was cast down... and rules hell alone... and it sucks..

thus he takes his pleasure from torture and suffering of the children of GOD... that should be his...

but he only gets the rejects.. the bad apples... the smelly ones...

and they all taste bad...


indeed, we should pity him... and in our hearts love him. HE WAS ONCE AN ANGEL.

but like so many humans... he got lost... mislead in his own mind...
and so like humans.. he will live out his existance in the suffering he created for himself.... just like humans.


-MT
 
Doesn't matter, human or not, we should hate nothing. Satan is doing his part in testing us. He is allowed by God to do this to us, or else God could easily defeat it. You have to understand how satan is helping us in order to not hate him.
 
IF SATAN EXISTS.... then clearly... he does not want to help us.
and if he is... it must be a lie.

this 'is' satan we are talking about.

-MT
 
usp8riot said:
Doesn't matter, human or not, we should hate nothing. Satan is doing his part in testing us. He is allowed by God to do this to us, or else God could easily defeat it. You have to understand how satan is helping us in order to not hate him.
Click to expand...

Let's open the penetentiaries then tear 'em down. Show some love to all those convicted of rape, murder and various other delights. After all it's only a test with the final outcome designed to help us. I feel a lot better now.

Its things like this that turn me off of religion. People say things that they don't really want to say just to appease a creator. My oh my! If you can't see the fragility of usp8riot's words then we are all frickin' doomed.
 
Provita said:
Jesus teaches us (or atleast Christians) to Love your enemies...

An interesting question an athiest asked me a while ago:

If so, mustn't you also love Satan?
Click to expand...

Satan is not a person but the spirit of evil. And the "love your enemy" thing is not as simple as it sounds. It doesn't mean we should kiss and hug a criminal because he is a criminal; it means we should do all we can to help the criminal stop being a criminal. It means, basically, not desiring eternal damnation for any single person, regardless of what they do to us.
 
Your own words are fragile enough. You don't have to let a murderer keep murdering you to love him; that's a false assumption on your part.
 
baumgarten said:
Your own words are fragile enough. You don't have to let a murderer keep murdering you to love him; that's a false assumption on your part.
Click to expand...

The idea is best expressed as "hate the crime, love the criminal"

Anyway, we live in a Christian society and we already practice that, so there's no point arguing it. The Western justice system is not based on the notion of revenge, it's based on the notion of moral rehabilitation.
 
Confutatis said:
Anyway, we live in a Christian society and we already practice that, so there's no point arguing it. The Western justice system is not based on the notion of revenge, it's based on the notion of moral rehabilitation.
Click to expand...

So, in our "Christian society," is the practice of capital punishment revenge or rehabilitation?
 
Moral rehabilitation is not the purpose of the justice system. Its purpose is first to protect society from perceived domestic threats, and second to reinforce the authority of the state.
 
baumgarten said:
Moral rehabilitation is not the purpose of the justice system. Its purpose is first to protect society from perceived domestic threats, and second to reinforce the authority of the state.
Click to expand...

But your description applies to totalitarian states as well as democratic ones. Stalin sent people to gulags precisely for the reasons you stated.

The notion of justice must necessarily encompass justice for everyone, criminals included. Where does the notion that criminals deserve justice come from?

As to the question on capital punishment, the answer is simple. Capital punishment is neither revenge nor rehabilitation, it's just pure stupidity. All modern societies but one have already abandoned it.
 
Confutatis said:
The idea is best expressed as "hate the crime, love the criminal"

Anyway, we live in a Christian society and we already practice that, so there's no point arguing it. The Western justice system is not based on the notion of revenge, it's based on the notion of moral rehabilitation.
Click to expand...

*************
M*W: We do not live in a "Christian society, and "we do not "practice 'hate the crime, love the criminal'."

The "Western justice system" is based on "innocence until proven guilty," and there is absolutely NO "moral rehabilitation" provided by the justice system.

Our American society being what it is may follow christian dogma more than it follows atheism, but at the end of the day, christianity has nothing to do with it. In fact, christianity is the source of the problem. It provides hope when there is no hope. It provides faith when the faith is a bunch of lies. It provides love when the true source of love is always oneself. Ergo, we do not live in a "Christian society." If we did, it would become our devastation, and if you look at our penal system, christianity has done absolutely nothing to improve the conditions of our society.
 
what is the problem with hope faith and love, how is there no hope, who says faith is a lie, how can there not be selfless love, hove you really lost all the warm fuzzy feeling you were born with to replace them with snyde cynicism and blind pessisism what good in the world do you see
 
Let's open the penetentiaries then tear 'em down. Show some love to all those convicted of rape, murder and various other delights. After all it's only a test with the final outcome designed to help us. I feel a lot better now.

Its things like this that turn me off of religion. People say things that they don't really want to say just to appease a creator. My oh my! If you can't see the fragility of usp8riot's words then we are all frickin' doomed.
Click to expand...

The prisoners in prison are being kept away from society to teach them a lesson. You can still forgive yet still punish. Without sin, ie, mistakes/troubles/challenges in life, there is no learning. Without learning, there is no understanding. Because sin teaches us both aspects of the world and universe. There is two sides to everything. It is this knowledge when man evolved a higher general IQ that lead us to developing and understanding the way of the world. Satan is not some mystical being that you might be scared of, it's just a metaphor. There is no magic/mysticism involved, or evil demon living within us to torture us. My mind is open and I can see the good in the bad, and the bad in the good. That is logic. Deductive reasoning. It is false when your mind is persuaded by emotions of fear, and love. You must be in between to reason at your best. I neither love God too much, nor fear him, just as satan (the bad in life).

Is your mind not more fragile than mine, PE, when I mention one thing and you take it all the way to the extreme side of it. There is no extreme in my beliefs. Extremities are for the insane, unintelligent, unpeaceful, or emotional. I am not trying to appease anyone by what I say, just promoting understanding. Just as you may not be appeasing anyone by commenting, it is to promote your thoughts, just as mine.
 
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