Sheep's Tale

Originally posted by Proper Knob
Do you really believe that? Or is that an attempt at humour?

Well anyone not following the word of Christ (in the right way, following
the word of the wrong part of Christianity is also following satan) must
be following satan...
At least in crazy Christian pretend logic world.

Of course, if you posit that god is vastly more powerful than satan,
then god could overpower satan at any point, no trouble.

Thus anything satan does is sanctioned by god.
either explicitly, or implicitly by gods inaction.

which if you view god as some benign figure looking after us,
means you have to explain how he hired a known psychopath as a nanny
and then went on extended holiday...


Atheists don't follow anyone, satan included.
Satan is a Christian invention, and belongs in the Christian religion.

Originally posted by rvsakhadeo
Supposing that the theists are the sheep in the tale,who is the magician? And what does the hypnosis refer to?

It is, of course, a hypothetical story. As I read it, the question it poses is 'how do you know that the god you worship is actually good?'

That said, I've got a history of missing the point of stories, so it might equally mean that sheep like being skinned and et or something.

Also, I'm a him. Although I do look good in stilettos and a leather miniskirt...

Originally posted by googlefudge
Well anyone not following the word of Christ (in the right way, following
the word of the wrong part of Christianity is also following satan) must
be following satan...
At least in crazy Christian pretend logic world.

Of course, if you posit that god is vastly more powerful than satan,
then god could overpower satan at any point, no troub anyone, satan included.
Satan is a Christian invention, and belongs in the Christian religion.

Yeah, I've always wondered (in as much as having a coherent tale) why this God feller doesn't just 'take care' of Satan. Indeed... if Marvel Comics had been behind the writing of the Bible instead of a loosely connected confederate of amateurs I wager this old villain would have been dispatched quite handily.

Originally posted by RJHinds
I don't think you read the story carefully because you must have missed
this part:

"this magician was very mean"

Indeed. Did you also read the part where he fooled the sheep into thinking he was lovely?

Originally posted by Agerg
Yeah, I've always wondered (in as much as having a coherent tale) why this God feller doesn't just 'take care' of Satan.

Its all about free will. You see, if you were only being influenced by God to choose the good side, then that would be unfair, so God has Satan whispering in your other ear to balance it out and give you free will.

Indeed... if Marvel Comics had been behind the writing of the Bible instead of a loosely connected confederate of amateurs I wager this old villain would have been dispatched quite handily.
Actually I find almost all stories with magic or super powers have to find a way to deal with the 'problem of evil' somehow. There always has to be an explanation as to why the magic or super-powers are not used to rid the world of evil. Some stories do it better than others.
I always found the Narnia books particularly left me always asking why Aslan is so reluctant to use his super powers. The books would have been so much better if Aslan was just left out altogether.

Originally posted by Proper Knob
Do you really believe that? Or is that an attempt at humour?

It is only a tale about a magician, who was also a mean shepherd.

If it represents anything at all dealing with the world then we can
rule out the sheep being christians because Christ is the good shepard
as I pointed out. But on the other hand Satan is a great magician that
is capable of much deception over those sheep that follow him. The
question that you must answer yourself is who do his sheep represent
in the world?

Originally posted by avalanchethecat
Indeed. Did you also read the part where he fooled the sheep into thinking he was lovely?

Just like Satan, the serpent of old.

Originally posted by rvsakhadeo
The 2nd quote is too long. Just look up http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070416/full/070416-9.html)

Measuring the quantum properties of pairs of light particles (photons) pumped out by a laser has convinced Zeilinger that "we have to give up the idea of realism to a far greater extent than most physicists believe today."

"Our paper is not the end of the road," he says. "But we have a little more evidence that the world is really strange."

Is the above quote what you are referring to?

Originally posted by twhitehead
Its all about free will. You see, if you were only being influenced by God to choose the good side, then that would be unfair, so God has Satan whispering in your other ear to balance it out and give you free will.

Indeed... if Marvel Comics had been behind the writing of the Bible instead of a loosely connected confederate of amateurs I wager this super powers. The books would have been so much better if Aslan was just left out altogether.

The old free will argument that theists introduce in this setting suffers a flaw I think - there is no need for any influence either from itself or from Satan. Indeed with neither God nor an existent Satan giving us a nudge either way (and since it seems God does nothing to interact with people, at least these days, we can suppose it doesn't give any nudging) then (assuming without discussion of the problems associated with free will and standard notions of God) we'd just exercise our free will to behave as we like, evil or otherwise.

Still not seeing a good reason why God doesn't/didn't just dispense with his arch-villain and be done with it.

Originally posted by Agerg
The old free will argument that theists introduce in this setting suffers a flaw I think - there is no need for any influence either from itself or from Satan. Indeed with neither God nor an existent Satan giving us a nudge either way (and since it seems God does nothing to interact with people, at least these days, we can suppose it doesn't give any nudging) ...[text shortened]... good reason why God doesn't/didn't just dispense with his arch-villain and be done with it.

There are a lot of things we don't see because we have limited abilities
to understand. So you can't let that hinder you from accepting Jesus
the Christ as your Lord and Savior, for he sees and understands.

Originally posted by RJHinds
There are a lot of things we don't see because we have limited abilities
to understand.

So how do you know that then?

Originally posted by RJHinds
There are a lot of things we don't see because we have limited abilities
to understand. So you can't let that hinder you from accepting Jesus
the Christ as your Lord and Savior, for he sees and understands.

That ship won't sail...indeed tales about God and Satan seems to be a bit like my recollection of a typical episode of the Power Rangers way back in my youth...they go through all the hassle of martial arts fighting to deal with little chicken scratch baddies - and then when the baddies call in something a little more powerful, the power rangers respond with zords; and then the baddies call something bigger so the power rangers call megazord, and then only when the chips are truly down because baddies have called some truly big bad monster do they finally call upon the ultrazord.

I was always asking myself why don't the power rangers just say: "balls to this, we've been through this chit too many times to mess about...we all know where this is heading so lets just call Ultrazord right away so we can go home"

True, it would have made for a crappy show, but still...would have stopped the baddies in their tracks before they could cause any trouble!

The difference between your god and the incompetent power rangers is that your god does bugger all!

Originally posted by wolfgang59
So how do you know that then?

The Holy Bible and my kidneys.

Originally posted by RJHinds
Just like Satan, the serpent of old.

I don't think you've really understood the allegory. The sheep believe the magician's lies. Why wouldn't they? He's a magician; they're just simple sheep.

Originally posted by avalanchethecat
I don't think you've really understood the allegory. The sheep believe the magician's lies. Why wouldn't they? He's a magician; they're just simple sheep.

How do you understand it then. Explain it to us, please.