You have encountered Gnostic thought (and related heresies!) The Gnostics believed that the God of the Christian Old Testament was actually Satan all along. It is an interesting rabbit hole to fall down into.
Well, I’m not not gnostic. Or aagnostic, if you will.
It’s interesting to think of the world religions that could have been, had the scales of power tipped in different directions. Gnosticism is an interesting take on Abrahamic religions, almost like a blend of Christianity and Buddhism.
There were even literal Greek Buddhists before there were Greek Christians. Heck, Christianity as we know it might not have survived without the original Greek drafts of the New Testament. There’s another universe out there where the eastern Greco-Romans were way too busy with the karmic cycle and achieving enlightenment to worry about the execution of some random guy with daddy issues in the desert.
God that sounds like such a better world.
Yeah I’m pretty sure the giant Buddha statue that the Taliban blew up in Afghanistan several years ago was Greek work.
There are also plenty of accounts from (I think) the Abassid empire where Greeks and Buddhists were both present in Baghdad at the same time. I forget why that ended, maybe because of the Seljuks or the Mongols, can’t remember.
And of course, there’s an account in the Buddhist canon of a philosophical debate between a buddhist monk (Nagasena) and a Greek king named Menander (Milinda in Pali), which took place in the first or second century BC.
But damn… thinking about a world where Greco-Buddhism became the religion of the West… what could’ve been, eh?
The only account we have of Satan is in the Bible. Not exactly an unbiased source.
Well, no. If you’re taking a stack of supposed moral allegories as fact, Lucifer was cast out for defying God, not for being naughty. Lucifer wouldn’t kneel to mankind and serve them, thinking them lesser, so God tossed him out. Again, if you think myths are facts.
Satan was a very minor character in The Bible.
Given how much thought a lot of superfans of the Bible give to him, you’d think he was the protagonist.
Maybe they’re secret shippers.
Anyone who has done DMT knows that the Cosmic Serpent, the green lady, the insectoid creatures, the scary clowns, the machine elves . . . . while scary to us, are benevolent, welcoming and healing. I have always felt that the serpent in the tree of knowledge (Ayahuasca) was the good guy.
“Knowledge forbidden?
Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord
Envy them that? Can it be a sin to know?
Can it be death?”― John Milton, Paradise Lost
Yeah, i got in a bunch of trouble for that line of thinking in Sunday School.
They were, however, unable to scare the logic out of me.
The goal is to get you to accept that “your betters” can never do wrong and when you suffer consequences it’s due to a greater plan you are not privy to rather than letting you hold them accountable. The intent is to get you to accept without question the authority and judgement of the powers that be du jour, whether it’s the king, the rich, the state… whatever needs to pacify you enough to keep you productive and docile. Satan therefore represents and embodies all of the human qualities of self-determination and true freedom.
Gnosis
