Replies

I do not believe in Satan

"My dear brothers, never forget, when you hear the progress of enlightenment vaunted, that the devil's best trick is to persuade you that he doesn't exist!" ~ Charles Baudelaire, French Poet

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." ~Verbal Kent, The Usual Suspects

I do believe in good and evil

If you believe in evil, then you believe in Satan. They are one and the same. Evil doesn't care whether or not you assign it a name. It exists nonetheless.

Good quotes. In my tradition, we tend to see "Satan" not as a physical entity, but as a personification of the evil to which all flesh is heir. The Torah (the Old Testament) and Talmud speak frequently of such influences and of how we must travel the correct paths of life. The older I get, the more sense I find in the ancients. That seems to be a rather universal phenomenon (provided you're willing to look). I have recently begun to re-examine them.

A literary note: I first read Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du Mal) in the original language and only later in college, in English. Such a fascinating and tortured soul! A genius at metaphor and a wonderful observer of human nature. But also a Romantic - he participated in the 1848 uprisings in Europe and smoked opium, to which many have ascribed his hallucinatory literary fantasies (including the late Jim Morrison).

Overall, my own belief is that good and evil dwell within us all not as actual angels and demons, but as elements of free will. The choices we make affect us primarily, but insofar as they affect others, we are properly bounded by the personal responsibility that conditions our will; otherwise civil society is not possible. And yes, I quite agree: Evil does exist, regardless of what you might call it. I have seen its face - in the eyes of Mohammad Atta; in the crematoria of Auschwitz, in the writings of Chairman Mao.

The struggle is eternal, and in life, one must recognize one's friends, regardless of transitory disagreements over particular issues. That is why I am here. Not because I'm always right - I am not. Not because I agree with everyone here - I do not. But because we share the fundamental values that created this nation and which are presently under assault.