Addendum to Yesterday’s Post About the Devil.

Wow, I really stirred the water! Digging in Dirt brings up some incendiary stuff. But hey, I knew that is what would happen. There have been people who have agreed with me, people who haven’t, and people who see some points on both sides.

But all this is good. Even if you disagree with someone thing I say, but it gets you to think. Then I have done my job. The who process of growth and self-discovery is about asking yourself questions and seeing what answers develop. Living with those answers for a time. And then questioning those answers again to still if they still hold up.

A few more comments regarding the Devil, and my thoughts on the topic and then it will be off to more light hearted, but no less deep, fun stuff tomorrow. I don’t mind the use of the Devil as a metaphoric device in the explanation of evil. My point is that the existence as an actually being as the source of evil is outdated, incomplete, and totally unnecessary in a modern world view. (It actually was unnecessary in the ancient world as the Celts lived 3500+ years with out a devil just fine. Same with the Native Americans.)

Furthermore, I don’t have a problem with the Bible on the whole. And to those who say that I haven’t read it or haven’t read it the correct way and getting “it” (whatever that “it” is) I ask, “What am I doing wrong?” Since, 1992 I have the Bible cover to cover 6 times. Some books of it upwards of 12-20 times. I have spent thousands of hours studying this and other religious texts. I have read the Old Testament with a side by side translation of Hebrew, translated by Rabbis. And I have read the New Testament with a side by side translation of the Hellenistic Greek. I have studied the KJV, RSV, NRSV, NIV, the Living Bible, the translation of the 5 Gospels by the Jesus Seminar and a few others that escape my memory right now. I have also read the Dead Sea Scrolls. Not in the original Coptic, mind you. I took Old Testament, New Testament, Christian Ethics and a host of other religion/ethics classes with world renowned Biblical scholars. What am I doing wrong? Personally, I can’t see how fundamentalists actually read the Bible and not see the things that I see. I keep trying to read the Bible and see things their way, but it hasn’t happened yet.

And that is the crux here. Fundamentalist Christians, or those who hold to a legalistic, literalistic view of the Bible will have a hard time with my statements about the Devil. (Fundamentalist Muslims would also have similar problems with my comments. Though, their viewpoint derives from a legalistic/literalistic view of the Koran.) While those who don’t hold that point of view, especially those of us who consider ourselves “Believers in Exile”, really won’t.

To those who worry about my eternal soul. Thank you for your concern. However, my personal relationship with Jesus is just that. My personal relationship. I don’t question yours. To those who still can’t understand and want to discuss why I don’t believe in the Devil, we can continue this discussion through email. If not, that is ok too. In the grand scheme of things I really don’t think my disbelieve in the devil is that important as we humans create more than enough evil ourselves than we can deal with.


Tomorrow’s post will be shorter and more light hearted, I promise.