From DarkMuse-L@necronomi.com Tue Apr 11 22:33:35 1995 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id WAA19278 for ; Tue, 11 Apr 1995 22:33:34 -0700 Received: from uucp.intac.com (uucp.intac.com [198.6.114.27]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id WAA08555 for ; Tue, 11 Apr 1995 22:33:32 -0700 Received: from necronomi.com (uucp@localhost) by uucp.intac.com (8.6.10/8.6.5) with UUCP id BAA17691; Wed, 12 Apr 1995 01:13:24 -0400 From: DarkMuse-L@necronomi.com (DarkMuse-ML (Private)) Reply-To: DarkMuse-L@necronomi.com To: DML-repository@necronomi.com, cthulhu@necronomi.com, dvera@met.com, kfilan@netcom.com, tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com, cb05@Lehigh.EDU, ix@pentagon.io.com, egan@ccsnet.com, lilith@dorsai.org, paulhume@geis.geis.com, suti@crl.com, max@atticus.com, sarikka@Eng.Auburn.EDU, wednsday@necronomi.com Subject: Fwd: Satan as ruler of the Earth Date: 11 Apr 1995 23:13:48 GMT Message-Id: <1665736351.1797437@necronomi.com> Organization: The Familiar Spirit BBS (201)837-5914 Status: RO From: Diane Vera (dvera@met.com) Following are excerpts from two messages I posted to Kato @UDN (now Kato @ODS) in the WorldLink Religion forum on 6/18/94. The cosmology I present here should be taken as speculation, not as something I believe in absolutely. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Christianity's traditional "map" of the spirit world here on Earth is as follows: 1) Satan is the "Lord of this World", an entity whose will is embodied in our "fleshly nature." Thus, a person is "following Satan" simply by being oneself, apart from the Christian "God". 2) Christians are supposed to be "in the world, but not of the world", i.e., Christians are an alienated enclave within what is basically Satan's domain. Supposedly, Satan's position as ruler of the Earth was granted to him temporarily by his enemy, the Christian "God", who is supposedly more powerful than Satan, and against whom Satan is supposedly an ego-driven rebel. But, in my opinion, the above-described "map" leads more logically to the opposite conclusion: that "Satan" is the more powerful of the two entities, and that the Christian "God" is a rebel against "Satan". (I do not believe that the Christian "God" is the cosmic God.) Christianity itself is, among other things, a rebellion against certain facts of Earthbound life. Christians fight against "the Lord of this World", in submission to the will of their own "God". I believe that all religions contain elements of truth; that all religions -- including Christianity -- are based on people's genuine though imperfect perceptions of spiritual reality. The aspect of a religion that I am most inclined to take seriously is its "map" of the spiritual here-and-now, _NOT_ what the religion claims about the past, the future, or the afterlife. A religion's spiritual "map" of the here-and-now is the one aspect of a religion most likely to be based on people's real spiritual experiences, whereas claims about the afterlife, the world's future, or the prehistoric past are far less easily verified and, therefore, more likely to be just pie-in- the-sky. What Christianity traditionally says about the spiritual here-and- now is that the Earth is ruled by Satan. And it just so happens that I too perceive a spiritual force which has many of the characteristics that Christianity traditionally ascribes to Satan: it literally _feels_ dark, "down there", and sort of serpentlike; it is immanent in both sensuality and certain kinds of intellectual (e.g. scientific/mathematical) and creative endeavors; and it somehow feels right to think of this force as emanating from "the Lord of this World." Needless to say, I have a very different opinion of "Satan" than Christians do .... To sum up my beliefs regarding various entities: 1) The cosmic God (_NOT_ the Christian "God") = the Creator and/or Universal Mind = an entity whose will is embodied in the laws of physics. Probably does not interact with humans on a personal basis. 2) "Satan" = the "Lord of this World" = an entity whose will is embodied in the nature of Earthly lifeforms. Can also be a Muse. Exudes energy with a dark, "down-there"/"rising-up" feel. Is _NOT_ an enemy of the cosmic God. 3) The Christian "God" = one of the many less-than-cosmic deities that have formed "personal" relationships with communities of people. The Christian "God" is one of the most aggressive deities of this type, seeking to supplant all others, and has also declared war against "Satan". Exudes energy with a white-light, "up-there" feel. Now, about the "worship" question. I believe that neither the cosmic God nor "Satan" _NEEDS_ to be worshipped by humans. They both -- especially the cosmic God -- are just too big to care about this sort of thing. The fact that the Christian "God" does have such a strong desire to be worshipped is one of the reasons I believe he's _NOT_ the cosmic God. Also, I don't believe that "Satan" spends all his time scheming against the Christian "God". He doesn't need to. If the will of "Satan" is embodied in our very nature, then _OF_COURSE_ anything which opposes it is going to have a rough time! No scheming is necessary to make this difficult. I tend to get a little annoyed when Christians blame "Satan" for various human behaviors. Christians are often unclear as to whether they mean (1) that "Satan" directly, personally intervenes to impel people to do XYZ, or (2) that behavior XYZ is a part of human nature, which inherently tends to be in accord with the will of "Satan". I am inclined to accept the second idea, but not the first. What annoys me is the unspoken implication that the sole _purpose_ of behavior XYZ is "Satan's" alleged obsessive desire to spite the Christian "God", when in fact there are usually all kinds of other reasons why behavior XYZ is natural. Diane Vera --- Internet Message Header Follows --- Received: from mail.holonet.net (root@guardian.holonet.net [198.207.169.11]) by uucp.intac.com (8.6.10/8.6.5) with ESMTP id SAA11992 for ; Tue, 11 Apr 1995 18:55:42 -0400 From: dvera@met.com Received: from metro (root@localhost) by mail.holonet.net with UUCP id PAA12742; Tue, 11 Apr 1995 15:15:08 -0700 Received: by metro.uu.holonet.net (UUPM-1.51) id D2116lM Tue, Apr 11, 1995 17:02:51 EDT Message-Id: <9504111702.D2116lM@metro.uu.holonet.net> X-Mailer: UUPlus Mail 1.51 To: DarkMuse-L@necronomi.com Subject: Satan as ruler of the Earth Organization: Metro Online Entertainment Date: Tue, 11 Apr 95 17:02:50 EST .----------------------------------. | The Familiar Spirit BBS- | |a FirstClass system (201) 837-5914| | necronomi.com (GUI Port 3004) | '----------------------------------'