An Understanding of Satan in Two Faiths

I have grew up in a family of Muslims and Catholics, and although there were many cultural and religious disagreements, there was a mutual understanding of the Devil and his overwhelming power to tempt human beings, as sinners. Lucifer was a fallen angel who strayed from God in search of his own power. I believe that the Devil has only been able to attain the power he posses because he, like all beings created by God, was given the free will to do whatever he desired. This idea of free will is the basis on which Satan appeals to our desires. He tries to lead others astray by appealing to their temptaions. The Devil seems to be more present in the Bible than in the Quran which I believe is because the Quran was not meant to replace the Bible's Old Testament, but rather to add to it; the understanding of Satan as an evil being had already been established. My mother always taught me that Satan preyed on the weak-hearted, which is understandable. Those without will power and faith are more easily tempted. There is a strong agreement between both religions that on the chosen day, God will easily destroy Satan.

What I Know of the Devil

 The know the devil  as both Satan and Lucifer. I was taught that the devil was once an angel in heaven until he dismayed God and was damned to the underworlds (HELL). The devil is believed to be the most evil being to mankind. My mother always taught me to rebuke the devil. Out of spite and anger, Westerners’ often use the term “Go to Hell!” Hell is not only where the devil resides; it is also a miserable place for evil spirits to spend eternity in hell’s hot environment and horrible conditions.

 

9/11: many Americans believe  the tragedy of the twin towers was the devils work. The devil dwells on sins and evil.  Christians (my mother and family) “rebuke” the devil in an attempt to save souls and spend eternity in an everlasting paradise in heaven with God: the creator of the devil and all beings. I know that if there is a devil he would be proud of people doing corrupt things because though “hell” may not be empty, it will never freeze and its leader is always recruiting souls. Misery loves company. 

http://thefitnessandnutritionguide.blogspot.com/2010/09/911-memorial.html

The Devil to Me

The first thing I think about when I think about the devil is evil. I grew up in a very religious household that always stressed the importance of renouncing the devil. If I ever had a bad dream or felt uncomfortable, my grandma taught me to say, " Satan! I rebuke you in the name of Jesus". In addition, my family comes from Haiti and has strong roots with voodoo. My grandma swears that she has seen the devil in people's eyes. If me or my brother were ever acting up as children, my grandmother and mother would make us get on ours and she would pray the devil out of us. Personally, I don't think much of the devil. I used to see the devil as a male figure however, last year I read a book that portrayed the devil as a woman and that lead me to believe that the devil is both. I believe if the devil is real, he would probably look like an average day person, making it easier him to tempt you into doing evil things. I've always struggled with the reality of the devil because of my family's almost extremist view of him and of religion. I do believe in free will but I also believe that there are bad spirits that try to test and tempt you in life. I am not sure if I completely believe in something as powerful as the devil is made out to be.

Fear No Evil

As a kid growing up, I was taught to believe God was always good and the devil was always evil, hence the fact evil was spelled in devil according to my grandmother. Not even knowing if God or the devil truly existed, I was forced into a religion of Christianity I didn't even have a clear understanding about. But as I grew older, I became more interested with the Apostolic Pentecostal religion which is basically the same thing as Christianity. Apostolic's believed that you should repent for all your wrong doing, get baptized, and receive the holy spirit.  This religion has taught me that their are only certain ways in which you can reach the gates of heaven or salvation and that the devil will do anything in his power to persuade you or deceive your mind into thinking that its right to steal, kill, destroy or cause chaos. As you may know, devil was once an angel who was casted away to the gates of hell for trying to compete with God which later caused him to become God's enemy. So why would he want you to do good in life and live as virtuous person who does the correct things in which God would want you to?


That is why nowadays, the term devil is not to be feared as much as it was. People still are consumed by the temptation that is caused by the devil to do wrongdoing which is why a lot of chaotic things happens in the world today. God gives all humans the choice to serve him but by the devil being such an evil, jealous, manipulative spirit, he wants to take advantage of taking everyone away from God and to join him in the gates of hell. The devil can supply you with temporary items on earth such as fame, wealth, and power but when it comes to judgment day, only God can supply you with eternal happiness.

The Devil & I

Usually when someone would speak of the devil, or even bring up a subject that relates to the devil, I would think they were weird or crazy. But lately, it seems as if I have become more immune and used to having the word 'devil' surrounding me in conversations. As a little girl, I was always afraid of horror movies and paranormal spirits. I definitely would not go see a scary movie or even go out to haunted houses during Halloween. My parents always taught me that wearing black or worshiping the devil is for people with "problems." For a while, I believed it but always had a different feeling towards that point of view. Being afraid for so long helped me want to change my decision over the years and experiment to the dark side. In the past two years, I am not afraid anymore. It all started with listening to a variety genre of heavy metal and rock. All of the lyrics contribute to talking about the devil, death, and Hell. It really draws you into believing in something far beyond your knowledge and converting yourself to become negative-minded. It is something about the thrashing noises that makes me want to continue listening to more songs from bands. This influenced me a lot and made me feel like I became close with the devil in a way. I do not mess with any paranormal spirits or experiment with items that would draw those spirits in, but I am extremely fascinated by how it works. I have heard many things about the ouija board and how it is used to communicate with spirits. Learning about or witnessing an exorcism makes me excited and keeps me intrigued. I want to know what goes on through the mind and how the devil has his ways within the world.

The Devil

My relationship with the Devil is much more exciting than my relationship with God.  Despite having grown up in Catholic school, I feel as though the majority of my exposure to the Devil stemmed from a much different place than religion class.  My horror movie phase began much earlier in my life than most.  I watched my first scary movie at the age of six, and I have to say that it has stayed with me ever since.  The film was about a house that had witnessed supernatural encounters, which seemed real at the time.  I probably couldn’t tell you what the Devil looks like if you asked me, but I could try to explain the feelings he brings with him. He is everything that makes me feel creepy, anxious, and unsafe.  He can be found anywhere, in any form of representation.  In my case, the Devil is predominantly a supernatural figure and I’m still trying to figure out whether or not he is real.

The Devil...To Me?

I've never had an experience with the devil; I don't know whom the devil is, as vague as that might sound, because there are so many incarnations of the devil. I was taught about so many characteristics of the devil that are commonly known to anyone following any religion and non-religion growing up. No matter how many versions of the devil I have learned about during my childhood, he was always depicted as evil in nature. As a kid I feared the devil because he was simply the bad guy; I always saw him as a monster in physical form and someone that wanted you to join him in hell; for example, an image that can vividly pop up in my head is of a burning, mountainous brimstone surface at which hundreds of burning naked corpses are out-stretching their hands just a little above the cliff trying to trip me up. The most familiar interpretation of the devil taught to me as a child is the Christian interpretation; based on some accounts from the Christian bible is that the devil seems to be a trickster, too; I can not recall vividly, but there is a scenario of the devil making a bet with god, and the bet was to turn one of god’s followers against god through a series of horrendous trials. From the follower’s perspective, as he is trying to endure these trials, it seems as if this could be happening as an act of nature, but it’s really a test orchestrated by the devil.

The Devil In Me.

Growing up I always had bad experiences in life. I always had a wandering conscious and always spoke ill of life and things. Church was not a thing I was interested in and when I walked into church I always magically seemed to get sick, my grandmother told me it was the devil working to keep me away. I never really believed these myths, because the devil was always at work when it came down to my grandmother being involved.

When I was young my parents always told me I was a spawn of the devil. I watched horror films all the time and did not flinch at all. I thought movies involving homicide was the most hilarious thing ever. In addition, I grew up in the middle of two completely different religions. The Jehovah's Witnesses I grew up around believed everything that was not of the Lord was Pro-Satan. My uncle banned cartoons from the house, and my father stopped celebrating most of the major holidays. The other side was the Baptist, they were the complete opposite of the Witnesses. My mother and father both told me the the devil was bad but their opinions towards the things I was interested in were far from similar.

My mother always made jokes about my baptism. She assumed I would make the water bubble and start levitating. She claimed I walked the evil side of the road, because I was “mean”. My father on the other hand always fussed about the fact that I watched horror films. He said “you watching that is opening up portals for Satan and demons to come into our home.” Did I believe that? No, but I did start experiencing strange feeling in certain parts of the house. Now, every time I enter my mother house strange things happen. Things like the lights going out and those random gust of wind that passes by.

Iniquitous & Intriguing

Halima Jaber                                                                                                                            01/08/2014
What Do I Think of the Devil?

          The first word that comes to my mind when I hear the name of the devil is 'Hell'. Hell is the home of the devil and all sinners who are not worthy enough or at all to enter into the gates of heaven. The devil is the ruler of Hell. I do not in any way feel joy or praise towards the devil, although I do enjoy watching films that are based on stories of the evil. Over time, more and more films based on Satan have reached number one spots in the box. This proves that even though the devil is hated by many religious beings, the ways of the devil interest most people today. The devil is not powerful enough to take those who are moving towards the light into the darkness. The only power the devil has is to make sinners feel proud of what they have done and not feel any shame in the matter. The physical aspects that I see while thinking of the devil are a male with red skin and horns. The setting of Hell is deep below the Earth surrounded by flames causing deadly heat. The devils ways are nothing but wrong, and the physical and mental aspects of the devil are what make the devil nothing but evil. Overall, I believe that evil is all around us. All human beings have had or do have one or more dark thoughts, whether it be about pain towards themselves or pain towards someone else deserving of it. I do know that having watched so many films about the devil, I have learned more through watching the fictional and non-fictional stories playing out than I have while practicing my religious views as a Muslim. 

my one on one with the devil

 my name is logan reynolds and for many many years i was a marine engineer deployed overseas. i actually spent 6 years of my life overseas, two of them in action against the enemy. i grew up in southern alabama in a very christian baptist home, my family was very religious (especially my extended family) and for a point of time in my life i had every intentions of being a pastor, that is not how life worked out though and i find myself today a very different man than i was then.
i grew up hearing the stories about lucifers fall from grace, and how he torments souls in the depth of hell and as i grew older my attention began drifting towards other religions and their views. i soon learned that hell has been the place for the damned since ancient greece (if not sooner) and all evil men are doomed to perish. that would mean that the devil targets evil men, right? doesnt that then make him evil? i cant picture an angel of the lord with the legs of a goat and the horns of a bull, so i cant picture the devil with them either. but i can picture pure evil, ive seen it. i have seen the look in a mans eye where he wants nothing more then to end your life and take from you all you hold dear. not because you slighted him, not because he hates you personally, but because he hates who you represent, he hates what you are, and he hates the way you think. that is pure evil, and that is not solely the realm of the devil

The Devil

Growing up, I was taught that the Devil was once called Lucifer and he was a fallen angel. I was told that he was one of God's "favorite" angels and that he had a beautiful voice. The Devil was very jealous of God's reign so he began his own army of followers and God banished him and the rest of his followers to hell. Being raised as a Christian I do believe there is a devil and that he feeds off of all things negative and tries to steer people in the wrong direction. He's a being that only wants to see those suffer and wants people to commit all those things that are ungodly. I've been taught that temptation is one of the devil's top strategies to get those to commit sins and that it displeases him when you follow in the ways of God. I feel that all the depictions of the devil whether it's metaphorically or a physical being that somehow they incorporate with each other. I believe that those who believe the devil is the monsters within yourself is just a way of saying that there is evil in a all human beings as well as good.

Relationship with the devil

Like Many, I have a relationship with the devil. No, I am not romantically involved with Satan. I am not a Satanist, nor a Christian for that matter. I don’t particularly believe in God or the devil however I have a relationship with this character because of my family. I grew up in a church going household. My mother and father are devout Christians and raised their children to be good god fearing Americans and with that comes knowledge of Satan’s evils. My grandmother, a strong influence in my childhood as well was even more insane when it came to her faith. I distinctly remember my grandmother warning me about the devil at a young age and describing how not to fall into his many traps.  Although I don’t really go to church or believe in many Christian sentiments at this point in my life, something about the devil seems a bit real. Scary movies rarely frighten me, but when they do, it is a demon orientated or exorcism movie. Perhaps it is just a residual effect from my earlier years, or perhaps I really do have a reason to be scared.  

The Devil's Test

I am raised in a Christian home, and when I say Christian I mean exactly that, Christ-Like. Nothing like what some proclaimed to be "Christians" are today that preach mostly about money or ridicules others based on their differences such a homosexuals, or other religious practices. I believe in God and I believe in the Holy Trinity. I find it hard to put my entire trust in the idea of religion only because history has always been tampered with and what lies in the bible may not always be true. But since I believe in God then I know I must believe in the devil because where there is light there is also darkness. I know that I am being tested everyday on how strong my faith is. Everyone, as well as myself, have gone through harsh trails in their lives, but I only think of them as the devil's tests. Those who easily give in are easily accessible to his evil ways, those who aren't he tends to pay a little more attention to. I think of the devil as a mischievous entity that basks in happiness in the downfall of the Lord's servants. I don't really understand him. I don't know why he does what he does, how he got to be what he is now, or why he even exists. I just know that his intentions are never for good, but always for evil. I was always told be weary of him by my parents, and they learned the same lesson from their parents, and so on and so forth. What media and literature portrays the devil to be only makes me even more suspicious. But I know I shouldn't fear him, because the only one I should fear is God.

My Relations with Lucifer

I've had a borderline athiestic/agnostic viewpoint for the last six years of my life, so Satan/Lucifer/the devil has always been a bit of a humorous topic to me. I know that sounds messed up, but I've been desensitized to the taboo that surround the Devil and evil of any sort. Only recently have I become involved in any kind of voluntary spirituality, that being Witchcraft. Just so you know, witches don't believe in the Christian devil, nor do they believe in the Christian Hell.

While I am still unsure about what I believe, I know what I've been taught by the Catholic schools I've attended from Pre-K through high school (and I suppose, now at Loyola). Satan is an angel that was cast down by God because he was power-hungry. Hence, "hell" was created. He is everything that embodies temptation, which ultimately leads to sin. This makes sense and all, but maybe Satan is just a symbol of immorality--a personified depiction of everything evil in the world.

I've mentioned above that my view of Satan has been desensitized, and I will explain why. The duration of my high school years, I've been involved with the local metal and hardcore scene, here in Louisiana. Many of my friends are in local bands, and many of us did our best to support the scene and our all-ages music venue in Metairie. The reason I mention this is because a branch of hardcore/metal culture often mocks Christianity (because many patrons identify as athiests) and therefore, the taboo of Satan is almost nonexistent. Jokes and references (for example, Sail Hatan, 666, etc.) are common among this circle of people. I suppose this is why I'm not afraid to talk about Satan as a mythological figure.

While I am still unsure of my personal beliefs towards this subject, I've always been utterly fascinated with dark spirituality and demonology. My favorite genre of film is horror, so I'm constantly watching films about exorcism (The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and The Rite, to name a few). I am also partially familiar with Satanism as a philosophy. I hope to learn more about the devil, as depicted by various sources studied in this class.

-Olivia

P.S. My betta fish's name is Lucifer. Lu for short.

Explaining The Devil

I don’t have a very in depth knowledge of the devil. Growing up, nobody really talked about the devil and so much of what I know comes from popular culture and the media. Horror movies have taught me to really fear Satan. The idea of a fallen angel trying to posses me, harm me, or kill me, is terrifying and keeps me up at night. The devil is so terrifying because people know little about him. Nobody even knows if he exists. It is this fear of the unknown that makes the devil so scary, fascinating, and profitable for the media.

I’m unsure whether I believe a devil like creature, spirit, or entity exists. As a very logical person I’d like to think he does not, but unexplainable events people recount suddenly make the idea seem plausible. The only interaction I’ve ever had with the devil turned out to be nothing more than my imagination. While asleep one night I experienced sleep paralysis, a condition where one’s eyes are open, but the body is still asleep. As a result, I dreamt with my eyes open, while I was unable to move my limbs. I saw a shadowy figure at the end of my bed and felt a weight on my chest, making it hard to breathe. I was unbelievably scared because I had no idea what was happening. For the moment, I truly thought the devil, or at least a demon was in my room. It was only upon waking and researching my experience that I found a logical explanation for what I experienced.

The church, movies, television shows, and other forms of media all try to explain and even scare people about the devil. People easily buy into the concept of him because he’s an unknown and people fear what they don’t know. However, where the devil and the media are involved there is a lot of dramatization, and exaggeration at work. I think most people’s so called encounters with an evil spirit can be explained in some other more logical way.

My Devil...

           Growing up Catholic in Colombia, I definitely had more than my share of lectures and sermons about God and the Devil. The way the Devil was presented to me when I was a kid was when something bad happened to someone or something, the act of it was a work of the devil but there was never a physical manifestation of the being itself. If God can work in mysterious ways why can't the Devil? hence I grew up believing that whenever something good happened to me it was the work of God, and the opposite for the Devil. As I grew older and changed by integrating myself with the American lifestyle, I began to step away from religion and questioned a lot of things that God himself did. I always did wonder how the devil came about, and I was fascinated to find out that he was an angel himself in the beginning of everything. Cast down for disobeying God and thinking himself an equal, the Devil was thrown to earth, stripped of his rank as an angel, and eternally damned to his own torture in the realm of Hell; yet still free enough to torment humans. Since angels are androgynous beings cast in the likeness of God, and we ourselves are also cast in his own image; that leads me to believe that the Devil is here on earth looking like us and able to shift his appearance any way he wants. What his endeavors may be are secret to us, but if we are to believe the bible; then his ultimate goal is to drag our souls to hell to join him. The Devil to me now is just a being or an idea that somehow influences an individual to make bad choices, hence pushing him more towards the path of hell. This being or idea is only as strong as our will is, and since we have free will this being purely depends on us to join him in eternal damnation.