EVIL - The Dark Side - Satan - The boogieman

Is there a "force" of evil? A bad Yin to the good Yang of God? Negative energy? An actual power that makes your bread land butter-side down?

Just to get things stirred up a bit, I'll voice my opinion. No. No evil, no Satan, no Hell.

That's not to say that there aren't "bad" people in the world. What we think of as evil is actually just a separation from the Source. Just as darkness is simply the absence of light, evil is the absence of God. The result of a separation that an individual chooses, consciously or unconsciously.

In other words the devil never made anybody do anything. They just chose to.

I like the question, though disagree with the answer. A 'Satan'? Not really, no. A hell? Yes. However, my opinion of the afterlife is what you make of it, as many speak of life. But, if you live life consumed by material gains, by other things that don't influence a positive life, I believe you'll find yourself in a hellish afterlife, still consumed by things that hold little, if any, importance. This is why this entire conversation is important to me. Because without the nourishment of our souls and our very thought processes, we may find ourselves in our own personal hells. To put it best, if you haven't seen 'What Dreams May Come', I feel that holds a very real sense of Heaven and Hell, and how it isn't so much a struggle between God and Satan as it is what we make of ourselves.

But, I do believe good and evil exist. I just don't believe God and Satan have much of anything to do with it.

So what you are saying is that we each great our own God and Satan in our selves. But we project them into there own persona so they may be better understood by the masses.

Trench wrote:

I do believe good and evil exist. I just don't believe God and Satan have much of anything to do with it.

Interesting. Your response seems to be "yes, but no". My question was intended to be "Is there a force of evil". In other words, is there a power outside of ourselves that causes us to do "bad" things?

Of course good and evil exist, but are they simply the result of our choices, or are we puppets to higher powers?

Also, I should not have included Hell in the original post. I agree, what happens to us in our after-life is determined by what we focus on in our life.

A good question. I suppose I didn't answer it quite appropriately before. I do believe in a total force, but I don't believe it holds much pull on our beings. What is it that pulls us to do right by each other? I suspect fear, if we treat others poorly, they'll treat us poorly.

Whichever the case, I don't believe it's a higher force that directs us. It's something within ourselves. I'm not saying there might not be some kind of supernatural influence, but we're talking more like spirits that guide us, not supreme entities that direct us. I think any supernatural influence is no more than your buddy giving you advice. Depending on the spirit, just as depending on the buddy, would vary on the guidance you're given.