Religion
In reply to the discussion: What is the baddest, most evil thing Satan/Lucifer/the devil has ever done in the Bible? [View all]TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)that was all part of the plan. Jesus, unlike Eve, couldn't be tempted.
But, that doesn't make Eve a worse person than Jesus-- she was created in perfect innocence and knowledge seemed like a great gift at the time. And it was. Jesus knew what was up and being given a king-o-the-world crown wasn't in the plan.
I can't speak for Judaism, which is where this all started, but Christianity has never been comfortable with a concept of duality-- good is meaningless without evil, and so they are coequal. Yin and Yang. Satan was an archangel who went bad, and never an equal to God, so Christian mythology can never fully accept Satan as an equal.
A duality was hinted at in Genesis, and to some extent in Milton, and shows up in some Christian writings, but just never got mainstream. An enormous mythology about the second creation, descent into hell, and other things derived from a couple of OT verses changed Satan from a mild antagonist to God (the protagonist) to the sworn enemy of God and all that is good.
Some bad horror movies haven't helped the situation. Nor did Dante.
The OT doesn't have name for hell, as far as I know, and Satan doesn't seem to have much to do in the OT, except for Job and a few other morality tales, so I'll wait for a rabbi to show up and explain more about that.
Myself, I go for the duality-- if there is a god, there must be a devil or there is stasis and no point to being God. Movement and change is the result of two opposing forces. Maybe more, but at least two.