Replies

When God is disinvited from a society, culture, what have you, it naturally follows that the evil one himself also becomes a non-entity; or so it would seem. IOW, if God doesn't exist, then the obvious conclusion any rational being would draw is since absolute holiness is nonexistent then absolute evil must also be nonexistent. You'll forgive me, but I am unable to put into words what I actually think about it. I expect you can probably get my meaning however.

I think I do, ForGod'sSake. But I'm not sure I agree that when God is "disinvited" from a society that this somehow renders the evil one a non-entity. Rather I suspect that when God is "obviated," this simply leaves an unimaginably immense vacuum into which the evil one and his minions can rush and fill. They "take the place" of what is properly God's, for the purpose of destroying souls. Without God's protection, they are remarkably easy to "pick off." It's sort of like "open hunting season" on humans....

It has long seemed to me that, when somebody takes a shot at God, it's always man that ends up taking the bullet. God Himself is unharmed; but humans are harmed, most grievously.

Of course, I'm using symbolic language to try to speak of ineffable things. I'm not sure whether what I've written makes any sense to others; e.g., those who are non-Christians. I'm pretty sure atheists would find my statements totally risible.

Thank you so much for writing, ForGod'sSake!

But I'm not sure I agree that when God is "disinvited" from a society that this somehow renders the evil one a non-entity.

You're exactly right of course and as I suspected, my inability to put my thoughts into words might create a misperception. MY fault. In fact it may be that I'm only pointing to something so obvious that it doesn't or won't come as any sort of revelation to others. With that said, I'd like to take another crack at it since it is such a glaring reality to me.

If satan and his minions are successful in their goal to boot God from the cultural consciousness, a commensurate goal and intended consequence is to also boot satan from the cultural consiousness. The seed, planted, nurtured and cultivated in the culture by he and his minions is, no God, no satan. No good, no evil. No absolutes. Satan, having been removed from the cultural consciousness leaves Man no longer able or willing to identify evil when it rears it ugly head. Man is left to his own devices and we know where that leads EVERY time: Men ruling over other men. Your following statement pretty well sums it up:

Rather I suspect that when God is "obviated," this simply leaves an unimaginably immense vacuum into which the evil one and his minions can rush and fill. They "take the place" of what is properly God's, for the purpose of destroying souls. Without God's protection, they are remarkably easy to "pick off." It's sort of like "open hunting season" on humans....

Well said, AND, FWIW, I'm still not happy with my feeble explanation but getting my feelings into words has always been a "challenge", but I try. Typical man stuff???