How would you know?

Once I was in a debate with an individual that claimed that even though we (atheists) don't believe in the devil, just as we don't believe in any gods, that Satan believes in us. He said that know it or not, we were doing the Devil's bidding. That he was unknowingly using us toward his own ends. Okay, nice story... Have anything to back that up? This is nothing but an empty claim and nothing more. But this claim also poses the question of if they are the ones unwittingly being used.

For example, what if The mythology of Egypt is true? What if Set created the false religion of
Christianity to draw believers away from Horus? The Christians would still be sincere in their belief, but they would be the pawns of Set none-the-less. If they claim that I am being used by the Devil without even knowing it, it stands to reason that they could be being used by Set and be equally oblivious.

And what about the Devil? Believers paint him as this horrible being of pure evil. But where do we get that description?  His arch rival no less! Is that really a reliable source? If you were shopping for a new car and the salesman told you that he has all the best deals, and that the dealer across the street is just looking to rip you off, would it make sense to trust him at his say-so? Of course not! He has a motive to make the sale and discourage you from giving that sale to the competition. With God and Satan, it's the same thing. God paints the Devil as a horrible person in his (supposed) book, but you must remember that they are in competition for your eternal 'soul'. So God has every incentive to discredit Satan to gain followers.

What about a Boston Red Sox fan talking with a New York Yankees fan? Obviously you're going to get conflicting opinions about which team is better. But with the God/Devil equation, we only get one side of the story... God demonizing Satan, with no reply. This is most likely because neither is real. But there is another way to look at it. What if Satan is choosing not to dignify such trash talk with a reply. What if the Devil is really the good guy? After all, God is responsible for far more deaths in the Bible than the Devil is.

Or perhaps Hogwarts is real. What if Harry Potter really is out there doing wonderful things. Perhaps the stories are more than fiction... What if Lord Voldemort is so powerful that he has cast a spell to make us all believe that the books are all fictitious stories dreamed up by J.K. Rowling? What if the stories are mostly true, but we are being made to believe they are not so as to lure us into a false sense of security. In this way, Lord Voldemort could be working away in the shadows, biding his time to take over the world and have his final revenge on Harry Potter. Is that claim really any more absurd than the one that I am being unwittingly used by Satan?

As I hope you can see, the claim that theist made was a silly one that can open you up to all manner of other silly possibilities... Silly, but equally as valid and likely as the claim that atheists are being unknowingly used by the Devil. Christopher Hitchens once said, "What is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence." In the same vain, I think these examples show that ridiculous or silly claims will spawn ridiculous or silly answers.

-Brain Hulk

Please share, subscribe, comment and follow us on your favorite social networking sites!
facebook | google+ | twitter