SATAN! SATAN! SATAN!

[_Redefined]

Sorry, I had to title it that way, I figured it might be provoking enough to get some viewers! :)

http://www.mormonapologetics.org/topic/48222-has-anybody-seen-satan/

So Consiglieri, I saw your post "Has anybody seen Satan?" at the "sister board" and wished you had posted it here for participation too! So I hope you don't mind my response here.

I LOVE anything "dreams", and "messages" and the interpretation of them. Your experience was very interesting.

First of all, I don't believe in "Satan" or "demons" as far as entities go, but I do believe that emotions are powerful and that negative and positive energy both exist, and people can feel both. Also, the capabilities of the brain is forever amazing, and shouldn't be underestimated.

It sounded to me like you may have slipped off to sleep without realizing it. I have found that it is common when napping to be in a more lucid state of dreaming where a dream feels like actual reality. Your emotions that you bring into that state could provoke negative/postive images, or at least the perception that they are negative. It is also intriguing to me that the 4-year date was accurate. I have had these types of "accurate" dreams myself, and they never fail to leave me contemplative. I feel that it can be chalked up to subconscious memory. I think everything can point back to the ability of the brain, and therefore any sort of assignment of supernatural should be held at a healthy distance.

However, I do feel that interpretation is for no one but the dreamer to decide. Thanks for sharing your experience.

P.S. I would never have gone to "check-up" on the field only armed with a flashlight after a experience like that. . . even if only a dream. I'd at least waited til morning and company! You be crazy!. . . or at least I be a scaredy-cat! ;)

[_zeezrom]

Why is the question asked, "Has anyone seen satan?"

All you need is a feeling from the HG to know what is true. If you prayed to know whether there was a Satan, would the HG provide you with a sweet peaceful feeling? I'm not sure I want to start praying about Satan because I'm afraid of what my prayer would conjure up to my bedside! Would Satan give me a stupor of thought about it or would he give me a false witness? Oh wait... this is getting really confusing.

[_Redefined]

I guess it doesn't have the same effect as "Beetlejuice".

Maybe it is just me, and a word like "Satan" or "Demon" just leaps out of the screen at ya, but I went through the topics titles over at MADB and counted at least 9 topics about Satan in just the past two weeks. I never noticed a volume like this about the topic while I was posting there. What is with the topic all of a sudden? And that is just going by the titles, there may be more that are masked with an inconspicuous title (I was debating counting the one entitled "Glenn Beck", I didn't click the link for it, but heaven only knows what I may have found!)

Seems unbecoming of a "Mormon" forum. . . in theory.

We at this "evil" forum have an image to perserve here people! QUICK! Somebody start another topic with "Satan" in the title so we can boost the count!

[_Yoda]

I guess it doesn't have the same effect as "Beetlejuice".

Maybe it is just me, and a word like "Satan" or "Demon" just leaps out of the screen at ya, but I went through the topics titles over at MADB and counted at least 9 topics about Satan in just the past two weeks. I never noticed a volume like this about the topic while I was posting there. What is with the topic all of a sudden? And that is just going by the titles, there may be more that are masked with an inconspicuous title (I was debating counting the one entitled "Glenn Beck", I didn't click the link for it, but heaven only knows what I may have found!)

Seems unbecoming of a "Mormon" forum. . . in theory.

We at this "evil" forum have an image to perserve here people! QUICK! Somebody start another topic with "Satan" in the title so we can boost the count!

I think that Scratch equates DCP with Satan. If you count all of the threads Scratch has started with DCP in the title, then we give MAD a run for their money. LOL

[_thews]

[_Redefined]

Why is the question asked, "Has anyone seen satan?"

All you need is a feeling from the HG to know what is true. If you prayed to know whether there was a Satan, would the HG provide you with a sweet peaceful feeling? I'm not sure I want to start praying about Satan because I'm afraid of what my prayer would conjure up to my bedside! Would Satan give me a stupor of thought about it or would he give me a false witness? Oh wait... this is getting really confusing.

I think fear is the absolute worst mistress. Sure, it is a biological function that saves lives, blah, blah, blah, but it can also extremely debilitate lives as well. Irrational fear is the trickiest of all too because only the person crippled with it can help themself out of it. Ya, can tell a person 'til your blue in the face that the boogeyman doesn't exist, but it doesn't matter unless he or she allows the belief to replace the irrational notion. And even after all is said and done, "doubt" creeps in every so often to help its good friend "irrational fear", just to keep ya on yer toes!

I think the first step is getting to know yourself. Realize when fear arises, and then use your brain in that moment to analyze the whys, hows, whos of what the true source of the emotion really is.

[_Redefined]

LOL! . . . or maybe more appropriately, "muaaaahahahaha"!
Don't worry folks, I will save this ship! One-man. . . err woman crusader here! Just remember to give me due props when the all-great and ever supreme ruler of evil asks who it was that pulled his forum back in from the point of near-heaveness!

What abuse! What is the point of instilling irrational fear in Satan? I will never do it! If the Christian view of Satan turns out to be true and my kids somehow end up in Hell, and ask me "why didn't you ever tell me about Satan?" I would say, "What use would it have been to you then, rather then to live with fear?" Because lets face it, if it takes instilling our kids with the irrational fear of Satan to keep them "in-line" (translate: honest, good people that would never end up in Hell anyway, so have nothing to worry about), then it doesn't say much of us as parents or human beings.

A while back, I copied down a quote from this forum's very own Dr. Scratch that states it perfectly. . .

To retard a young person's ability to think critically is one of the worst evils a parent can inflict, in my opinion.-Doctor Scratch

This quote summarizes the message perfectly!

[_zeezrom]

my wife just purchased a DVD with Old Testament stories and commentary from Deseret Book Distribution. We watched the story of Moses being visited by Jehovah and Satan for FHE. It begins with Moses having a vision of the whole world and everything that ever transpired. He was all white and shiny and had a white staff like Gandalf's in Lord of the Rings. Then the vision ended and Satan appeared and this really creepy music came on and the earth quaked and clouds rolled in etc. It was like watching a horror flick without the blood. My poor children were all completely captivated. I'm thinking of having a frank talk with them tonight because this film likely did more harm than good.

[_Nimrod]

my wife just purchased a DVD with Old Testament stories and commentary from Deseret Book Distribution. We watched the story of Moses being visited by Jehovah and Satan for FHE. It begins with Moses having a vision of the whole world and everything that ever transpired. He was all white and shiny and had a white staff like Gandalf's in Lord of the Rings. Then the vision ended and Satan appeared and this really creepy music came on and the earth quaked and clouds rolled in etc. It was like watching a horror flick without the blood. My poor children were all completely captivated. I'm thinking of having a frank talk with them tonight because this film likely did more harm than good.

I'd say it certainly did more harm than good.

[_Dr. Shades]

QUICK! Somebody start another topic with "Satan" in the title so we can boost the count!

No, don't.

I think that Scratch equates DCP with Satan.

Oh, c'mon. Why on earth would you go around saying something like that?