Satan As Personified Deity

See 1 Peter 5:8--9.

There's a lot of this sort of thing in the Bible: references to Satan as a "he". I don't buy it. (Yet.)

I'm not talking about the gender issue, I'm talking about the anthropomorphization issue (or personification, if you prefer).

Gen 8:20--22: "the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth". Not Satan. There is no "devil made me do it" excuse, it's all you.

This is important to me. Not because I'm all hellfire and brimstone, but because the death of Jesus is for our sins, not the sins of Satan. Our daily struggle is with ourselves, not some external evil. I just don't believe in an external evil being with "his" own free will and intention, a negative mirror of God. Sorry.

So, what's with all these passages in the bible? "Get thee behind me, Satan" and all that? Funny you should ask. That particular passage is referring to Peter. Is Peter Satan? No, of course not, it's allegory.

Here's another fun one: Luke 4:1-13. (I really love that part about "until an opportune time". Cue faint Darth Vader music in the background.) I'm gonna say that's all allegory. Or something along those lines.

I believe bad things in the world come from three different sources, basically:

• Chaos. God created "the world" (our measurable universe) from chaos. I think he left a little bit around. Psalm 104:19-30. Job 41:1-10. "Leviathan" is an ancient Babylonian myth component, and it represents elemental chaos, according to the books I have (Oxford annotated bible, Oxford Commentary.)
  
  
• The laws of the universe he created. Cosmic radiation shoots through us all. Some of us get cancer. Some of us get cancer very young and die in pain while our parents grieve. It is a sad, sad thing. I don't rule out the possibility of spectacular miracles, but I think God is withholding spectacular miracles in the 21st century. Sorry, no cures from cancer that are undeniably miraculous. Suppose every child under the age of 12 diagnosed w/cancer didn't actually die? Maybe 12 is still too young. How about everybody under the age of, say, 40? Is that too old? What's enough to have lived a full, good life? 25? Pick a number. Suppose nobody under that age diagnosed w/cancer actually died. Suppose no one suffered. That would be a miracle, yes? That would prove God's existence, yes? I'm thinking... maybe God wants us to believe without proof. So... no miracles. Occasional tragedy. It totally sucks, I know, and it makes us question the benevolence of God. I got no easy answer there. (Somebody else tried.)
  
  
• The evil that lurks in our own hearts. God gave us the gift of free will. We sometimes use our free will to do horrible things to our neighbors. That's not Satan, that's us. The Holocaust was our fault. Catholics and Protestants drowning each other in 17th-century France was our fault. The Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades were our fault. What's happening in North Korea is human action, not some malevolent, intentional deity.

We can say the forces of entropy and chaos are always "trying" to get into our lives, just like rainwater is "trying" to get into our houses, and our cars are "trying" to breakdown. But we don't think rain is a person, nor are there little imps with hammers inside our cars, taking our water pumps apart. (Unless you're watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)

We can say our animal instincts are "trying" to trick us, but those instincts are not themselves conscious, intentional beings.

Is Luck a lady? Is it really not nice to fool Mother Nature? Does the Sandman put you to sleep? Is Satan tempting you?