In the Batman comics, the Joker is evil. He enjoys making people suffer. It is often the suffering as much as the material rewards that gives him pleasure. In real life, We all knew kids like that in school. But as we look at the suffering around the world in this century, very little of it seems to be done for pure joy of seeing people suffer.

In Matthew 13, Jesus explains the parable  of weeds among the wheat  to the disciples.

sower - Jesus

field - world

good seed- children of the Kingdom

weeds - children of the evil one

enemy - devil

harvest - rapture

reapers - angels

furnace of fire -all causes of sin and all evil-doers.

Is this the take on this parable by the writer?

Did Jesus really say this?

The Devil? What do you think? If we believe in God, then, would it be safe to say that we should believe in the devil too?

Where is he or should we be more politically correct and say where is she? ( as an aside where is she-devil?)

have you seen the devil?

Have you talked to the devil.

Nothing better to do this Sunday afternoon except contemplate.

The devil is alive and doing very well! The thing that we call the devil is a conceptual thing that has its existence in what we think and what we perceive as being evil. The devil is not a human or an animal or has it any concrete form. The devil is the embodiment of evil thought. Unlike God which is the creator of all things and everything, the devil is the embodiment of all things we humans identify with as, murder, robbery, molestation, rape, incest, and the other well known sins.

The devil is alive and doing very well! The thing that we call the devil is a conceptual thing that has its existence in what we think and what we perceive as being evil. The devil is not a human or an animal or has it any concrete form. The devil is the embodiment of evil thought. Unlike God which is the creator of all things and everything, the devil is the embodiment of all things we humans identify with as, murder, robbery, molestation, rape, incest, and the other well known sins.

About seven years ago, I was challenged with the idea of where Satan came from and told that the ancient Hebrews didn’t believe in Satan. Well, that just didn’t fly with me because I knew that the Torah (the five books of Moses) was the foundation for the Psalms and the Prophets (the rest of the Old Testament writings) and the Old Testament was the foundation for the New Testament writing such as the gospels and the apostolic writings. And I knew, or at least I thought I knew, the Old Testament clearly taught about Satan.

Couldn't the Devil in the Jewish-Christian tradition be nothing more (or less) than the human ego, and sin nothing more (or less) than the fruit of a life centered on that ego?  

Is this just a "liberal" view or are their "conservatives" who view the Devil and sin this way as well?

For those who are always talking about the devil as real, is the Devil, in your mind, male or female. Why? What does the Lucifer  mythology mean to us?

Okay. In the last week I have seen some posters talk about the devil like " the devil tried to persuade me" or "the end of this world when the devil will try to take over". or "I fight the devil" The posters talk as if they see the devil or talk to the devil and the devil is in some kind of human form.