Blaming Satan

Question:

I happened to watch your debate on if Satan exists. I found it very interesting. Although I am a devoted Christian. I wanted to understand your stance of this. I think that u were trying to let people realize that when we are conditioned to believe in negativity as far as Satan, that it gives people the excuse to blame for the negativity instead of looking at ourselves and believing instead of taking responsibility for our own spirituality instead of trying to just believing that we can find spirituality in just one's belief. If this is not correct I would really like to know your true meaning of this. I thought your debate was so interesting and I would really like to understand.

Answer:

When we objectify evil, we are implying that it is outside of us, an external force we must confront. This viewpoint prohibits us from seeing and healing the darkness, fear and ignorance within us that is actually feeding the behavior we judge as evil outside us. That is why I said personifying evil as Satan is a way of avoiding personal responsibility for looking at our own shadow side. Furthermore, it is disempowering and demeaning to suggest that the divine essence within our soul is weak and helpless in the face of our projected shadow – Satan.

When everyone is looking to fight and resist the devil in the name of God, what you end up with is different religions fighting with other religions, each certain that the other is evil and they aren’t. This only leads to further misunderstanding, fear and conflict. If instead, we could accept the notion that we all have a shadow side in that needs healing, forgiveness and love, then we would have the basis to truly love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Love,Deepak