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If God Does Miracles, What Does Satan Do?

Ogdred Weary said:
There's a fair few Christian conservatives in the US but they are still a minority of 5% of humanity. How many seem to have actually read the book? I mean is there info in the review that shows actually familiarity? Some might just be going online to complain about any book not especially aimed at them.
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I've wondered this about people who want to ban books.....
 
I guess it's a kind of group-think.
"This book is the kind of thing we should forbid. We can't read it without risk of pollution or corruption. Let's ask our faith leader - he speaks with God's authority."
"Destroy this work of Satan! I will not corrupt myself by reading it on your behalf - God told me it is EVIL!!
 
Ogdred Weary said:
There's a fair few Christian conservatives in the US but they are still a minority of 5% of humanity. How many seem to have actually read the book? I mean is there info in the review that shows actually familiarity? Some might just be going online to complain about any book not especially aimed at them.
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They must have read the book to know that there is swearing in it, it's not like it's in the blurb.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
There's a fair few Christian conservatives in the US but they are still a minority of 5% of humanity. How many seem to have actually read the book? I mean is there info in the review that shows actually familiarity? Some might just be going online to complain about any book not especially aimed at them.
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The biggest problem with this is that publishers listen to complaints. They are interested in what sells, not the right or wrongs of critical reading. A novel might be well-received by a lot of people, but the complainers are more vocal and so get the attention. And publishers always have to look at 'public appeal'.
This is why if you read a book and enjoy it, review it on Amazon or Goodreads. They're not only for criticism or bad reviews, and it has the same impact.
 
catseye said:
They must have read the book to know that there is swearing in it, it's not like it's in the blurb.
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That can be found with a cursory (cussory?) flip through, if they are e-books, they can even do a word search. Do they talk about anything that shows true knowledge of contents?
 
Ogdred Weary said:
That can be found with a cursory (cussory?) flip through, if they are e-books, they can even do a word search. Do they talk about anything that shows true knowledge of contents?
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This is the review.
Inappropriate sexual relationships and bad language. Loved the moral of accepting one's self. Just wish the sex and cussing weren't there.

So, from the context here, I would say they had read most of it, because that is the general moral of the story, but you'd need to read the majority of the book to 'get it'. And the sex is alluded to about three quarters of the way through, but not graphically, and not before. So maybe they got to that point before they put it down.
 
catseye said:
This is the review.
Inappropriate sexual relationships and bad language. Loved the moral of accepting one's self. Just wish the sex and cussing weren't there.

So, from the context here, I would say they had read most of it, because that is the general moral of the story, but you'd need to read the majority of the book to 'get it'. And the sex is alluded to about three quarters of the way through, but not graphically, and not before. So maybe they got to that point before they put it down.
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These are the best parts of some books. So I am told....
 
Thinking about it, if God does miracles, then maybe Satan is responsible for those accidents which always look as though they ought to be a part of a game of Mousetrap. You know the ones - your elbow hits something which falls over and knocks something else which impacts with something which ought, normal situations applying, to be well out of any danger zone, which then hits the floor or another object, and breaks.

I am convinced that some otherworldly power was behind the way I broke a bottle of champagne in the shop the other day. I was nowhere near it, and yet...
 
Responding to the OP:

It's an interesting question that perplexed the early church.

Mainstream Christianity explicitly rejects dualism, meaning that Satan is not viewed as an anti-God, but as a being of a clearly lower order. Since it is unlikely that an all-powerful and omnibenevolent God would grant Satan miracles, how does the bad guy get anything done at all?

Well, from my readings, it looks like the answer the theologians converged toward was that Satan has been around a long time, and thus knows a great deal about the natural laws of the world. While unable to perform true miracles, he can fake them using this knowledge.

Thus, in short, the mainstream theological view is that Satan operates like a fraudulent medium or malevolent stage magician.
 
Though he's said to be a fallen angel, he started out as a lesser power than God. When God brought about the fall, you'd have thought He'd strip him of his powers. Satan (in Christian mythology) was never regarded as equal in power, but still had power.
 
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