Hmmm...I always thought the mythical devil had horns too, just like God is depicted as an old bearded white man. When no one has ever seen either, I can only believe that these two descriptions are made up.

I read somewhere that the horns were originally thought to adorn the demons of the dreaded pagan times, when no one had a bible to tell them what to believe.
It seems now that these poor 'demons' were actually poor unfortunate mere humans, who simply had mental health disorders.
There are pictures of 'satan' with horns in a 14th century Arabic text (Wikipedia) so maybe the Christians borrowed the horned look from the Muslims?

Amazingly, mankind originally managed to successfully populate this world without bibles or other fictitious books to tell them who or what to worship or how to behave.
Funny that....maybe we can do it again?

Hi Suse,

The powers that be create 'God' in their own image, Suse :) - and not just how he is supposed to look but how he is supposed to act as well, i.e. like a tyrant or bully: check out the last couple of pages of the Book of Job where 'God' really throws his weight around - what he says and does there will remind you of your worst bosses.

The Greek god Pan of course was horned, and if not a symbol of evil, at least a symbol of illicit hanky-panky, random rogering and good rollicking fun generally. Probably Norman Lindsay drew himself as Pan, and vice versa.

Thankfully, the west has been going through the long and painful process of an Enlightenment, which includes a realisation that - as you say - we don't need gods. But we have to be careful not to substitute some other x factor for a god, and then sit back and stop thinking. Nothing will ever save us from the need to think about what we are doing and where we are going and how.

Cheers,

Joe

Runner, you still wrongly equate secularism with antheism. Secularists are not necessarily atheists. Some are priests and bishops. They are simply people who believe that the state and the churches should be separate, that the state should not interfere in the way religions govern themselves and that the religions should not interfere in the way the state governs itself.

And you blunder on blindly believing that secularism gives rise to rape, teenage pregnancy, murder and every other evil you can think of when the opposite is the case. As has been repeatedly demonstrated, the countries with the lowest rates of these social ills are the strongly secularist ones such as the Scandinavians and Japan while the countries with the worst rates are the strongly religious ones like the USA. Furthermore, within the US, the states with the highest rates of these social ills are the religious ones.

These are simple, easily verifiable facts. Why do you continue to blind yourself to the obvious?

It could be questioned whether the altar-boy Hitler and seminarian Stalin became secular or religious. Is violent anti-religion a form of religion?
Facts on Sweden : highest rape rate .This reporting method was adjusted:

"An EU-wide survey on sexual violence against women, published the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in 2014, showed Sweden was only third highest, below Denmark and Finland[241] and a previous assessment by Brå have placed Sweden at an average level among European nations."

nicknamenick: "An EU-wide survey on sexual violence against women, published the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in 2014, showed Sweden was only third highest, below Denmark and Finland[241] and a previous assessment by Brå have placed Sweden at an average level among European nations."

& now these figures are expected to go up at a great rate, due to the sudden migration of moslems into Europe.

I read recently that there has an increase of rapes on Europeans women in Europe over the last 10 years. They have been committed by moslem men. Taking their lust out on "uncovered meat" I imagine.

Hey Jayb, since when have I ever sued anyone or defended a terrorist? And what would it have to do with the current topic even if I had? You’re a typical brainless bully from the military. They like ‘em dumb there.

nicknamenick,

So now you’re going to use the Slippery Slope fallacy? There are many secular organisations doing a lot to fight Christian lobby groups like the ACL, and I don’t see any risk of a new ‘final solution’.

How about I just mention Dawkins’ more palatable “consciousness raising”? Either way, my point is still valid.