Where would religions be without its' antagonists such as 'Harry Potter'?

[justsaygnosis]

Since the devil is so central and indispensible to the validity of most savific religions it is logical to assume that these same religions are devil dependent.
No one would scream louder than the religionists if a rational argument was put forwarding dismissing all demonology.
Providing the creator is alpha,omega, omnipotent,omniscient and omnipresent the opposite of those characteristics would have to be non-existent. A supreme being should be virtually unopposed by nature.
Of course attempting to dismiss the devil,demon,daemon etc. is easily construed as a ruse whose purpose is to lead the otherwise vigilant into letting down their guard.
No one props the devil up more than organized religion.

[AmateurScientist]

Originally posted by justsaygnosis

No one props the devil up more than organized religion.

A good point. Indeed, no one needs the devil more than religion does. God needs a foil as much as any fictional protagonist.

As a non-believer, I find the whole concept of the devil nonsensical and irrelevant. Evil is nothing but an imagined class of ideas sprung from the heads of fearful men.

Nature cares nothing for normative decisions.

AS

[Upchurch]

Nothing brings people together like a good unambiguous enemy. Remember after 9/11? The "terrorists" (not knowing exactly who they were at the time) were almost universally despised and there was more unity within the US then there had been probably since WWII. It was only after we began to know who they were that hard to answer questions were asked about why they did it and such.

If a leader can create and sustain hatred of an unambiguous enemy, he will maintain the unity of his group. Look at what a good job Regan and prior American presidents did with the USSR. We were scared and we were unified.

Likewise with religious use of "the devil" (be it Satan, America, or what have you). If your followers have nothing to fear, all you have is to preach love, hugs, and teddy bears. Once your followers are happy and content, what need do they have of a leader? What makes them stay? Nothing.

However, if you can make them afraid of something that can't control by themselves, they then need you to help protect them from the "devil". Fear is what keeps the coming back.

[Temporal Renegade]

Religion, no matter which one it is, will always find enemies to fight... whether it's Harry Potter, or Jews, or Catholics, or 'heretics', if they can't find someone, they'll make one up.

[Samus]

Well, the devil (or, as I like to call him, the pointy-tailed red gentleman), has another purpose in Christianity. In addition to being used as a scare tactic to stay in the church, it has been used to conform people's behavior to what is perceived as the moral right. Don't want your followers to do something? Just tell them they'll go to hell if they do.

Tying in with recent discussion topics, homosexuality is a perfectly good example. Saying it is not "right" to be homosexual is an arbitrary moral tenet imposed by a social system (i.e. religion). Someone decided it was bad, and so Pat Robertson tells you you'll go to hell if you're gay/lesbian.

More on topic, other "enemies of the faith" such as Harry Potter are picked up as proof that the granddaddy of all enemies, the devil, is winning hearts and minds. It's an extension of the same thing: behavior control.

Unfortunately, Harry Potter is so harmless it makes all the zealots look like, well, zealots. That doesn't stop the other zealots from joining in the proclamations of evil. After all, why should Pat Robertson have all the fun?

[Globert]

dwb,

well said!