My friend is here. Do you see him?
Yes your friend has red hair
I know. That’s bad.
Bad, why?
because the devil has red hair.
Is your friend bad?
I don’t think so, but I heard someone call him an imp because of his red hair.
There is no devil.
Wasn’t the Devil one of God’s angels who fell from grace, whatever it is?
No!
So why are people bad if the devil doesn’t make them like this?
God, the Creator, the Great Spirit, Elohim, El-Scheddai, Yahweh, Jehovah, Adonai or whatever name you want to use, gave man free will.
Free will? What’s that?
Man can make his own decisions, take his own actions. He and only he chooses to do bad things, not God.
And not the devil?
Didn’t I just tell you that there is no such person or thing? The devil is a character invented by the religions of the world.
Now why would religions do that?
Simple.
Simple?
Yes, simple. Those who created the religions wanted to control their members. Creating a devil to punish “wayward” church members helped keep them in obedience to church rules. You understand?
Kind of. But why would they have to be in control if people voluntarily joined a religion? And why so many religions to begin with?
Good question. First let me talk about control and then we will look at the reasons why we have 50,000 different Christian churches in the United States. By controlling membership through the threat of condemnation and expulsion, religions are demanding funding. The money enables the construction of massive buildings, luxurious homes, and cars for leadership. Some leaders of these “churches” go so far as to demand their own private planes.
Just because a person is a minister, priest, rabbi, imam or swami does not mean that he has to live in poverty.
Of course not, but it does not mean that they should live better than their members. Going back to your second question of why are there so many different Christian churches in the United States. Basically, I think they exist because people get upset with their current church and start a new one, one where they can interpret Christian scriptures in any way they want. Just as there are so many Bibles, it is difficult to clarify what is believed. By the way, congratulations on naming the various leaders of religious organizations. However, you left out another major world religion.
Which?
A leader in the Buddhist religion is called bhikkhu for the man and bhikkhuni for the woman.
It’s good, awesome. Suppose I agree with this issue of control, without the devil, and with the thousands of churches due to individual or group interpretation of the doctrine, what’s next?
Your decision.
And isn’t that free will?
You did.