Hypothesis: Satan Wrote The Bible

This question always seems to stump the theists I speak with so I thought I would toss it up here for the record:

How do the Christians know that Satan did not write the bible? Of course by "Satan" I am thinking of a Satan analog. Some malevolent being that intends to do harm to humanity without just wiping them out in one blow. I have to phrase the question the way I do because it seems to be the only way theists can understand what I am saying. Phrasing it this way usually brings up other problems with theists, but I explains those later in my discussions with them.

Back to my hypothesis. For example, the official explanation for why there are so many dieties that predate Jesus that have so many similar elements (healing the sick, walking on water, born of a virgin, bron on Dec 25, was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, etc.) is that Satan KNEW that Jesus was coming so he created all of these prior false deities in order to deceive humanity.

If what the church says in this area is true, how do they know that the Bible is not just another deception?

I usually have to point out to thiests that "You obviously can't use the text of the Bible to figure this one out, so please don't bother quoting it. We need some external measurements/logic to figure this one out!" That tends to shut down the discussion, however, since they don't have anything external to the Bible to use in their arguments. So I have recently left that part out of my hypothesis and let them start quoting the bible and I note that my hypothesis means that we can't trust the passage they just quoted.

Eventually they hit upon the following idea:

Satan would not be helping himself any if he was behind all that was written about Christ. It makes people hate Satan.

This is where it gets interesting. The evidence seems to support my hypothesis that fostering a false belief in Jesus as a god has been one of the best ways a malicious and powerful being could sow as much havok upon humanity as possible, with very little effort. How many bad things have happend in human history due to belief is Satan's book? The Dark Ages *ALONE* were "600 years of degenerate, inhuman behavior."¹ Point to a better example of a single writing that has inflicted more death, more destruction, a greater sense ill-will to others, a greater sense of unworthiness, guilt, and self-disgust. This evidence seems to support my hypothesis.

That this was done by writing about the apparently wonderfully peaceful and kind and loving Jesus Christ is all the more sinister and diabolical. As they say about Satan, he will not come to you as an evil deamon, but as someone who seems to have the best intentions.

So, I ask you all, "Did Satan Write The Bible?"


¹ The Dark Ages from the History Channel. I am not going into a discussion of all of the attrocities done in the name of the bible. They seem fairly well documented.

UPDATE: After a technical issue and an absence, I have had to re-post all of my old posts. As a result there will be many posts listed as published today, Dec 3, 2009, that were posted sometime earlier in the year, but I do not know the exact date. this post is one of them.