The Devil is on balance a better role model than God

If one is to formulate coherently who is the better role model, God or the Devil, a necessary point would be which one someone should act like in order to be a 'good person'. It is the primary thesis of the Pro position that a good and well rounded person would represent Satan more so than God. Two main points will come up frequently in this debate as justification for such a position. (1) Satan took the form of a presenter of knowledge and an enemy of thought dominion and (2) Satan presents a challenge to presumed and unjustified authority and embodies the virtues of individualism. A small sub-argument in regards to murder will also be used. My inverse argument against God will be formed within my positive arguments in favor of Satan as a role model i.e. God respresents unjustified authority and thought dominion.C1. Knowledge and Freedom From Control.The primary grounding of this point can be found in the explanation of the fall and original sin of humanity as described in the book of Genesis in the OT of the Christian Bible. The story goes that when God presented Adam and Eve with the Garden of Eden, he did so with only one rule governing what they could do. The rule was to never eat from the 'Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil' (note that I won't make an important distinction between whether it means just knowledge in general or specifically moral knowledge as I see both as supporting my point regardless).One day a talking serpent, who is most likely Satan[1], approaches Eve and convinces her to eat the fruit off of the forbidden tree with promises of knowledge[2]. Once Eve and then Adam take bites of the fruit their eyes are opened (Gen. 3: 7). Before this event they did not possess any real knowledge and it was only after the help of Satan that they were able to learn. Satan in this instance can be likened to Prometheus who brings fire to humanity even upon pain of punishment by the Gods (or in this case just one God). Now it could be argued that with this, Satan also brought the terrible conditions described after the fall. Painful childbirth, laborious life, an imperfect world, and the like. But when one reads the relevant passages (Gen. 3: 14-23) one can see that the consequences of their actions were not themselves necessarily caused by merely taking a bit out of the fruit. Satan was actually "cursed" (v. 14), God said "I will put enmity..." (v.15) and "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow..." (v.16), and God positively "sent" (v. 23) them out of the Garden. These were not merely the physical consequences of eating the fruit. They were punishments imposed on the two (and Satan) for breaking the rules.The main point here is that when we compare the actions of God and Satan in this all-important scenario, it was Satan that brought knowledge to Adam and Eve and thus to all of humanity as well. On the contrary it was God who punished this "crime" by increasing the pain exponentially of not only the two offenders, but every other person ever to be born. A common counterargument to this would probably be from the position that God was justified in punishing them for breaking the rules. Besides not refuting the actual positions that the two characters represent, this point fails even in its own right. My next point will deal with this in more detail.C2. Individualism and Unjustified Authority.Was God a justified authority over Adam and Eve? Conventional wisdom might answer yes. After all it was God that originally created the two in the first place right? That position would be wrong actually. The only way to actually justify God's authority is through recourse to it's power over humanity. But power and authority are two distinct concepts. I have power over a person when I put a gun to his head but that doesn't mean that my commands on them are legitimately authoritative in the least.Authority is something that does not exist inherently. It can only be created under a voluntaryist framework of interaction. For instance, if I contract with someone for a service, they have authority to demand payment if I voluntarily receive that service. The opposite side of the coin would be some sort of non-voluntary framework. But such a framework would rely on force (remember that interaction may be composed of two types: violent or voluntary. If interaction is not voluntary it is violent and vice versa). And as the previous distinction between force and authority shows, non-voluntary modes of interaction are not sufficient to prove authority.The way in which this plays into the resolution specifically is this: God represents an unjustified authority and a threat to individualism. Humanity had no choice in its conception and the mass of Christian doctrines on God's authority do not take choice into account. The Devil represents the antithesis of this unjustified doctrine. Satan did not force Adam or Eve to eat the fruit. He told them why it would be good for them but didn't pretend as though he had legitimate authority over anyone who hasn't contractually created such. God however merely assumed the slave-like submission of humanity to his will as an unsubstantiated presupposition. So on the one side we have God representing submission and on the other Satan, representing freedom.Sub-contention. Comparative murder.-One of the most widespread ethical precepts is the idea that killing another human being is wrong unless there are special mitigating circumstances involved. An obvious ethical goal for humanity then would be to minimize killing as much as possible. Described in the Christian Bible, Satan represents this virtue almost perfectly whereas God barely even acknowledges it in action even as he commands his followers to abstain. The total number of killings made by God in the Bible add up to an astounding 2,038, 344 people[3]. Compared to this, Satan's grand death toll of ten seems rather docile. But even those ten (Job's family) were only killed because of a bet with God of (meaning God was complicit in the actions). If we are to follow this rule set down by God himself[4], actually abstaining himself from the action in question would serve as a good example for us to follow. Instead, God routinely ignores his own rules while Satan abided (except for one instance in a bet with God). As far as role models go in regards to rules against murder, someone who kills millions is clearly inferior to one who killed ten.===Sources===[1] http://bible.cc...; (In verse 13 when God is addressing Satan he reference Satan's time in "Eden")[2] http://www.biblegateway.com... (Genesis 3:5: "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.")[3] http://www.wired.com...[4] http://www.biblegateway.com...;