Article about unwanted political support from “Satanists”, got me thinking about how ridiculous some people’s fears are.
One of the more laughable boogeymen of all time: the threat of Satan and satanic influence. Otherwise respectable people with perfectly respectable moral values and beliefs, will often subscribe to the notion that the omnipotent and omniscient and benevolent singular God will have an archenemy.
As I’ve mentioned before, it makes for a more dramatic narrative, which helps present religious views as a pivotal good versus evil battle for our souls, in which case, any sane person would choose to side with good. It’s one of those things that helps make Christianity and other religions involving a good supernatural deity (and an enemy figure for that deity) so popular.
But if one is writing a story involving a superheroic force for good, that cannot be corrupted, killed, or in any way defeated, and has limitless powers, meaning God, creating a villain to go up against such a force is difficult indeed.
No one seems to believe that such a creature, Lucifer or its many variants, would have come from anywhere except by God’s own hand of creation. The God who created and can destroy this foe at any time, obviously capable of being Satan’s mortal enemy. But Satan doesn’t quite stack up.
What threat does Satan pose to God, or humanity in general?
Satan, being capable of being obliterated at a moment’s notice by a simple wink by God, cannot actually ever defeat God, and is perpetually at his mercy. So it’s hardly a riveting contest just in terms of actual warfare.
God supposedly doesn’t interfere with free will, it’s why there’s the concept of good and evil for some, to begin with. We can freely choose to do evil. Why would Satan have any greater power in that regard? If God is not going to interfere with free will, he wouldn’t therefore allow Satan to do so. Any time that happens, you can’t really judge a person as being good or evil, because they’re not in control. So why wouldn’t Satan just possess everyone and have everyone rape and murder each other, if he’s so evil and had such powers? Answer: obviously he can’t. Obviously he doesn’t even exist, but this is beside the point.
So, Satan can’t kill God or even survive without his consent. Satan can’t really possess anyone, certainly not without God allowing it. So what’s up with all these stories about the devil possessing people?
The answer should be obvious to everyone, which is that the “devil” and demons and all this nonsense is nothing more than a fake enemy, to cause people to share the same fears. A lot of people who all fear something are easier to manipulate and control. Especially since they’re afraid of something they’ve never seen, never felt, never experienced in any way, shape, or form, except in their own imaginations. These people are more vulnerable to being influenced by definition- they’ve already bought into a wholly fictional story and are being actively threatened by these imaginings.
The era of witch trials and burning of heretics may be over, but the medieval thinking behind such activities still persists in our society. For there are some individuals who are either eccentric or simply persuaded that God can’t be benevolent given the state of the world, that they’ve decided to identify as Satanists.
Only slightly more ridiculous than worshiping the “good” God is worshiping the far less powerful, far less good one. Both equally imaginary, at least one of them has some kind of point behind the fiction- be nice to people.
Many of the supposed self-identified Satanists I’ve ever met, rare they might be, seem to worship a non-Christian version of this supernatural being. In other words, not the anti-God, anti-Christ, etc, version of Satan. Just a different god, Lucifer, with a different set or moral beliefs. Not that far a cry from those who worship nature or other gods that have gone out of favor.
The reality of Satanism doesn’t match the Hollywood version where people run around putting curses on others, conjuring demons, possessing people, and other such nonsense. If you really believed in a good God and also in free will, it should seem ridiculous to you as well.
But the deeply ingrained loathing of the figure hated throughout most religions that mention Satan persists, because of the simple minded notion that if there is a God, there must be an anti-God. If there’s Good, there must be some great Evil lurking in the darkness. If there’s a heaven for good people, there must be a hell for bad people.
Because that’s what puts butts in the pews, the idea of reward for good, and punishment for bad. If you just have the one or the other, it’s not as sexy. People won’t come to your church and pay to hear you talk of hellfire and brimstone if there’s no escaping from it. Then they’d drink beer and enjoy life since death is going to be horrible no matter what. And if there’s just a heaven, but no hell, that means there’s (gasp) nothing stopping people from committing acts of evil! No divine cosmic justice! Almost as if the universe was entirely ungoverned!
Shocking.
If there weren’t any actual Satanists out there, people would invent Satanists to be afraid of. If not Satan, it’s Islam. If not Islam, then Communism. If not Communism, then anarchists. Spies. Redcoats. Liberals, perhaps. There’s gotta be someone out there who is out to get us, and we must all be afraid of them together. How about atheists? I can’t recall the last time I saw a survey regarding how atheists are regarded, but I bet they’re down where the Satanists are or lower. Just not subscribing to any religion is the same as actively worshiping an evil antiChrist to some, I suppose.
But luckily enough, there are actual Satanists. Not many, but they are out there. Using the name “Satanist” and everything. That makes the threat of Satan more real somehow. I’m not afraid that Shiva the Destroyer is going to come and obliterate me. Why? Because I don’t believe in Shiva. Even though there are folks out there who do. They’re called Hindus.
I’m equally unafraid that a horned goat-man from beneath the crust of the Earth will one day rise and enslave the human race and make us all urinate on little crucifixes. Even though there are people out there who worship something called Satan. That doesn’t mean Satan is real, or that he’s powerful and always on the brink of taking over the world. Or that he can possess people to do evil things.
Just because there are Satanists out there, that does not mean these are evil people. Nor are they particularly more misguided or wrong-headed than some of the other absurd beliefs out there.
Televangelists are constantly telling millions of devoted Christians that atheists and muslims and homosexuals are coming to steal your children in the dark of the night, and the very act of unmarried sex causes earthquakes and tsunamis.
While I don’t deny my lovemaking prowess causes the earth to move, and thanks very much for the compliment, there are plenty of mainstream religious dipshits out there who have a much larger audience of devoted followers, with political power, money, and resources to actually inflict real misery on others. By denying people basic rights, by publicly and systematically discriminating against and slandering people whose only crime is not believing the same as others.
Those are the folks I’m more worried about. Plenty of evil has been committed in the name of God.
Crimes by actual Satanists, I don’t hear much about. Sure, every now and then there’s an oddball kook who kills someone in the name of Satan. But most of the time your murderer or serial rapist or cannibal freak is not a Satanist. Otherwise our jails would be full of Satanists.
Our jails are mostly full of Christians of some stripe. Muslims here and there, getting more popular these days. Hardly your atheist or Satanic demographic.
I draw the comparison about how laughable Satan is as an enemy of God, and how silly it is to be afraid of such a powerless puppet of a much more supposedly powerful and dubiously moral, enigmatic God. But I also compare that to the folks who are still afraid of Satanists, atheists, gay people. Whoever doesn’t fit in to that Christian matrix of “For the Christian God = Good, Everyone else = Evil”.
You don’t have to even believe in the Christ to be against the Christ. You see, if it’s not for Jesus, it must be against Jesus. It’s that self-centered Christian viewpoint that the universe exists as a spiritual battlefield, and only the folks who have converted to Christ or something very Christ-like can prevail, and further, those are the only good guys. Everyone else is bad, including the neutrals who don’t take sides, because simply by denying the Christ, you’re inviting in the devil.
It’s a bit similar to how Scientology explains the universe. Anyone who isn’t a Scientologist is broken and needs Scientology in order to be cured. If you are opposed to Scientology or speak out negatively, you’re a Suppressive Person. You are the enemy simply because you’re not part of the Scientology-centric world. Scientology Good, everything else Evil.
In order for these religions to flourish, there must be an enemy to fight against. A rivalry. A scapegoat to blame all the world’s ills on.
Lots of folks have been the scapegoats throughout the centuries- pagans. Heathens. Any number of religions which were not mainstread. “Uncivilized” native populations that it was our sacred duty to convert and civilize to be just like us. Atheists. Racial minorities. Homosexuals.
As long as there is an enemy out there, we are motivated to fight it. We don’t necessarily need to understand that enemy. We don’t even need to know for sure that the enemy is even there. We can simply whisper to each other about the enemy, and imagine how terrifying the enemy is. And vow that we will always stand together and oppose it, no matter what form it takes.
And because of that flaw in almost every mind, the ability to invent imaginary enemies and do whatever we can to oppose them, throughout all history, people who would otherwise have no reason to argue or hate one another have been given reason enough: they don’t have the same God. They don’t have the same values. They don’t have the same culture. The same traditions. They’re different.
Differences must not be allowed. Anything that is different from God or Christ is therefore evil.
So in the pursuit of imaginary enemies, from the powerless ones who actually exist but aren’t in any way a threat, to the ones that are purely fictional, otherwise normal people become crusaders against evil. And in their minds, their actions are virtuous and in defense of all that is Good and Holy and pure.
But in reality, they’re just hunting witches. And the witches are still either imaginary or themselves delusional. No actual devils have been defeated. No actual Satan has been thwarted. And humanity continues to suffer from the mass delusion that is the ultimate scapegoat: Blaming Satan for the evils we choose to perpetuate.