Now, i am mildly bemused by the fact that some Satanic sects reject Christianity as it revolves around the existence of a God. They do not believe in God, yet they do not conflict that God created Satan. Hmm.
So if Satan was created by God, and God oesn’t exist, what the hell (oops) are they burning everyone and his wife for???
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I am extremely confused. All the Satanists I know are even more tight-arsed about Christian dogma than any practicing Christian. In order to be a Satanist one MUST be familiar with every detail of High Mass so that it can be parodied and perverted into a proper Black Mass.
Perhaps you are thinking about a different faith, possibly one that views the Christian concepts of “God” and “The Devil” as being equally irrelevant?
Dr. Fidelius, Charlatan
Associate Curator Anomalous Paleontology, Miskatonic University
“You cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reach through reason.”
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I looked into Satanism for a while, though never got involved, when I found out that it was more of a personal consciousness movement than a group of people who got together to beg a deity for favors.
On the surface, both the Church of Satan (Anton Lavey’s gang) and the Temple of Set (splinter from the former church) emphasize personal knowledge and awareness, without all the wishy-washy mysticism of TM. From their public writings, I concluded that they see God as a construct; the antidote to God is Satan, or the material world (which is everything that God isn’t). Very Neitszchean stuff, mainly aimed at ridding oneself of religious illusions by dabbling in sin at every opportunity.
For that reason, I never got involved; also because there were hints of their own brand of mysticism. While it appeared that neither church actually believed in a goat-hoofed, horn-bearing devil who would grant them powers if they ate a baby’s heart, there did seem to be some effort at practicing black magic from a less than ironic perspective. I don’t believe they slew virgins, but it seems that some did get a little too into dressing up in black silk and drawing pentagrams. There were mentions of ‘awakening telepathic powers’ and other such tripe. At least Wiccans usually admit that the magic they practice isn’t mechanically effective.
I’ve read a little bit of LaVey’s philosophy, I don’t really buy into it, myself, but it is pretty interesting. Basically, LaVey explains the use of “supernatural” ritual in an otherwise materialistic sect as being for psychological benefit, rather than mystical. Basically, he says, when you want something to happen, you can either fret and worry and lose sleep over whether or not it’s going to happen for you, or you can get all dressed up, burn some incence, and chant for a bit. The benefit of the latter is, having done the ritual, you can feel like it’s out of your hands, and you don’t have to worry about it anymore. That’s what I got out of it, anyway.
This sort of thing wouldn’t work for me, because, knowing that it was only a psychological crutch, I’d still worry about whatever it was…
God is dead. -Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead. -God
Neitzsche is God. -Dead
The above responses are pretty spot-on. Being a Satanist is really a misnomer, as most practioners of the religion themselves don’t call it that (akin to trekkie/trekker debates, I guess). Most commune with nature and/or self, and are as disgusted with someone who would bow before Satan literally as a Christian would before God.
But even if the OP was true, why couldn’t someone believe in Satan without believing in God? Sure, there aren’t a lot of cites to back up something like that, but since when it spirituality decided by rational, factual thought anyway?
At the same time, a literal Satanist could certainly KNOW about God and the Bible and either disregard it, or even beklieve it’s true and just like the Dark Side more.
No matter what, the OP seems to be based on several “facts” that are far from facts.
i see what you’re saying that they obviously chose the ‘Dark’ path by which to lead there lives but surely they must totally reject God, as Christians reject Satan?
Why? From everything I have read, the “Dark Powers” are not petty and jealous gods and do not care if you “have other gods” besides them. In fact, it seems that one of the reasons their followers embrace the left-hand path is because there is no limitation to which aspects of the Godhead they can call upon to help them in any given situation.
They don’t reject God as one rejects an entity, though: they’re not buying into Christian mythology and picking the opposite focus. They reject belief in God, and the manner of that rejection is Satanism, where they practice all the things that they can’t if they believe in and worry about an omniscient, omnipotent diety and an afterlife.
But the most important thing about worshipping Satan is never accidentally worship him by his first name because if you go around saying “Praise Brian” people will mistake you for a Monty Python movie.
Thanks, hansel. That’s a pretty concise explanation.
It might be true that this process is psychologically beneficial in some way for the participants, but it clearly has a horrendous impact on the rest of society. The very existence of people calling themselves satanists feeds the insanity that is religion, and allows ministers to point to them as supposed proof of the existence of, and the dangers of Satan. The fact that some people calling themselves Satanists actually do stupid and destructive things only adds to the problem.
So, while Satanism may be helpful in some way to Satanists, it’s hurtful to everyone else, and I would hope that they would tend to evolve, if you will, toward a secular humanist group, or at least a church such as the Unitarians instead.
I have to go with the Scientologists on this one. Satan is a manifestation of mankinds rationality in consequence to the physical embodiment of the evil interstellar ruler and his pet omnipotent jackass Henry. Therefore, Satanists are truly representing the false spectre of impotence who masquerades as the distorted reality on oneself’s separation of the the physical embodiment and the false spiritual deity of the evil interstellar overlord and his pet jackass Henry. See it’s so simple when the Scientologists explain it. It really is a new slant on life.
I think ‘horrendous’ is going a little far. Their heyday was in the seventies, when every fringe spirituality movement got more attention than it deserved. Their destructive acts must be pretty minor, else they would be reported more often, or at all: the last time I remember hearing about Satanism in the news was in the eighties, when it seemed like every child in daycare was telling stories about being ritually abused. While there was some molesting going on, the satan angle was thoroughly debunked, leading me to believe that Satanists are mostly a social club in certain cities.
A few years before his death, Anton la Vey filed for bankruptcy. The Church of Satan has only a few thousand members, and the Temple of Set even less. They’re a terribly minor fringe group, and I doubt that preachers need their actual existence to rail against them. If it weren’t for their web pages, I would have thought they’d disappeared. And going by the number of web pages on Satanism, we have more to fear from the fans of Celine Dion.
I can say the same thing about extremists of any faith. In fact, I’ll bet a LOT MORE people in history died in the name of God than in the name of Satan.
Please elaborate how Satanists are horrible? I’d love to hear this…
Satan, I think what hansel and Axel were saying, if I may be so bold to interpret is:
–“Satanism,” as embodied in the Church of Satan, doesn’t have anything to do with Satan or theism at all. It is a humanistic system with a rejection of the divine in general and Christianity in particular, teaching reliance on the self.
–Unfortunately, the fundamentalist Christians constantly point to it as “proof” that The Devil really exists and people are worshipping him. They also attribute all sorts of horrific and depraved activities, all of them false, to the Church of Satan. Thus, the Church of Satan feeds the problem of the growth of fundamentalism.
–Also, a lot of simpleminded teenagers like to pretend they worship Satan, so they call themselves Satanists, and their worship services involve harrassing people and breaking shit. People then assume that that is what “Satanists” do.
While I can’t condemn the goal of fighting Christianity, I can see their point that they might do more good for people by adopting an obvious humanist stance with a corresponding name.
Also, an additional explanation of why some people would think “Satanists are horrible”.
From what I’ve learned about “satanic” churches, they emphasize more the side of “Lucifer, bringer of light and reason to mankind” instead of “Satan, prince of evil.” pldennison gave a good description of their philosophy.
But raised (as many people in western cultures are) as a christian (roman catholic in my case), we’re taught that the devil (aka Satan) is the entity that tries to cause us to commit evil acts.
So I think most christian’s reaction to “church of satan” would be “church where we try to do things that please satan”. When I think evil, I don’t think about saying the Lord’s prayer backwards. I think of things like rape, murder, etc… So my first reaction would be “not for me, and probably a bad thing.”
La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.
H. de Livry
First of all his name is Stan, not Satan. That was the result of a translation mistake.
Anyway, there was a movement that actually did worship Stan, in the way Christians were afraid of. It was called Gnosticism and its followers believed that since Stan gave Adam & Eve the apple from the tree of knowledge he was trying to help them & set them free. God was the bad guy cause he was trying to keep humanity ignorant.
I’ve known a few satanists.(2 cab drivers!) and they pretty much say they worship him,like christians worship Jesus. They do cast spells,to get personal gain,etc. Far as I know,they didn’t committ crimes,but you can’t lump All satanists together,ya know. They did seem pretty darn arrogant,tho.
Arrogant, of course! They’ve seen “the truth” and you’re just flailing about worshipping your cold virginal man-god!
Sorry, old habits. And yes, most Satanists groove on the Lucifer/fallen angel bit. Oh so tragically romantic, isn’t it?
You are all free to call Satan (not our pal from this MB) a shithead if you ever meet him.
I’ll be there
Where I’ll teach what I’ve been taught
And I’ve been taught…