There is a thread currently active here in GD dealing with why some types of entertainment/media are satanic and where the line is drawn between the secular and the religious. It got me thinking…
Who is more offensive to a pious person-- a satanist or an atheist? On the one hand, you have the satanist who aligns himself with the antithesis of God. On the other hand, you have the atheist who completely refuses to acknowledge God. Which one miffs the Big Sky Daddy (and His followers for that matter) more?
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Sorry if this has been done. It is a somewhat obvious question but I’m curious. Also, I was thinking about putting this in IMHO-- but we all know how these religious things can get tiffy.
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Speaking as a Christian Doper, I see no reason to be offended by either. I start with the assumption that they are following the dictates of their own consciences and that my obligation is simply to demonstrate how God leads me to act, letting God worry about how to “handle” them in any future scenario.
My personal experience has been that Satanists are more likely to be espousing something that they do not truly believe, themselves, simply for the shock value. (I’m sure there are devout Satanists; I simply find them to be rare.) However, I still see no reason to take offense provided they do not take actions to desecrate my church.
If Faith is a gift, I don’t see the point in being upset with someone who has not received it.
I dunno- you’d have to tell me a lot more about the Satanists and atheists in question. People always have very different reasons for choosing to believe or not to believe in something.
Is the “Satanist” in question genuinely malevolent? Just a dopey, bored teen who thinks the idea of black magic is sort of cool? A New Age space cadet who associates Satan with some pagan deity, rather than with true evil? It makes a huge difference!
As for atheists, again, reasons matter. Is the non-believer in question a creep or an otherwise conventionally virtuous person? Maybe a given atheist WANTS to embrace Christianity, but can’t buy the notion that a good God, one who loves us, couild allow so much human suffering. If THAT’S the case, I find it hard to condemn someone whose main faults are idealism and holding God to a high standard.
I guess, as a Christian, I see it as a continuum from Christianity through atheism to Satanism.
The Satanist has espoused destruction and hate as philosophy, the athiest is hopefully neutral. I would therefore find the more destructive Satanist more of a threat (?) than the athiest.
It’s sort of like what I see as the sliding scale from Love through Indifference to Hate.
From the Jewish perspective… the Satanist is worse.
According to Judaism, non-Jews have seven commandments to keep. Among them is the prohibition of idolatry. Interestingly enough, there is no commandment (for a non-Jew) to actively believe in God. Therefore, a Satanist would be doing wrong (since he is actively worshipping a false diety) in the Jewish POV, but not the athiest.
Speaking not as a Christian but as someone who knows several and has chatted with them intimately, most Christians tend to be most “offended” by atheists. Offended is perhaps not the right word; closer is perplexed, confused, pitying, and appalled. The thought of a godless universe is both, in the opinions of many Christians, both arrogant and lonely, self-centered and hopeless. Most Christians write Satanists off as deluded fools who will eventually grow up. I don’t get Satanists myself – what’s the point in believing in a God but worshiping a being that is not only lower than TBBITS (The Big Beard In The Sky) but far less concerned about your well-being?
Just for the record, members of the Church of Satan and the First Church of Satan (the two largest Satanic organizations that I know of) would very strongly object to being accused of “espousing hate and destruction as a philosophy”. Additionally, both groups are officially atheistic, and take pains to distance themselves from devil-worshippers.
If they aren’t worshiping Satan (or recognizing him in some way as their leader), then why are they called “Church of Satan” and “First Church of Satan?”
One of the good things about being an atheist is that we don’t have other gods before thee. Thou. Whatever. We have no gods. Except money, ourselves, atoms, and Darwin. And Zorb, and the Invisible Pink Unicorn. Nevermind…
Zev, they’re called the church of Satan because Anton LeVey (sp?) founded them as the ultimate tribute to counterculture. There could be nothing more counterculture for the 60’s crowd then not merely disavowing their parents religious beliefs but also giving their organization a name so repugnant to them. This, at least, is what my professor of 20th century history told me, take it for what you will. Surely a cite about all this is available somewhere.
Since I’m not a religious person, my comments may be considered irrelevant, but I just want to say that I can’t agree with this particular scale. First, as an atheist, I don’t locate myself on that scale at all. I don’t believe in any supernatural beings, any beings of godlike proportions, good or bad, and I certainly don’t worship or follow them. Both God and Satan are mythological figures to me, fictional characters.
If I were to construct a scale, I would put those who believe in supernatural beings on one end, and those who don’t believe on the other, but maybe that’s just me.
Concerning philosophies that I follow, the way I try to live is pretty close to the way Jesus allegedly told us to live (not the way any Christian denomination I know of interprets it), with a healthy dose of Buddhism mixed in. A lot closer to Love than to Hate, and I think that could be said of most of the atheists I know. I’m not at all indifferent to good and evil; I much prefer good. I just don’t see them as mystical, other-worldly things. We atheists may be a selfish bunch, in general, but my observation is that we are selfish in a pretty enlightened way. The atheists I know don’t want to hurt anybody.
I would agree with what tomndebb said about the likelihood of Satanists (maybe “devil worshippers” is a more appropriate term, I don’t know) being in it for the shock value. No doubt there are people who really believe in and follow what they conceive to be Satan, and maybe they chop people up in midnight rituals and do other bad things, but I don’t know anyone like that. The only self-identified Satanist I’ve met seemed to be in it mostly for sex, and partly because she liked black clothes and silver jewelry.
Speaking as an atheist: My girlfriend said that it wasn’t so much that I wasn’t a christian that bothered her, it was that I didn’t believe in anything. So, I assume that means that atheists are worse.
As a Christian, it is not my job to be offended by Satanists or atheists, or to grade them according to acceptability. It is my duty only to love them as much as I do myself.
As a weak and feeble human being, who continually strays from the true path, I think I’m inclined to judge individual Satanists and atheists on their own merits as people.
