That’s why I’m a Satanist.
No big book of dogma to follow. We aren’t trying to convert you. Just fuckin’ chill and hail Satan.
okay I understand everyone’s modern definition of Satanism but why are they claiming a title that has traditionally been defined as the source of sorrow and eternal suffering and fire and eternal punishment?
It’s one part reclaiming and one part stirring up controversy. Normalizing the idea that demonic Satan doesn’t exist and it’s our own faults and sins to blame while also getting free publicity whenever the Christians get mad and talk about Satanism on the news.
The problem is, it makes it far too easy to brush it away from a point of ignorance and people who consider themselves devout will never look into it. It serves the interests of Christianity and edginess more than it serves something that would identify itself as, say, biblical scholars. Plus, if they become Satanists, which you may consider a joke label, people who would have had a degree of legitimacy in the eyes of Christians who might be convinced to begin questioning their beliefs can now be much more easily discarded because “Oh, didn’t you know, he’s a Satanist!”
Trying to argue for the term is akin to arguing identifying as a Nazi not because you really support WWII Nazis but want to reclaim the term of socialism within the national perspective as something that can be realistic without the hate, racism, eugenics, and populism. You would be doing more harm to the point you are trying to argue for. It will get views, yes, but are those the views you want?
There’s another tradition called Romantic Satanism which was a 19th-century literary movement. It’s basically what happens when a bunch of post-Enlightenment writers go “Hey, what if Satan was actually the good guy?”
Around this time was a lot of rebellion against both monarchy and the church, and they felt some kinship with the rebel of the story, not the despotic deity he was opposing. (God’s actions in the Old Testament would be considered horrifying if they were carried out by a human.)
Modern Satanism’s myth of Satan is a kind of reinterpretation or re-imagining, like a feminist retelling of a princess fairy tale.
They basically uphold him as a symbol of rebellion against an unjust, totalitarian authority.
What sort of rebellion against this “unjust and totalitarian authority”… Raping children?
It’s mostly reclaiming a title that zealots use for anyone they don’t like. We take what they call us and make it a positive force for change and justice.
I think it also depends on how ppl understand the concept of the word “satanism”. I am an atheist and used to live in a asia country, we don’t use any word like satan like you said “to define as the source of sorrow…” And I don’t think we even have that word in native language. We have something else comparable to that but still what I want to say is that Satanism may sound bad to you but for others ppl It’s not.
To ppl who doesn’t have any prejudice against Satanism, the Satanic temple does indeed provide good causes, especially even more now given how bad others religions are (I don’t want to name them but I am sure we know who)
yeah If it ever came up in conversation I’d be more likely to befriend a Pastafarianist than a Satanist.
Because Pasta fun 🍝
Satan scary 😈 🔥
Link to relevant article: https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/pacifists-guide-satanism
embrace the chaos.
if i ever wnated to start believing in a higher power, i’d be a satanist.
My “higher power” is myself. I don’t believe that Satan is real. He’s a mythic figure that I draw inspiration from. He stood up to a tyrant who’s the most powerful force in the universe, got thrown into Hell, and just stood up and said, “Okay, I’ll make my kingdom here.”
“Tyrant” because Satan wanted to cause everyone suffering and encourage all sorts of atrocities, and this “Tyrant” wouldn’t allow that :(
Satanists don’t really believe in Satan. The Satanic Temple is basically the religious embodiment of the ACLU. They’re currently raising funds for The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic. They also run After School Satan in schools that have religious based after school programs.
The Church of Satan is an outlier and shouldn’t be counted.
Pearls Before Swine has become one of my all-time favorite mainstream comic strips. Stephan Pastis is both a comic genius and an insightful commentator. This is one of my favorites:
Also, he’s constantly putting himself down with his own characters, which I love.
obligatory This Land Is Mine
(not 100% sure if it’s relevant to this specifically but it’s def relevant to Israel)
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Usually, religion is just a front for different political interests
The major ones are about loving people in said religion. People who don’t follow “the rules” can get fucked.
That’s not really what most of them are theoretically about, but many of their followers treat it as such. I don’t accredit that to religion though, I think some people are simply going to try to opress others regardless of whatever reasoning they use. There are bad people and good people in every population, and blaming the actions of those bad people on their larger group is (usually) to be avoided.
