Comment on A few thoughts on Satanism.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 3 years ago
It seems almost self-evident that the only people who would worship Satan would be Christians, since no other theology would claim such a thing exists.
It's a lot harder to stand back and say you are no ist or ism. If you do that, then you're just an individual with a collection of thoughts and feelings and attitudes and how are we supposed to pigeonhole you into being one way or another if you refuse to take on The stereotype that we've assigned?
It's unfortunate that what we can see is when you get rid of one religion, you just end up with another religion because people want to have easy answers. Maybe they stop believing in god, but you tell me wokeness isn't a religion and I'll tell you you're wrong.
Scruffy_Nerfherder@wolfballs.com 3 years ago
We are kind of hardwired for religion. As to your first point, there is a wide difference between acknowledging that a thing exists and worshiping it. Also, Jews believed in Satan and named him. Satan is Hebrew for accuser. Belief in evil spirits is fairly common throughout different cultures even though they may not rise to the level of God's Nemesis.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 3 years ago
The original use of the word "meme" came from the idea that ideas act like genes, and they can survive and thrive and mutate. It seems sensible that if certain ideas have a very strong survivability advantage would eventually be written into the genetics of individuals.
There's a lot of stuff built into our psychology that clearly came about for that reason. For example, we find the opposite sex attractive because reproduction is essential to survival of a bloodline. We don't need to be taught that we find the opposite sex attractive. We don't need to be taught that we eat when we're hungry. We don't need to be taught that we drink when we're thirsty. We don't need to be taught that we sleep when we're tired.
More sophisticated stuff is built into our psychology as well. A lot of our social attitudes aren't something taught or learned, they're built into us. So the idea that a propensity for religion is built into us seems sensible to me.
On the other point, I think there's a fundamental difference between Satan the fallen angel who controls hell under the Christian ideology and the Satan who works for God testing people in the Jewish faith such as the story of Job.
Scruffy_Nerfherder@wolfballs.com 3 years ago
Satan doesn't control hell. That isn't Christian, that is pop culture. He both fears hell and at the same time longs for it - he doesn't control it.