Comment on A few thoughts on Satanism.
Scruffy_Nerfherder@wolfballs.com 3 years agoWe 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.