A few thoughts on Satanism.

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Scruffy_Nerfherder@wolfballs.com⁩ to ⁨freeforum@wolfballs.com⁩

The beginning of wisdom: Believe what people say about themselves. I have taken this to heart. If someone tries to cozy up to me and says, "I'm really an asshole." or "Most people think I'm an asshole." I believe them and treat them as such.

I don't know why people do this, but I have had quite a few people tell me things like this, 'I'll let you down.' or 'I'll lie to you eventually.'

It took me a shamefully long time to catch on, but if you tell me you're a liar, I'll treat you like a liar.

SO - on to Satan.

Per Websters: ist - a suffix of nouns, often corresponding to verbs ending in -ize or nouns ending in -ism, that denote a person who practices or is concerned with something, or holds certain principles, doctrines, etc.:

If I meet a Chemist, I know that he believes in Chemistry. In fact, he believes it so strongly that it is his lively hood and part of his identity. We identify strongly with our jobs. So strongly that after asking someone's name, you usually ask what they do for a living.

A Physicist believes in physics. A botanist believes in botany - the study of plants.

Somehow magically when you talk to a Satanist - they don't really believe in Satan. If you didn't believe in Satan, you would call yourself Humanists, not Satanists.

They can talk all they want about shock value and the hypocrisy of the Church bla bla bla. There is no greater hypocrisy than calling yourself one thing and claiming to be another.

As someone here said, "The distinction exists." Yes, it exists. It exists to fool you and get you to lower your guard. The person you are talking to may even believe the distinction to be real, doesn't matter. If you call yourself by Satan's name - then you belong to him.

And I will treat you accordingly.

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mayonesa@wolfballs.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

Somehow magically when you talk to a Satanist - they don’t really believe in Satan.

https://www.o9a.org/

Most Satanists are like most Christians... just thinly disguised Leftists.

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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.

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- 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.
  
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  - 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.
    
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