Satan worshipers, an interesting lot...your thoughts?

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
1

Satanist vs Satan Worshiper…

Background information:

Test results from an informal online questionnaire taken by Dr S an Atheist / Satanist.

  1. Nontheist (100%)
  2. Secular Humanism (100%)
  3. Theravada Buddhism (70%)
  4. Unitarian Universalism (70%)
  5. Neo-Pagan (47%)
  6. Liberal Quakers (40%)
  7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (18%)
  8. New Age (18%)
  9. Taoism (17%)
  10. Bahá'í Faith (0%)
  11. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (0%)
  12. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (0%)
  13. Eastern Orthodox (0%)
  14. Hinduism (0%)
  15. Islam (0%)
  16. Jainism (0%)
  17. Jehovah’s Witness (0%)
  18. Mahayana Buddhism (0%)
  19. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (0%)
  20. New Thought (0%)
  21. Orthodox Judaism (0%)
  22. Orthodox Quaker (0%)
  23. Reform Judaism (0%)
  24. Roman Catholic (0%)
  25. Scientology (0%)
  26. Seventh Day Adventist (0%)
  27. Sikhism (0%)

Dr S:

'Look at all da pretty zeros."

V:

"Hi Dr. S, I was curious are you Satan worshiper? Can you give a synopsis of your beliefs / philosophy / morals The high amount of zeros might come from strong priority views, since most of my votes where in the middle priority range with few highs and low extreme "

Dr S responds:

“If I was a ‘Satan Worshipper’ I should think my answers with regard to the cosmos in general would have put me closer to christian than non-theist. No, I am no sort of theist whatsoever. I find ‘spiritual’ matters downright ridiculous. I am a Satanist, however. Please do a precursory search of this site for my posts on this subject before presenting any further questions as pertaining to this matter. I have answered them all, on this site, already,in triplicate, and really have no desire to do so yet again.”

V:

“Thank you for your reply. Have you discussed the difference between a theist Satanist and a non theist Satanist or is the term Satanist devoid of deifying Satan as opposed to a Satan worshipper? If this topic is addressed in your archives, I would appreciate a link to it or short answer here, as that is my only question for you.”

Dr S responds: N.A.

V:

I cut out a few lines of non material discussion but my question ‘is the term Satanist devoid of deifying Satan as opposed to a Satan worshipper’ was never addressed by Dr S. After searching the originating forum for the answer and losing interest I went to the wikipedia which did not answer my question. Then a search on google yielded nothing. I must admit that I am an ADD so, I did not utilize these references ‘exhaustively’ so if the answer is buried under tons of useless information, my nature blocks me from finding it after 30 to 40 minutes of searching.

All was not lost though… I did find a couple of one useful tidbits for my efforts

One was a new forum to join: rationalresponders.com/forums

And number two was a response to a similar problem ‘C’ had with Dr S. A problem that seems to be a common occurrence with the Satan crowd.

C:

“alright, ive said it once and ill say it again (unlike dr. s). this is a PHILOSOPHY FORUM AND THERES NOTHING WRONG WITH READRESSING THINGS TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. if you dont want to anwser questions that you anwesered months ago in some other obscure post, then LEAVE. all you do is tell people to refrence this or refrence that well guess what numbnuts THIS IS A RELIGIOUS FORUM, NOT A DAMN BOOK CLUB, IF YOURE TOO HIGH AND MIGHTY TO DISCUSS IT THEN FEEL FREE TO EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO BLOW ME”

V:

Since Dr S will not answer the question I resubmit it here for others of a more charitable nature to discuss.

“is the term Satanist devoid of deifying Satan as opposed to a Satan worshipper?”

And if you please oblige me with one other question.

‘C’ mentioned this same complaint regarding Dr S. Is this the game that Satanists / Satan worshiper play to feed the desire for attention? They like to make a show of things, put pride in ‘extreme views’ but run away from the discussion when questions are asked?

I will add that all Satan worshipper are not as benign as Dr S. I knew someone that counseled a Satan worshiper that killed his parents and drank their blood as part of the satanic ritual.

Satan worshipers, an interesting lot…your thoughts?

Take care,

V (Male)

Agnostic Freethinker

2

Hello V. I assure you I was not avoiding your reply.
Truth is, I don’t come here very much. This is about 4th or 5th on my list of favorite forums, so bare with me if I lose a thread now and again.

I hold the opinion that there is only one ‘kind’ of Satanist. I do not recognise ‘theistic Satanism’, and in fact see it as a contradiction in terminology. Satanism is inherantly anti-theistic, which makes incorperating theism into it utterly ridiculous in my opinion.

3

Idiots of the highest calibre. If you accept the christian mythology as true, yet choose to lose, you are little more than a massochist and certainly have emotional issues of some sort.

4

Sounds to me as if Dr. Satanical is a Laveyan Satanist. Yes? No? At any rate the atheistic quality of Laveyan Satanism is similar to what you’re saying.

There are other kinds of Satanist, including theistic Satanists, members of the Temple of Set, Luciferians, and so on.

I don’t know that I would agree about your characterization of theistic Satanists, as they don’t really accept the Christian theology associated with Satan. (Which gives rise to the question of why they borrow the name. My best guess is that they do so in the same rebellious spirit that LaVey did, but in a theistic mode rather than an atheistic one.)

5

The whole ‘Satan’ thing is nothing more than a publicity stunt – that is in reference to the type that Dr. S practices.

I’m sure he can come up with some, but there isn’t a very good reason for the name to be ‘Satanism’ when it has nothing to do with the word Satan – a concept dripping of metaphysical juices.

The whole thing is confusing and another label someone feels they need to fall under.

I seriously thought Dr. S was a satire or something.

6

A reply from another forum on this same topic:

Anonymous writes:

"I don’t actually consider Satan worshipers that interesting - at least
not at first sight.

Basically they accept Bible, but this means they will lose at Armageddon.

How could a revolution started by an arch angle against the creator of
all angles succeed?

So what way can Satanism make sense?

A so-called Satanist might not accept Bible as a source of truth, but
consider God and Satan beings on equivalent level - but this would mean
to go quite a large step away from typical Satanism. For example
neo-pagans or followers of the the idea of New Age might consider Satan
a Christian (mis-) interpretation of a more powerful being. A good
example might be Crowley that claimed, the enemies of God would win at
Armageddon. Actually he believed, the Christian God would be one of a
larger number of superior beings and another one would become the ruler
of the new age.

Yet another position would be one I found when discussing with Jehova’s
Wittnesses: I found their idea of God is that negative, that fighting
their God might be the right thing to do even if it were impossible to
win the battle."

7

In my years I have encountered near every type of ‘internet satanist’ imaginable. Many of them favor Satan as Enki, or jehovah as a demiurge. Some envision Satan as a guide, a friend, or a mentor. Some believe in a whole pantheon of diabolical figures. Some even believe Jesus is Satan.
All have one thing in common: A complete lack of cogent philosophy or dogma. ‘theistic satanism’ is a fad for children, containing no discernable substance whatsoever.
The one exception may be the temple of set, but they have endevoured to distance themselves from the word Satanism, because even they realize what they are doing is something wholey different. (xeper.org)

8

I think they should take the word Satan out of the label completely. It confuses because there seems to be nothing Satanic about it. If someone IS a Satan worshipper, then they must believe in some form of Judao/Christian doctrine. They just turn against it. But they need this doctrine in order have anything to rebel against. Camus’ The Rebel talks of how rebels need the thing they are rebelling against. Without it, they are nothing. They have nothing to rebel against.

9

Do you happen to know what the word satan actually means, in the original hebrew?
Hint - It isn’t a name or a title, but a station.

Once you understand this then you might begin to understand why we use it.

10

Please tell me more about it. I am completely oblivious to what a Satanist or Satan worshipper considers Satan. Please be try to be short and precise with your best definition.

I am referring to Satan as a name or title or being, the Devil, the fallen angel, king of lies, God’s nemesis, red-horns-spiked-tail :imp:, lord of hell, etc. all the typical references to him. If I am mistaken in thinking that Satan worshippers are worshipping this being (I think because of the word “Satan”, most people think this), then we won’t be talking about the same thing. If Satanism or Satan worshipping is something else to you, I don’t really care because most people would think that Satanism or Satan worship would have something to do with the typical Satan Being in which I spoke of. :evilfun: If you’re worshipping something else, I think it would be easier to not use the word Satan because it just confuses all of us idiots that are out of the “Satanic” loop.

11

Banes,

“Satan” is a stance or questioning or defiance – but that stance or position is still rooted in metaphysical claims pertaining to Christian reality.

The metaphysical claims Dr. S regards as irrelevant within his dogma.

It doesn’t make sense, it’s a shitty name for a religion.

12

LOL! :laughing:

13

I pushed the button Old_Gobbo and I didn’t get bacon! What the heck!?

14

:wink:

15

Hi, I’m a “Satanist”, and I don’t think “Satan” exists. Why am I not actually a naturalist-darwinist-atheist-materialist-spiritual_leftist-hedonist?

16

Satan didn’t have personifcation until the 1600s. Satan as a comic book hero was a fairly recent invention.
Satan is a hebrew word that means ‘oposer, accuser, or adversary’ and is used by us in that context. Oposed to what? the status quo. Egalitarianism, stupidity, pretentiousness, deference of responsibility, and the championing of the ‘spiritual’ and ‘faith’ over the material and reason, to name but a few examples.
That mr joe average burried to the neck in christian meme can’t divorce this concept from the guy with the red horns and tail invented by faust is really of no concequence to anyone that gets it.
Satan worshippers are something wholly different, christians(or at least theists) of the worst sort at their very core. Satanists generally see devil worshippers’ as just another brand of theism to laugh at.

17

Incorrect. You can go on believing misconceptions of your own manufacture all you like, but don’t mind me if I point out, for the bazillionth time, (ya I know, short term memory loss is a bitch isn’t it gobbo?) that Satanism has absolutely nothing to do with ‘metaphysical claims pertaining to christian reality’, unless you count that we dismiss such claims along with all other forms of spiritual nonsense.

18

Ahem. Hi I’m a Satanist. Anyone with an elementary understanding of Satanic philosophy will realize that believing in an actual supernatural being named satan would be contrary to the philosophy, so I of course don’t.
Why am I not a darwinist? Same reason i am not a gravityist. useless label.
Why am I not an atheist? because I am an autotheist.
Why am I not a materialist? Well…I am of course, but seeing as how spiritulaity and the metaphysical is a joke, materialist seems a redundant label.
Why am I not a spiritualist? Because I have a brain.
Leftist? GAG! Try anarcho-capitalist. Otherwise, I fall heavily to the right. socialism sucks.
Hedonist? No, hedonism implies compulsion and stupidity. You can enjoy lifes pleasures without turning to blind hedonism.

Humm
Why do I bother.

19

DS,

Listen, all I did was point out to Banes the answer to the question you asked.

As I said, it’s not even a station but a stance that is clearly based in metaphysical conceptualizations, ie: angels, etc…

I know that Satanism ver. 3.42, in your mind, has nothing to do with metaphysics, but if you’re trying to tell me that the word ‘Satan’ has nothing to do with metaphysics then you’re the one who’s on drugs – and clearly some pretty good ones.

Here’s an idea, why don’t you change the name of your set of beliefs to ‘’? Or do you simply like throwing everyone off?

See this is why i think you’re some sort of satire, as I said earlier. You reek of bullshit.

20

get off the drugs and maybe things will make more sense to you.