Christians today, lets face it, don't follow their commandments. I mean when we look at the Christian population in America and their American Dream, we are hard pressed to see their commandments in effect. I just want to outline a few of the commandments favoured by The Church of Satan to illustrate this. For those Christians who are getting all hot under the collar after reading these few lines, I must clarify something about the Church of Satan. The Satan they worship has nothing to do with the Christian devil. The powers that be in the Vatican and elsewhere in the Christian massive told their diciples back in the day that Satan and the devil were one. They are not. Satanism was originally an Earth religion which actually predates Christianity by a leap and bound. Satan represented the Earth, the elements, the universe. However Satanism also represented a rival pagan religion which Christians needed to vilify in order to eradicate it. So the master manipulators told their sheep, that Satan was actually the devil. Satanists today consist of two main strains, the pissed off confused goths who think that Satan is the devil and think that anything 'eeeevviiilll' is sooo coooool, and those who know what Satan is and make fun of the fact that the average joe still believes in the devil. I have excluded commandments that are not relevant, focusing on the ones which are directly contradicted by the Christian ten commandments. Anyway here they are:
1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence!
This is interesting when we consider the Christian involvement in the Capitalist wrecking machine that America represents. When we see the gluttony of Christians in their big homes, squeezing their fat asses into SUVs, and consuming more of everything than any other country on Earth. Since 1950 America has consumed more unrenewable resources than the rest of mankind since the dawn of written history. Now tell me that the Christians had nothing to do with this indulgence. Do you as a Christian abstain like say, um I dunno, a Christian? Would the Vatican be a good example of abstinence or indulgence? Would the revenue gathered by so many Christian organisations not be considered indulgent?
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!
Do Christians today really 'love thy neighbour'? Even if they are another religion, race or even nationality? Do they fuck. They love who they want and fuck the rest. One nation under God, if you're not with us you're against us etc.
5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek!
Whoa, here's a beauty for ya folks. I don't even think I need to elaborate on this one...Ahem, Iraq, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Guatanamo Bay, I haven't got the time or energy so you can make your own lists for the rest of this one.
So, if Christians prefer to live their lives by the Satanic commandments instead of their own, why bother clinging to a religion which they don't actually practice? Going to Church and 'spreading the word' are surely far less important than following the big ten, no? I mean it's a bit redundant spreading the word, if the word is so insignificant it doen't really need to be followed by those spreading it.
First of all, I completely agree with your assessment of the current situation with Christianity... but the more hypocrisies you point out to them, the stronger their devotion will be (in a vain effort to prove you wrong).
I will only mention one news story that I have recently heard on Nightline...
As the real estate market has had it's recent "ups and downs", the wonderful religious folk of Massachusetts have resorted to buying and burying an effigy of St. Joseph (Jesus' father by the bible) under the "For Sale" signs [with specific requirements: upside down with his feet pointed toward the door] to help them sell their house.
PLEASE GOD, HELP ME MAKE SOME MONEY!!!
I don't know about you, but Capitalism is the new world religion, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with "love your brother" and all that moralistic blabber. It's all about MONEY and GREED and this reason alone is why the world hates "westernized civilization" if you would like to call it that.
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I would be interested in learning your sources for the history presented in your article. I've never before heard that Satanism was an early form of Paganism. All of the accounts I've read and researched place Satanism as the Church's way to vilify Paganism... what better way than to create a totally falsified religion in which practioners worship the arch enemy of the Christian faith? Satanism, according to this school of thought, sprung up out of the Church's creation of the concept... which is quite evident in the controversial Malleus Maleficarum of Kramer and Sprenger. I'm not saying that the Church or the Pope (even with the papal bull and that entire backstory) ordered the Malleus, but it did go a long way in furthering their cause and there is at least some relationship between the Church and the Malleus. Considering that the Malleus was second only to the Bible, it went to the extreme, and was quite successful, in equating early Pagans with devil worshipping mad men and women.
As a Reverend in The Church of Satan I would respond that we (genuine Satanists) would disagree that Satanism has been around for thousands of years. Certainly our roots extend back that far, but the same could be said of all philosophies. We readily and proudly admit our religion was codified and founded in 1966. Prior to that time there were various forms of Christian heresy, but, we accept, no Satanism.
The true misunderstanding is in the idea that the Judeo-Christian Bible can somehow lay claim to virtue. Many believe that prior to the 10 Commandments mankind had no rules of social behavior. If that were the case we wouldn't have gotten out of the caves! Satanists accept natural laws, and civil laws that are designed to ensure peace and development, and without which no individual can follow their inclinations in safety and order.
Christians, in our opinion, do not behave Satanically because of fundamental differences. A belief in a omnipotent "Higher Power" negates personal responsibility and impairs self-awareness. A belief in an after-life cheapens life, and demands a death obsession. More than that, no person can follow the Bible precisely because it is not precise and often contradictory.
For sources I suggest The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey and
www.churchofsatan.com (Particularly the Theory & Practice link.)
So, when it is said that Christians are behaving like Satanists I can only remark that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Rev. Ygraine
Priestess, Church of Satan
When I asked if Christians were acting more like Satanists I was actually suggesting that Christians get down off their moral high ground and realise that not only do many of them live by the Satanic commandments I listed, but actually go above and beyond reason in their indulgence and hypocrisy. I was not actually suggesting that Christians literally behave like Satanists in regard to the other beliefs held by the Church of Satan, only the aspects I highlighted. Thanks for clarifying those other points for me however.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/satanism.htm
I really don't think that you can say that Christians are living day to day contradicting the commandments. I believe that we are all people and we all make mistakes but our religious values and tenets are engrained in us. We try to live lives that follows the virtues of our faith and we do not succeed, we do not give up but try to learn from our experiences to bring us closer to our God. I also believe that stating what some people might do or say or contradict does not apply to all followers of a faith.
For the sake of argument, let's look at the commandments, and see what we can see...
1. I am the lord, thy god, no gods before me.
Hrm... but football... and television... so much more important.
2.Keep holy the sabbath day.
Ha.
...
Honor thy father and mother... nope.
Don't kill... what if they're enemy combatants?
Don't steal... what if I'm rich?
Don't lust after your neighbors things... but that drives the whole of the economy.
Don't commit adultery... what?!
Don't lie... what if I'm the president and I want to go to war really, really, badly for no particular reason? Can I lie then?
Really? Not following the commandments, huh? Maybe particular Christians do, but I'm gonna have to say that in general, no one listens to the important stuff from the bible any more.
The hard and fast of it is this, to be a Christian you should live as Jesus wished. You should turn the other cheek, instead of seeking vengeance, if you are not prepared to do this, don't call yourself Christian. You should love your neighbour as you would yourself, not just the neighbours who are agreeable to you, but all of your neighbours. If you are unprepared to do this, don't pretend you are Christian. I agree that "Christians" are human too, it is these "Christians" who claim to be better than that in their denial of their own human nature. They claim to be righteous, then endorse murder and greed, if you are not actively opposing the war in Iraq for instance, you are endorsing a very non-Christian act. Did Jesus get tooled up when he knew he was going to be crucified? Did he go down in a storm of flashing steel? No, he turned the other cheek. Christians need to shit or get of the can, either they follow Christ's rules or opt out and call themselves something else. For the record, I believe Jesus to be a great man, "Christians" today and their money sucking churches merely serve to cheapen his legacy. He did after all cast the traders from the temple, I wouldn't be surprised if they had him whacked so they could get back in under his name.
Christians that I know do not try to live by virtues of faith. They do not learn from their mistakes, they continue on and use the old standby: "Do as I say, not as I do".
Someone metioned earlier that Christians are human, too, and that we mess up. Ideally, yes, we learn from our mistakes. However, I agree that most Christians are very hypocritical. Also, the United State's view of what a "Christian" is allows thousands of people who are probably not saved to be called Christians.
First, you must separate those who have been born again. Going to a church does not make you a Christian, neither does being born into a Christian family, and definitely believing in God does not. In order to be a Christian, you must have accepted Christ's sacrifice and become a follower of Him. Many people call themselves Christian and do not really understand what that means, which allows everyone else to make judgements about the entire Christian church.
However, Christians are sinners. I do not deny the fact that I do more wrong than right in the average day. While I do learn from some of my mistakes, more often than not I probably forget to think things through, though. This is after I have grown a lot in my relationship with God over the past several years, and probably have had a more conservative upbringing than most. The difference between a true Christian and a person of any other faith is merely that a Christian has been forgiven by God, and has a guide (the Bible) to help them do what is right.
All Christians should work harder to do what is right, and to live their lives for Christ, but we are no better than you and are bound to mess up. I'm sorry if any Christians have led you to believe otherwise.
~Keri~
I want to have beautiful feet. ~ Isaiah 52:7
I think the issue with "Christians are humans too" is that many of them don't act like it. They get up on their high-Jesus and start preaching about how we're all sinners and have to repent. Funny, I don't feel like a sinner (though, since I'm a Jew, I'm irredemable in many of these Christians' eyes). Of course, I don't believe in sin at all, so that must be my problem.
Now my question for you is: do you really, honestly believe you do more wrong in a day than good? That strikes of low-self-esteem on my temporal lobe (specifically the part that interprets language -- ahem). I can't believe that you really, truly think that; not from a stance that I think your basis for it is wrong (what's wrong for me, is right for someone else); but because I think humans are innately good and will do more good than bad in any given day. Besides, who are we to say what is good and what is bad? If you believe in god and you make judgements like that, aren't you being a little bit arrogant?
The hypocrisy is exactly what makes them not Christian. They are charlatans pretending to be something they're not, because it makes them feel good about themselves, neigh, feel they are better than everybody else, wanna contest that notion, well then how come the various Christian churches hold such exclusive rights to heaven? Why aren't the rest of us good enough to make the guestlist?
Someone stated that Christians need to start doing good things. I have never accepted the label 'Christian'. If one truly accepts Christ, and lives according to His ways, the natural result is good deeds. These good deeds will become the nature of that person, done with no want or need for recoginition. I soundly reject most 'manly' preachings of what so and so thinks is right. Using the Bible as a primary source of wisdom, one can live a pious life. The cavet of that deal is that one will be rejected by a majority, to a point of suffering. The beauty of faith in Christ is the acceptance of suffering, and the rewards of faith in the afterlife. You cannot take riches to the grave. I would rather live life in a pious manner, which means I have to battle with my sinful wants, but address my spiritial needs. 'Love thy enemy as you love thyself'.
i think is may be best to live by bibicial virtures and possible be wrong, than live for the moment and find out i was wrong. A soul is a terrible thing to waste!
my 2 cents ya'll
Great blog! By pointing out the more prevalent animal drives that rule everyone, including Christians, you are promoting the teachings of Jesus. I would say this is the most effective sermon to the Christians that I have seen on this site.
Naturally if I didn't have some positive criticism I would have just given you a 5 and smiled. I find it VERY interesting that this blog has so many responses, and I am the first to rate it.
Satan does appear to be a word of Hebrew origin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan
I would like to point out that though humans are poor representatives of the teachings of Jesus the weekly meetings and profession of belief have a positive impact. The values he gave the world are at least in part responsible for the scientific method, and cooperation between different cultures that have finally launched mankind toward a brighter future. Atheism, Satanism, and other more hedonistic faiths profess rationality, but reason alone leaves revenge, greed, and 'might makes right' free to rule human behavior.
A fact is always better than an ideal
First and foremost, thanks for the compliment and the gracious 5 star.
Onward:
"you are promoting the teachings of Jesus."
I have no problem promoting most of the teachings of Jesus, they are great teachings. I don't rule out Jesus' exitence, and from what I know of him, he seems like a real nice guy, a good fella. My gripe is with the belief that the Bible is the word of God, I actually really like plenty of the Bible, but you know my feeling there, so I won't go into a rant.
"I find it VERY interesting that this blog has so many responses, and I am the first to rate it."
I wrote it a while back before they had the rating system. They only added that a short while back.
"The values he gave the world"
I don't question the value he gave the world. I'm not a Jesus hater. I just have issues with the rest of the Bible, the fact that people won't just realise that it's not the word of God, that there's nothing wrong with that, it's still pretty good, we just need to edit out some of the scary regressive stuff, focus on the best bits of the Jesus stuff. I don't see why Jesus being a great man, and not being a God, is such an issue for people, he had some pretty sound advice and did a lot of good.
My theory is this, this is just off the cuff and not a huge amount gone into it beyond day dreaming, but here it is: Jesus was a real smart, innovative, decent guy with amazing forsight. He saw what was goin on with the existing religions and thought, 'this shit is not good, I'm gonna try and sort some of this mess out'. So figures the only way he's gonna get people to listen or even consider changing anything, he's gonna need to be pretty persuasive.
Now, standard persuasive technique dictates that people respond well to authority, real or percieved. Simply putting Dr. before a name gives instant credibility, causing the reciever of this persons message to be less critical of what the read, or what product they buy etc. So who would be the most persuasive celebrity endorcement he could hope to have for his new improved religious guidlines, God, who else.
Jesus was a reformer. The Bible being the word of God being believed and spread as bond is what is slowing reformation of Christian religions, it's slowing it's evolution. That is not what Jesus would have wanted, he would have wanted it to evolve and shake out as many of the regressive beliefs as possible, because that's what he did.
"Atheism, Satanism, and other more hedonistic faiths profess rationality, but reason alone leaves revenge, greed, and 'might makes right' free to rule human behavior."
You seem to view these belief systems as exclusive of empathy. That's simply inaccurate. Reason sets out to understand and empathize more than unreason. Unreason ignores the complexity of human actions and uses a sloppy hand and abig fat brush to tar them as 'good' or 'evil', which is just a way of blocking empathy.
I'm Agnostic and I firmly believe that 'might does not make right', I think if you ask around you'll find a lot of Atheists and Agnostics who have quite Libertarian attitudes and are very much opposed to revenge and greed, both of which are unreasonable. Revenge would be exactly the thing that reason would attempt to minimize, greed is unreasonable, what's reasonable about a single man hording billions of dollars, while people starve on the streets of his own 'first world' city?
I'm not saying that if everybody became secular tomorrow that things would magically start working like clockwork. To be honest I think things would shift, but in a same-shit-different-flavour kind of way. I think the guys who pretend to be religious, but still hord billions and are greedy and seek revenge, would just stop pretending to be religious and carry on. But at least we'd have a better chance of reasoning with the people and having more chance of bringing about an evolution in society, to something that works better and one that promotes understanding and knowledge over belief and dogma that discourages critical thought.
If Christians could lose the superstition and focus on the big 10 then everything would be rosie. That would be reasonable.
_____________________________________________________________
I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
I would never try to convince anyone to beleive anything superstitious. At the same time I am reasonably confident that there are very real forces that our senses cannot detect. Science has already found some of them. This leads me to tollerate superstition. I don't know it all either.
Your view of Jesus is more compatible with mine than someone that thinks he is God. Maybe he was (in the sense that we all are ***), but he denied it repeatedly. The Catholic Church is probably responsible for the popularity of that view. It has only been a little over 500 years since the Bible was translated from Latin, and printed for everyone to be able to read it. They actually managed to make monotheism into a three headed religion that included demigods (saints). They had to convert quite a few pantheistic Romans right away, so it is understandable.
"You seem to view these belief systems as exclusive of empathy."
No, empathy and every human emotion I give then credit for possessing. I find it difficult to accept that humans can be taught to follow a reasoning and rational morality. Maybe someday, but throughout history, and even in the present day I don't see much evidence of it. There have always been some that came close, but their influence is spread way too thin.
*** this concept is entertainingly expanded in 'Stranger in a Strange Land' by Robert Heinlein.
A fact is always better than an ideal
"At the same time I am reasonably confident that there are very real forces that our senses cannot detect."
I wouldn't be reasonabley confident myself, but I wouldn't throw the idea out completely, that would be a little arrogant of me. But I am reasonably confident that all those people claiming to know for sure, not only that there are forces, but the nature and personal preferences of such forces are merely peddling speculation as fact.
"It has only been a little over 500 years since the Bible was translated from Latin"
Largely due to the Catholic Chrurch burning translators at the stake for heresy, something I'm pretty sure they even did to people who translated it into Latin too, not certain, but I think they didn't want it in any language that the lay man could examine for himself.
"that included demigods (saints). "
Golden Oxes and assorted false idols, no?
"They had to convert quite a few pantheistic Romans right away, so it is understandable."
Which I find amusing, because pantheism and panentheism seem to me to be more reasonable than the Catholic brand of monotheism.
"I find it difficult to accept that humans can be taught to follow a reasoning and rational morality."
In the short term, yes, I'd agree. But I'm thinking longterm. I see the massively accelerating widespread availability of information and interconnectedness afforded through technology and the educational possibilities that represents as being a light of hope. Let's not forget that many old religions have such a strong hold, because they controlled information and convinced their followers by creating a contrived environment of ignorance.
"There have always been some that came close, but their influence is spread way too thin."
Hopefully not for too long more. It's gonna be a long hual, but knowledge will lead to enlightenment far quicker than encouraging willful suspension of disbelief, to believe otherwise would be, from my perspective, a bit apathetic.
_____________________________________________________________
I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
where Satanism came from and what its REALLY all about. Most people think im full of Sh** when I say something about it.
in addition, its always been my belief that Jesus is displeased with many who call themselves Christian. In my opinion if Christians were TRULY living the teachings of Jesus Christ they wouldn't have large houses, a surplus of anything, support war, nor deny those in need.
In the end it does not matter what we have or what we do not have just what we have done in his name.....
HE is the way, the truth, and the life.
Katie
i believe it is not what you have done in His name.....but only what you have done.
He will recognize ALL that you do....not just what is done in His name.
And in the end being glutinous and war mongering WILL matter.
Jesus nor God are one for greed nor being against peace.
You are so right about pretty much everything you wrote. It's uncanny for me to find someone who would voice the reality of Christians actually contradicting themselves. I know this for a fact, because even the latest Catholic Christian church I was forced to (my whole family is Catholic) had the priest stating, "Thank you for your generous donations....for our $6.5 million dollar loan...." What the heck? He was even talking about being a good "stewart", to give onto others... But like you said, I agree with Satanic doctrine of giving love to those who deserve it. Someone once told me that Christianity is a "pick and choose [your beliefs to follow]" and that's one of the reasons why I am leaning towards Satanism instead. Abstinance....Wow! we seriously need to abstain from our wastefulness, especially because there is so much harmful carcinogenic substances everywhere. Think about: It's in our food as pesticides causing cancers; it's in tobacco products; it's even in the toiletries that "big business" have been manufacturing for a whole century or so, maybe even longer. This is exactly why I condone "the Earth"/paganism, because we are only human and we are still "part of nature", hence, the need to remain with 100% real organic natural products, which is one of my "fetishes" and that I have been including in my life recently.
So what about you? Do you condone Satanism? Or is it a topic of interest and knowledge for you?
A.C.S.
"So what about you? Do you condone Satanism? Or is it a topic of interest and knowledge for you?"
I understand where the Church of Satan are coming from, I don't necessarily agree with all of their views though. With that said, I do admire their honesty, which is a rare commodity when dealing with religions. I also admire the fact that they don't bully people into believing what they believe with unfounded metaphysical threats.
_____________________________________________________________
I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
I am sorry but from this blog it is obvious that you have met some very poor Christians. Would you like me to judge your religion by the way that some people see your beliefs. Then don't judge the entire group of Christians by looking at a few people. Yes I am a Christian and yes i do wrong sometimes but have you ever heard the saying " to err is human"? I also have 2 words for you " Religious Tolerance"
HE is the way, the truth, and the life.
Katie
If you're a Christian and you live by the Christian Commandements, then I'm clearly not talking about Christians like you. The Blog entry was directed at Christians who live by the Satanic 10 Commandments listed in the blog. If you read it and feel it doesn't apply to you or people you know, then it doesn't.
"I also have 2 words for you " Religious Tolerance""
What does that have to do with what I wrote here? I never, at any point, said that Christians shouldn't be allowed to practice their religion. Tolerance does not mean that I must remain uncritical of a religion's beliefs or practices, it just means that I have to tolerate them. Ironically, what I was saying in this blog entry is that Christians should pay more attention to following their religion as Jesus intended. So maybe you shouldn't throw around phrases that you don't fully understand the actual meaning of.
_____________________________________________________________
I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong