Thread: Do you think Satanism is just reverse Christianity?

Not my wish to 'tell' you to do anything, just offering an observation that we were both wandering away from the thread topic and suggesting a solution by way of a new one.

Fatalist said: "I appreciate your concern that we should stick to Satanism and Christianity per se and not boil the topic down to some abstract argument" - yes, you intuited my concern quite precisely.

Fatalist said: "...what I perceive to be a logical fallacy in your reasoning: where you go from self-concept of an individual Satanist to argue against the concept of a multigenerational religious community/organization of Satanists who perceive themselves as evil by their own standard".

I'll be honest - I had some difficulty following what you were saying, in regard to that. I'm interested in understanding what you have to say about it, however...could you express your point in a more casual manner? (You can pretend that I'm a child, or barely literate, if that helps. I won't be offended, I invest very little ego in my forum persona)
If that doesn't work, for you...oh well, my loss.

Fatalist said: "I am now under the impression that the purpose of this thread is not to reach some form of agreement or understanding on the topic inasmuch as for Satanists or other sympathizers to come and vex their personal opinions and experiences on the issues surrounding the phenomena and history of this thread’s topic".

That was pretty much my impression also, when I came into it. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the responses to my postings in this thread, including your own responses.

Forgive me - if I sounded boorishly cynical about, or dismissive of, hermetic-philosophical concepts & logical constructs derived therefrom.
I have no reason to believe that you yourself 'worship' such things or are enslaved by them, and I wasn't accusing you of that - but I have met so many persons during the course of my life who did worship and were enslaved by, one or another "school of thought", (and who very much wanted to recruit me as another worshipful slave for their cause), that I've developed kind of a defensive disinterest in debating the merit of any of them, I guess. I still enjoy discussing them, I'm just wary of being cast as & trapped in the role of, either an advocate or a devil's advocate for any philosophy or school of thought.

Wow, hard thread to follow I'd definatly say some people try to worship the Christian devil. Whether they worship evil depends on their interpretation of what Satan's role is. If its meant to be the reverse, then perhaps they make God to be the evil one.... otherwise if they believe Satan to be evil then it is in line with Christianity and not reversed. IMO anyone who worships and promotes the advancement of evil is fooling themselves as to what evil is, or has a mental problem.

The mainstream 'Satanism' came along after Christianity. Those who turn from an Abrahamic religion to Satan because their patriarchal God 'abandoned' them (if It was even there in the first place).

I have seen something about ancient Indian worship of a Lucifer-like entity. How would you call that Satanism if the basic 'good and evil' system of Christianity wasn't intact yet? Satanism spawned from ex-Christians. It started as theistic (reversing the roles of Satan and God) and has now branched into philosophical as well (LaVeyan).

While theistic Satanism is reverse Christianity, LaVeyan Satanism is not. Yes, LaVeyan Satanism blasphemes Christianity, but no deity is involved. Opposition to 'sin' as the carnal instinct of the human animal is not simply reverse Christianity. It has a different angle and runs with it.

Originally Posted by fatalist

This is why I had trouble agreeing with you when you mentioned that there can't be a multi-generational group of people who can be seen as "evil". Because, you start out talking about a self-concept and move on to a social-constuct (treating it the same?). But maybe I should have asked you first on your opinion on how you look at the idea of a social-construct.

Thank you for your efforts at clarification.

I think the confusion is my fault. It was my intent to say, that a multi-generational group of persons who perceive themselves to be "evil people doing evil things" is so extremely improbable (for all the reasons I have given) that the concept of such a group seems ridiculous - impossible even.

I wouldn't say that there couldn't be multi-generational groups of people who could be seen to be/perceived to be "evil" by others in their society. There is the Bush family, for example...

Originally Posted by Asin

While theistic Satanism is reverse Christianity, LaVeyan Satanism is not.

I'd like to encourage you, to explore the implications of the first part of this statement in greater depth. "theistic Satanism" is "reverse Christianity"?
Literally, "reverse"? Are you certain that is what you mean to say?

Originally Posted by Adder

If its meant to be the reverse, then perhaps they make God to be the evil one.... otherwise if they believe Satan to be evil then it is in line with Christianity and not reversed.

Yes. Interesting paradox, eh?

Kind of implies that a "satanist" who perceives themself to be an evil person doing evil things in service to an evil diety must actually be a Christian (or perhaps a Jew). Don't you think?