It was always apparent to me that if one is going to “witness” to others, and share their faith, it’s a bit necessary to have a bit of background on the listener’s beliefs. Most Christians though, by virtue of their devotion to their own faith, don’t learn about other religions.
While this is understandable, to better spread the gospel, as I’ve been led to believe is rather important, one must have a cursory knowledge of other belief systems.
Satanism in particular is targeted as being particularly spiritually harmful, even by pagans of other classifications. Something that isn’t very common knowledge is that there are several different kinds of Satanism.
First, there is
Theistic Satanism, characterized by actual deity worship of “Satan.” This variety of Satanism most clashes with Christian belief, as Theistic Satanists often believe that the anti-Christ will succeed, and Satan’s worshipers will therefore inherit the Earth. Some schools of Theistic Satanism claim that Jehovah was in fact created by Lucifer, and usurped his place. Persons depicted as good in the bible are therefore thought of as evil, working toward enslaving most people in hell.
Another school of Theistic Satanism is
Luciferianism. Luciferiansim is characterized by reverence for the light-bearing qualities of Lucifer. Curiosity, free-thought, and breaking from the norm are stressed as all-important and vital aspects of life. In this way, Luciferians believe that Lucifer was unjustly cast out of heaven for thinking differently. There are Gnostic sects of Luciferianism stressing the pursuit of absolute truth as the highest goal in life, more important than any deity worship. Luciferianism and Christianity are not seen by Luciferians as mutually exclusive belief systems, as Gnosis, Absolute Truth, can be seen as the purest expression of God.
There are then the Atheistic schools of Satanism:
The most well known is
LaVeyan Satanism. LaVeyan Satanism places high stress on individualism and self-sufficiency and -satisfaction. LaVeyan Satanists recognize no deity beyond themselves, taking an existentialist view of God: As we can not be sure that anything exists besides ourselves, we can’t be sure that we are not the closest thing to God that there is. Therefore, LaVeyan Satanists consider themselves gods, and everyone else is also their own god. Therefore, LaVeyan philosophy revolves heavily around respect for oneself and others, as we are all gods, deserving of respect. Contrary to popular belief, LaVeyan Satanism expressly forbids the sacrifice of animals, and the harming of children. The greatest sin a LaVeyan Satanist can commit is blindly following the crowd, and doing something simply because he is told to.
Another form of Atheistic Satanism is
Symbolic Satanism. Symbolic Satanism is reverence of Satan not as a deity, but as a representation of human nature, which is held by adherents to to be hedonism. Satan is seen as a symbol of non-conformity, and a positive influence. Many symbolic Satanists are actually anti-theistic, instead of the apathy of atheism, anti-theists are opposed to the notion of a deity, and will argue the point against them.
And unfortunately, we also have what is referred to as
“casual” or “adolescent” Satanism. Casual Satanists use the symbols of Satanism to impress or intimidate while expressing no interest in the actual philosophy. Most teenage Satanists fall into this category. This form of Satanism is mostly harmless, and usually characterizes a dysfunctional need for attention. But in groups, these types of individuals will strive to impress each other, leading to dangerous behaviors such as animal sacrifice, self mutilation or torture. Many casual Satanists suffer from various psychological or personality disorders. These are also the Satanists that the average person hears most about in the news or in urban legends.
I simply thought that this information could be useful to some users at CAF. I also believe that knowledge is its own reward, so I thought this would be well-appointed.
