Satan worship on the rise, Chruch worried

[Malintent]

come on folks! Is it not obvious that listening to rock and roll is devil worship, according to many churches? They see the devil in everything and when their kids tell them that they are ignorant old people with stupid superstitious beliefs... it's that devil worship.

 

[Thomas II]

Well, if they're worshiping the Christain fanfiction of the pagan god.

If they're pagan, worshiping the pagan god: Satan, though, they're not supporting the Christain mythos.

Nothing supports the Christian mythos more than rooting for the opposing team. If you go to friends house and see mouse traps set in every corner, would you believe him if he said he didn't think there were any mice in the house?

That's a man who believes in the existence of mice, whether he has ever seen one, or not. Satan is an entity of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. One cannot give any credence to Satan and not to the religious beliefs which presented him to the world.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Thomas II]

There seems to be confusion about the terms Wicca, Theistic Satanism and Atheistic Satanism. Personally I'm not into any of these, but I would bet someone here is...
Can anyone explain it?

 

[fromderinside]

The problem isn't the meaning, but, that the church is worried. My son attended a god fearing school in Covina in early eighties. He liked dungeons and dragons. He was taunted for being a demonist. I suspect this is because he was really good at computers, making computer games, and winning computer games. Bottom line, is he was interviewed by cops because coyotes were slaughtering small animals which the community chose to believe was actually witchcraft being practiced by strange young people.

 

[Bronzeage]

There seems to be confusion about the terms Wicca, Theistic Satanism and Atheistic Satanism. Personally I'm not into any of these, but I would bet someone here is...
Can anyone explain it?

Modern Wiccaism is a religion based on worship if nature. In this instance, the word nature is sort of vague. The confusion began when the word "witch" was applied to Satan worshippers. It's possible some Wiccans in the Middle Ages crossed over into Satanic circles and brought some Wiccan traditions with them. There is a tremendous amount of Satanic worship lore, which borrows freely from Pagan rituals which predate Christianity.

Theistic Satanism is a cult(for lack of a better word) which recognises the power of God and His battle with Satan, for the souls of the world. In this case, the Theistic Satanist is on Satan's side.

Atheistic Satanism is a contradiction in terms. The most it could ever be is a costume party, with fun games.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Satan people (bored suburban kids and adults who were abused during childhood) are friends of God and the Church, in my opinion. Does that not make sense? Satan acknowledges God and shakes his fist like a villain who always loses, or whatever. That reinforces the idea that God is real, and that God is powerful. God verses nothingness is the problem that God and God people have. Not God verses Satan. Christians should have the common sense to know that Satan couldn't possibly be real. They like the attention Satan worshipers bring the Church, so they pretend it matters. I think that is a pretty reasonable opinion.

I refer you to:

Matthew 16:23New International Version (NIV)

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Obviously one of the many instances of "God vs. Satan". Read your Bible.

 

[Thomas II]

There seems to be confusion about the terms Wicca, Theistic Satanism and Atheistic Satanism. Personally I'm not into any of these, but I would bet someone here is...
Can anyone explain it?

Modern Wiccaism is a religion based on worship if nature. In this instance, the word nature is sort of vague. The confusion began when the word "witch" was applied to Satan worshippers. It's possible some Wiccans in the Middle Ages crossed over into Satanic circles and brought some Wiccan traditions with them. There is a tremendous amount of Satanic worship lore, which borrows freely from Pagan rituals which predate Christianity.

Theistic Satanism is a cult(for lack of a better word) which recognises the power of God and His battle with Satan, for the souls of the world. In this case, the Theistic Satanist is on Satan's side.

Atheistic Satanism is a contradiction in terms. The most it could ever be is a costume party, with fun games.

What a mess! No wonder there is such confusion...It is as you said. I would only add:

Atheistic Satanism: would be mostly represented by Anton Szandor LaVey and his Church of Satan founded in 1966. Its teachings are based on the "Satanic Bible", and apparently they don't believe in gods, but some sort of deified form of the individual self...

Theistic Satanism perceives the God of Abrahamic faiths as a vengeful deity who seeks to enslave and oppress humanity, and Satan as some sort of adversary of such deity...

 

[Bacillus anthracis]

Everywhere has waves from time to time when lots of teenagers are turning to Satanism. After a while it dies out and they realize that nobody was actually in it in the first place.

Beat me to it. Back in the 80s at least 80% of all teenagers who listened to heavy metal music worshipped Satan as did they bands they listened to. The only inaccuracy is that no one was worshipping Satan.

 

[Bacillus anthracis]

The problem isn't the meaning, but, that the church is worried. My son attended a god fearing school in Covina in early eighties. He liked dungeons and dragons. He was taunted for being a demonist. I suspect this is because he was really good at computers, making computer games, and winning computer games. Bottom line, is he was interviewed by cops because coyotes were slaughtering small animals which the community chose to believe was actually witchcraft being practiced by strange young people.

Covina? I grew up in Glendora, which is even more conservative than Covina. Satan was rampant back in those heady days of Motley Crue and Ronald Reagan.

 

[another1]

I'm familiar with Baptists. They talk about Satan but they pronounce it "the dayval"... The devil but pronounced dayeval. That is in southern Baptist Churches, which are the only Churches I go to. As for 40 days of temptation, I have a theory that a mortal guy who was tortured by hallucinogens while isolated in the desert kicked off a political career using his newfound knowledge and became the most famous and influential person to ever live. Human minds filled in the blanks and made God real, because human minds make the world real. God made that happen in the first place because God is way smart. But in our world, it happened because of hallucinogens and human imagination, which too both are reality. That is one theory unpopular in most Christian circles. Oh and Moses did Mountains of dope. Altered states make people think and see stuff which creates myths. The myths are real because reality is what we think and see. Like, reality isn't what we see but what we see is reality. That is one theory that isn't very popular but worth mentioning because why not. As for Satan, that character's theory is stupid and improbable.

 

[another1]

Anyway... why is it that so many Christians insist that the Satan theme is such a big part of Godliness? I notice that if I want to know something about God, the best person to ask is an Atheist.

 

[Atheos]

And of course the best people to ask about which stamps to collect are people who have absolutely no interest in collecting stamps.

 

[Angry Floof]

Tru dat. Superman would never sell if he was real. The writers need drama. The reality is that Lex Luthor would never stand a snowball's chance against that kind of power. Same with Yahweh.

Even fiction, Superman never sold to me. I can't think of a more uninteresting superhero than Superman.

If only religion had been more interesting and made more sense, then it would be more like Batman and I would be a believer.

 

[hinduwoman]

I wonder if the churches in Nagaland are projecting their fear of Hinduism which is equated with Satanism.

Recently Hindu religious groups have become aggressively missionary in Northeastern India which are inhabited by various tribes and they are employing the same tactics of providing medicine, educations, infrastructure to the tribals as Christian groups do. They are meeting with fair amount of success among the animists since Hinduism does not require giving up of any previous ties with the community or gods as being false and more and more Christians (aka converted tribals) seem to be positively responding to BJP the political outfit of these groups.

Nagaland is strong Christian stronghold with outlawed Christian militias batting for a Christian sovereign state but the Hindu groups are trying to break in there. That is obviously one worry. And then there is the social context. The tiny groups of animists still existing have a history of fiercely resisting British Imperialism and the Church (cannot separate the two in this region) and their revered Queen-Priestess had made common alliance with these Hindu groups with the avowed aim of protecting their traditional culture. The new Hindu missionaries are focusing big on the Queen and how she is a true daughter of the soil and a great warrior. The Queen if properly projected should be an attractive figure to youngsters -- the ultimate rebel. the woman battling against men, crushed by the power of the church but her followers still remaining; very Satanic in fact.

Unless thousands of youngsters are really joining some cool new cult, I think this is the reason for sudden hysteria .
?

 

[Bronzeage]

Anyway... why is it that so many Christians insist that the Satan theme is such a big part of Godliness? I notice that if I want to know something about God, the best person to ask is an Atheist.

I have found one thing atheists and believers have in common is they stop learning when their curiosity is satisfied. This is often far short of the whole thing.

Both go on to create arguments from their half cloth and fill the gaps with their assumptions.

 

[Atheos]

Tru dat. Superman would never sell if he was real. The writers need drama. The reality is that Lex Luthor would never stand a snowball's chance against that kind of power. Same with Yahweh.

Even fiction, Superman never sold to me. I can't think of a more uninteresting superhero than Superman.

If only religion had been more interesting and made more sense, then it would be more like Batman and I would be a believer.

I think it's worth pointing out that (like Yahweh) Superman evolved considerably from his original concept. He was at first simply an orphan child sent here from a doomed planet of people who had evolved millions of years more than we had. It's of course an outdated skew of "evolved," but these people had much more strength than humans, were able to run faster and jump higher. The original Superman could "leap over tall buildings in a single bound." He wasn't yet able to fly.

Similarly, Yahweh evolved from being one of many sons of El in the Ugaritic myths to being the central character of a monotheistic tradition. He wasn't all-powerful, all knowing, etc. That came later.

 

[Bronzeage]

Even fiction, Superman never sold to me. I can't think of a more uninteresting superhero than Superman.

If only religion had been more interesting and made more sense, then it would be more like Batman and I would be a believer.

I think it's worth pointing out that (like Yahweh) Superman evolved considerably from his original concept. He was at first simply an orphan child sent here from a doomed planet of people who had evolved millions of years more than we had. It's of course an outdated skew of "evolved," but these people had much more strength than humans, were able to run faster and jump higher. The original Superman could "leap over tall buildings in a single bound." He wasn't yet able to fly.

Similarly, Yahweh evolved from being one of many sons of El in the Ugaritic myths to being the central character of a monotheistic tradition. He wasn't all-powerful, all knowing, etc. That came later.

Flying has much great utility than leaping.

 

[Thomas II]

There's always Santa and the sleigh...

 

[Atheos]

There's always Santa and the sleigh...

Blasphemy! Santa has 8 reindeer on a clear night and he does not favor the USA by outfitting his sleigh with a couple of their flags when he's delivering presents all over the world. That has to be a fake picture.

 

[Thomas II]

There's always Santa and the sleigh...

Blasphemy! Santa has 8 reindeer on a clear night and he does not favor the USA by outfitting his sleigh with a couple of their flags when he's delivering presents all over the world. That has to be a fake picture.

Sorry, I don't know how that slipped by me...Here it is...