jasonwill2
Well-Known Member
Where do you get all your theology? Is it one source or many?
The answer to that seriously depends on what parts you are talking about. The part about the "Self" and the denial of it? The actual metaphysics of god, or of spirits? Or what constitutes sin in the first place?
Some parts are from a single source, other parts are from multiple sources. Still some of it is my own constructs.
The thing about religion is that they are all best-guesses. No religion is 100% incorrect. Instead of trying to find absolute spiritual truth, I seek out the least-wrong truth. All religious doctrines are "best guesses", and so I make my best guesses based on information and science.
But even if my beliefs are metaphysically wrong, and indeed I bet parts are and will be changed in the future as I grow, the applicable parts still lay out a very pragmatic and realistic approach to both life and magic. And since the practice of magic is part of my life, it all works out. I can't tell you how greatly the use of magic and my beliefs have helped me. It got me to stop cutting, get the moral to get my G.E.D. and then a ritual helped me get insanely high scores, magic directly got me a job at the first place I applied, and Satan has helped me build back up my self-worth after I attempted suicide last June.
I would say that the god that DIDN'T claim to come and save me has saved me much more than Christ ever did. And if anything is the measure of truth, it is it's success in fixing problems and predicting things. This is true in both science and life, and my religion does both of those for me.
I don't know about Jesus and if he intended to die or not for people's sins, but either way he must of died in vain, because he certainly didn't have the power to help me in my struggles, and my wrestles with my inner "demons". In fact the whole point of Jesus having to die for us to be forgiven is vicious in itself. A god, that either by nature or by choice, that requires the shedding of blood for him to forgive us, is petty and cruel.
People always tell me, most of all Chrisitans, that forgiveness is not about the other person asking it, it's about you giving it, it's an act that you do and you can't wait for them to apologize to be forgiven, you just forgive. Why can't the Christian god do the same? It's not about US realizing he's wrong, it's not up to us what HE does, only HE can forgive us. So why do we need to ask him? I always told people that I wouldn't forgive someone unless they asked, and my reasoning was "because god doesn't either", but obviously that didn't go over well
Then later I realized that any infinite god that so pettily holds onto finite crimes in our temporal lives must either not be good, or must not be the real god. I chose the latter option, and then a year to a year-and-a-half after leaving Christianity I came into Satanism, and I will never be happier but in this moment to say on the subject:
"Jesus didn't die for me, you, or anyone else. If he even died at all it was to further a god's own agenda."