Why would somebody willingly become a Satanist?

[Subduction Zone]

As mentioned in the bible, there were satanic cults in modern-day Turkey (Asia Minor).

You really cannot trust such claims. People that belong to one religion quite often misrepresent the beliefs of another religion. Would you trust a Muslim to get your religious beliefs right? In the same way, or even more so you got the beliefs of Satanists wrong. Do you understand this?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

They have the occasional piercing or tattoo but no more than the average population, and its just a fashion statement.

"Absurd amount" wasn't defined. Some would say just one, some even think it's a form of mutilation.

 

[ChristineM]

Satan tempted Jesus to eat rocks. That is what a 3-year old tries to do to their parents. Like what kind of mindset do Satanists have? I just don't see it.
Why do Satanists believe that Satan is better in their view to God?
Why do many, but not all, Satanists get absurd amounts of tattoos and piercings? Is it just a style choice or a meaning behind it?
From the limited interactions with Satanists I've had, they have this attitude where they believe it is okay to hurt others because they were hurt by someone else. How do they justify that and where does this attitude come from?

Maybe the kill count could have something to do with it.

 

[ChristineM]

From the limited interactions with Satanists I've had, they have this attitude where they believe it is okay to hurt others because they were hurt by someone else.

Do you have any evidence to back up this claim because the satanists i know are good, kind people.

Another point, i have been seriously mentally or physically hurt 5 times in my life. Never once by a Satanist but every single time the perpetrator(s) were Christian

 

[Secret Chief]

"Absurd amount" wasn't defined. Some would say just one, some even think it's a form of mutilation.

I tend to think of people with tattoos as being people who want tattoos.
I'll get one one day, but I want that day to be a long way off.

 

[ChristineM]

I tend to think of people with tattoos as being people who want tattoos.
I'll get one one day, but I want that day to be a long way off.

I personally think the human body is beautiful in all its shapes and sizes, no tattoos needed to adorn it. But some tattoos are also beautiful

Spoiler: Perhaps this one tickles your fancy

 

[Ella S.]

Firstly, Satan opposes both Jesus and Jehovah who are, in my opinion, villain protagonists.

That alone is a significant point in his favor, in my opinion. Jehovah openly boasts about being wrathful and jealous and demands his people to fear him. That's not to mention that he's a tyrannical diva with a God complex. He's one of the most evil characters I've seen depicted in any medium.

Jesus is not much better. While Jehovah was mostly content to brutally murder anyone that got in his way, he only tortured people in horrifyingly surreal ways for special occasions. By contrast, Jesus condemns anyone to Hell who does not make him the exclusive focal point of their lives and worships him. That is an eternity of ceaseless torment, by the way.

The fact that Satan tries to trick Jesus into eating rocks is, while immature, kind of understandable in that context. It's not just an attempt to get him to break his fast in order to be unable to continue glorifying himself as the righteous, unblemished lamb of God, which is his excuse for condemning people to eternal torment to begin with. It's also an attempt to, in doing so, humiliate him. I disagree with that, but I know many people find the need to "humble" the haughty and Jesus is the one claiming to be basically the most important human who ever lived.

Secondly, what we hear about Satan is mostly from Jesus talking behind his back, who demonizes him thoroughly. Maybe Jesus knows the subject better, but his judgment is pretty poor. He calls his own apostles fools, compares begging women to dogs, uses allegories that imply that he wouldn't ordinarily expect a Samaritan to do the right thing, and physically assaults people after losing his temper in a temple. Are we really going to take his account of Satan as accurate?

Thirdly, if we do take what is said about Satan to be accurate, what is it that is actually said about him? He leads mankind into spiritual death. Given the way Heaven is described in places like Ezekiel, which feels like a celestial North Korea with Jehovah on top, that might be preferable. Especially given the earlier complaints about Jehovah.

We also know that he tempts mankind into sinning. Except, the Biblical narrative presents sin as disobedience to Jehovah and his draconic mishvot that have no real rationality to them. And, again, it's disobeying Jehovah, who I think is probably not the best being to listen to.

In fact, much of what Satan is accused of doing is getting people to question their faith in Jehovah and to focus on more material matters, which I actually think is pretty sound advice.

The closest we get to a description of Satanic action is in Jude 1:6-9. I would hardly call blasphemy, disobedience, dreaming, and fornicating evil.

Outside of Revelation, which is a notoriously controversial work with many different interpretations, the worst thing Satan does is in Job. Which is, to be quite honest, not defensible. Still, Jehovah, Jesus, and the majority of Biblical heroes performed actions that were way worse than what Satan does. Samson alone killed more people.

Even if we accept that Satan is the snake in Genesis 2, all he did was free Adam and Eve from the ignorance that kept them enslaved to Jehovah. He didn't even lie; they did not die the day they ate from that fruit and they really did become like the gods in that they knew good and evil. It was Jehovah who cursed them. More likely, Satan is actually being identified with Leviathan when the New Testament identifies him with the serpent, though, and the Leviathan is the monster that helped Noah escape Jehovah.

Most, if not all, of what Satan is lambasted for is merely opposing Jehovah. The Bible does say that he is a murderer and vaguely maybe blames him for a war that may or may not happen in the future, but it doesn't exactly go into detail about those things. And again, even if they were true, Satan still ends up the clear moral victor over Jehovah, in my opinion.

I am more mystified by the fact that people still willingly worship Jehovah and Jesus than by the fact that some people willingly become Satanists.

 

[Ella S.]

No there isn't. Those were likely only pagans. Satanism was always an ill perceived accusation up until recently, circa the 1960s. No one in history proclaimed the title and made it their own until then.

This is partially because "Satanism" is a rather new word and did not see too much widespread use, though.

People have been worshiping Satan for much longer than that. They were just normally called Luciferians or witches during the Middle Ages, and then later they were often called Diabolists during the occult movement. We know that Carl William Hansen and Eugen Grosche both venerated Satan, and Crowley incorporated Satan into some of his rituals, for instance. Israel Regardie and Eliphas Levi go into detail about some of the practices of Diabolists in their time and are worth reading on the subject. Edward Kelley is a noteworthy high profile case.

Parisian Diabolism, while there was quite a bit of exaggeration in the pop culture surrounding it and widespread misinformation, was a real practice by Decadents who took inspiration from goetic rituals. There were even prayers written to Satan, such as the infamous "Litany of Satan" written by Baudelaire.

A good chunk of people who worshiped Satan prior to the 20th century were pagans who had their rituals to their underworld deity Christianized but continued to observe the practice, anyway. This is because Catholic missionaires often co-opted pagan deities during conversion, most often identifying sky father deities with Jehovah and underworld deities with Satan. We see that in Quimbanda and some strains of brujeria, both of which predate the 1960s. In fact, goetic tradition in general was often directly influenced by these pagan practices in their own descriptions of rituals to various demons.

So "Satanism" in the commonly understood meaning of "the worship of Satan" has been around for a very long time. It's just that the word itself was not used very frequently. I find it difficult to believe that Satanism was never used as a self-descriptor prior to the 20th century, but I can accept that we might not have any surviving documentation of that happening if any existed to begin with.

 

[Secret Chief]

I personally think the human body is beautiful in all its shapes and sizes, no tattoos needed to adorn it. But some tattoos are also beautiful

Spoiler: Perhaps this one tickles your fancy

View attachment 81746

Hmmmmmm, maybe not.
Mine won't be for adornment, it will be as an act of remembrance.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Satan tempted Jesus to eat rocks. That is what a 3-year old tries to do to their parents. Like what kind of mindset do Satanists have? I just don't see it.
Why do Satanists believe that Satan is better in their view to God?
Why do many, but not all, Satanists get absurd amounts of tattoos and piercings? Is it just a style choice or a meaning behind it?
From the limited interactions with Satanists I've had, they have this attitude where they believe it is okay to hurt others because they were hurt by someone else. How do they justify that and where does this attitude come from?

Do you realize that most groups that identify as "satanists" don't actually believe in demons, devils and gods?
They are essentially atheists who identify with Satan symbolically. As a rebel who stands up against a dictator. Who doesn't bow for the idea of "might makes right".

The little I know about it, I think it's ridiculous though.
But you don't seem to be understanding this. They do not hold theistic beliefs. At least not the ones that I am aware off.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

So "Satanism" in the commonly understood meaning of "the worship of Satan" has been around for a very long time. It's just that the word itself was not used very frequently. I find it difficult to believe that Satanism was never used as a self-descriptor prior to the 20th century, but I can accept that we might not have any surviving documentation of that happening if any existed to begin with.

It probably didn't happen because to zealous Christians every other religion comes from Satan amd is thus Satanic. Obviously it just doesn't work like that, and is something so poorly thought out that Christians erroneously assumed many Pagan deities were demons (even if the specific religion has no concept of them), with the imagry even being coopted for their own purposes such as how they made Cernnunos red and called it the Devil.

 

[Kfox]

Satan tempted Jesus to eat rocks. That is what a 3-year old tries to do to their parents. Like what kind of mindset do Satanists have? I just don't see it.
Why do Satanists believe that Satan is better in their view to God?
Why do many, but not all, Satanists get absurd amounts of tattoos and piercings? Is it just a style choice or a meaning behind it?
From the limited interactions with Satanists I've had, they have this attitude where they believe it is okay to hurt others because they were hurt by someone else. How do they justify that and where does this attitude come from?

My understanding is that they do not worship Satan, rather they honor him. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were basically like animals grazing in a field, and it wasn't until Satan cajoled them to eat from the tree of knowledge did they become intelligent like humans are today. So they credit Satan for mankind being intelligent as we are now.

 

[Alien826]

I tend to think of people with tattoos as being people who want tattoos.
I'll get one one day, but I want that day to be a long way off.

I don't think there is anything wrong with having tattoos. I don't have any because they are too difficult to change or remove. I know that anything I chose today I'd hate in a year's time.

 

[Alien826]

Here are a couple of fictional representations of Satan that I like. Not to be taken too seriously.

From the TV series Lucifer: Lucifer is an angel, no different from other angels in terms of morality. He has been appointed by God to be in charge of Hell, which is for "bad" people, and their punishment is to relive their deeds in an endless loop. It's not permanent, they can get out of hell by realizing that they were wrong and forgiving themselves. Few manage this. Lucifer gets fed up with all this and hates God for imposing it on him, so he comes to Earth and opens a night club. He enjoys sex and booze, which is easy for him as he is irresistible to women and has an almost endless tolerance for alcohol. Eventually God decides to resign and Lucifer gets the chance to be God. He decides instead to return to Hell and help the damned souls find a way out. A love story between Lucifer and an LA lady detective threads it way through all this, with a surprise happy ending.

Robert Heinlein's book Job: Very loosely based on the the Biblical story, it is set in a world where the YEC view of the world is correct. Both Jehovah and Satan are junior gods. They have more powerful entities that they are subject to. Jehovah has created the world as an amusement, and Satan is doing him a favor in playing that part in the story. Hell is a pleasant place with a bad reputation, and Heaven is somewhat as described in the Bible with golden streets and so on. Jehovah is shown to be a bad guy and Satan good. A love story between the protagonist and a female character from another god's universe has a happy ending (of course).

 

[1137]

I think there are 2 paths to Satanism. For atheism the path is edginess, there is nothing more to be extrapolated from it. For theism the path is confusion, mainly confusing authentic beings of value with a made up Christian boogeyman.

 

[ChristineM]

I think there are 2 paths to Satanism. For atheism the path is edginess, there is nothing more to be extrapolated from it. For theism the path is confusion, mainly confusing authentic beings of value with a made up Christian boogeyman.

Or an atheist would just say duh!!!

 

[1137]

Or an atheist would just say duh!!!

Idk, the atheistic Satanists are often the worst people I interact with online.

 

[Ebionite]

My understanding is that they do not worship Satan, rather they honor him. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were basically like animals grazing in a field, and it wasn't until Satan cajoled them to eat from the tree of knowledge did they become intelligent like humans are today. So they credit Satan for mankind being intelligent as we are now.

Human pride obstructs intelligence. Mankind was gifted the capacity for intelligence from their creator.

The serpent of of the garden didn't walk anywhere after that incident.

And YHWH Elohim said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Genesis 3:14

And YHWH said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered YHWH, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:7

 

[1137]

Human pride obstructs intelligence. Mankind was gifted the capacity for intelligence from their creator.

The serpent of of the garden didn't walk anywhere after that incident.

And YHWH Elohim said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Genesis 3:14

And YHWH said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered YHWH, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:7

"I tempt none, Save with the truth: was not the Tree, the Tree Of Knowledge? and was not the Tree of Life Still fruitful? Did I bid her pluck them not? Did I plant things prohibited within The reach of beings innocent, and curious By their own innocence? I would have made ye gods; and even He who thrust ye forth, so thrust ye Because "ye should not eat the fruits of life, And become gods as we." Were those his words?... Then who was the Demon? He Who would not let ye live, or he who would Have made ye live for ever, in the joy And power of Knowledge?"

- Cain: A Mystery, Act 1, lines 195-210

 

[Ebionite]

I tempt none, Save with the truth: was not the Tree, the Tree Of Knowledge?

A specific kind of knowledge.

But go ye and learn what [that] meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Matthew 9:13

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of Elohim more than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6

He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Isaiah 53:11