I am not on Twitter so I’m not sure how I came across this tweet thread while surfing the internet during my hernia recovery, but it cracked me up. After a quick laugh, I went on to watch dog rescue videos and waste time and brain cells browsing the Internet.
But the line “Satanists don’t believe in a literal Satan” stuck in my head for a few days.
They don’t?
I thought that was the whole point. Worship Satan, embrace evil, perform animal sacrifice, etc. My only understanding of Satanism comes from a few bad movies I saw back when I was a teen and whatever mixed up mythology is still in my head from my Catholic upbringing.
So I decided to check it out.
According to Wikipedia and The Satanic Temple Website:
The Satanic Temple has seven fundamental tenets
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.
Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.
People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
Hmm…this sounds quite reasonable. In fact, it sounds a like like Libertarianism. What’s this all about?
And so, I dug in to read some more. Some writers call this a satirical “religion” that pokes fun at mainstream religions and politics. Other articles highlight how Satanists fight for religious and personal freedom along the lines of the ACLU (or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).
When I think of the few weirdo Goths and antisocial misanthropes I’ve known in my life, I pictured them as Satanists. I’d imagine a few members of the Temple are people like this. I see similar LARPing weirdos and play acting anarchists in the Libertarian party too.After all, it’s images of these people that the media promote as much as possible. Gary Johnson, Bill Weld and Jo Jorgenson all appear to be too normal for mainstream media to give them much press.
I can’t imagine the mainstream press ever giving Satanists any press, unless it involves insane people, gore, murder and mayhem.
I’m quite surprised by the intellectual rigor, the wittiness and the humor I’ve seen from The Satanist Temple I’ve read online.
The Church of Satan’s website is a little “out there” with some mysticism and less digestible content. But it also provides thought provoking statements worth intellectual consideration:
Stupidity and Self Deception are cardinal sins.
Do unto others as they do unto you.
You must never lose sight of who and what you are.
Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
I would have never considered myself as sharing any principles with a Satanist. Even the word itself brings me a sense of revulsion from the pit of my stomach.
And yet, it seems clear that I was misinformed.
Food for thought.