OT: CNN opinion about “satanism”

[Coronita]

Did any of you catch this opinion article

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/11/living/5-things-satanists/index.html

Ok. I might not be the most pious person on the face of the planet. And some might even consider me agnostic.

But does it strike anyone as odd about this article, like trying to “rebrand” the concept of satan?

Is the world and CNN gone mad or something?

It’s a little disturbing.

[moneymaker]

Never made to to the site. Link had too many redirects. Very weird!

[Coronita]

[quote=moneymaker]Never made to to the site. Link had too many redirects. Very weird![/quote]

Great. I am hallucinating or god is testing me. Fun fun.

[NotCranky]

The holidays , death , divorce, natural disasters these things tend to make people who are normally religious get even more so People who haven’t been religious in a real long time, but only because they were too busy doing other stuff, like getting drunk , start to rethink things. Doesn’t phase real skeptics.

[svelte]

Flu, Satanism has been around a long time. No re-invention needed.

I’ve studied it some and think in many ways I’m more in line with Atheistic Satanism (which is not devil worship), also known as LaVeyan Satanism, than I am with traditional religions.

For instance, most of the Eleven Satanic Rules resonate with me:

http://darkbiology.com/satanism_and_dark_biology.htm

I think what most Christians don’t understand is that December can be almost unbearable to non-Christians. We’re accosted daily with references to Christ. I’m a live and let live type of guy so it’s fine – but when someone starts talking about Jesus they better be prepared to hear my viewpoint too.

Just this week, my wife and I were walking through the neighborhood when two males approached us handing us Jesus material. They kept pressing even when we said we were atheists. Finally when we had enough and were walking away, they said “God Bless You”, so I said “Hail Satan” in return. My wife was shocked! I had just had my fill.

And believe it or not, while I’m typing this in, guess who just came to the door! More Christians hawking their pamphlets! Unbelievable!

[Anonymous]

They kept pressing because you said you were atheists.

I’ve always enjoyed the portrayals of heaven in those pamphlets. Of course they show happy people, but sometimes the juxtaposition is a pretty strange. I recall one had safari type animals in the scene. There was a smiling child petting a cheetah. I thought it was sad that she had died as a child, but at least she was in a better place – a place where you can freely pet the wild animals.

I guess the carnivores don’t kill you in heaven because then where would you go?

[scaredyclassic]

Depressing image…the Disney fication of nature. Or maybe it’s a subtle Christian commentary of man’s divine right to subjugate nature …

Either way, I will decline any heaven invite offered me by any divine being, real 9r imagined.

[poorgradstudent]

Satanism has always struck me as a little… childish. I mean, without Christianity and the Bible, you don’t have Satan. Satan is a character of the New Testament. So it’s sort of odd branding for Atheists/Secular Humanists to take on. I realize part of that is historical and part of it is intended for shock value, but in 2015 it seems more than a little silly.

[Doofrat]

[img_assist|nid=25652|title=Heaven|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=71]

Wow, there’s a lot of these on Google Images. Highly saturated colorful paradise, people of every race, and they really like showing people interacting with carnivorous wildlife.

The style is something you saw when you read books in the 1st grade, but this is targeted to adults.

[Doofrat]

[quote=poorgradstudent]Satanism has always struck me as a little… childish. I mean, without Christianity and the Bible, you don’t have Satan. Satan is a character of the New Testament. So it’s sort of odd branding for Atheists/Secular Humanists to take on. I realize part of that is historical and part of it is intended for shock value, but in 2015 it seems more than a little silly.[/quote]

What’s silly is that people (the god fearing, fanciful story believing, letting little Jimmy go camping with Father McDonough type) actually believe in Satan. I think the “Satanists” are just having a little fun pointing that back at them.
It’s kind of like drawing Mohammad, it’s a silly exercise, but it really get’s the true believers “goat”.

[flyer]

Two things we all know for sure is that we all live and we all die. When it comes to the belief spectrum, everything else might be considered speculation, so it’s not really too surprising to see extremes.

[scaredyclassic]

I am certain there is no physical reality, that everything is purely information, just bits and bytes, and that our reality something like a program running in nothingness.

This is not just speculation: I believe this will be proven true shortly. Scientists are working feverishly. Please stand by.

[moneymaker]

I have the equation that the universe is based on scaredy but I don’t know how to apply it. It’s incredibly simple and complex at the same time. In laymans terms it is a difference engine of extremely large size that outputs a physical constant.On the death thing I for one plan to live as long as I can, my son believes there is someone alive right now that will live to be 150. Hopefully I’m in the running.

[flyer]

It is always possible that there is no physical reality–in the commonly accepted definition. This has always been one premise of metaphysics–that the reality we experience is nothing more than the physical manifestation of
thought–individually or collectively.

From this perspective, I can understand how substituting bits and bytes of information could easily fit into this premise on a scientific level.

Sans physicality, it is also easy to see how life, in that form, could go on forever, and yet, at that point in the equation, it might be necessary to redefine life itself.

Imo, as long as life and death exist, the search for immortality will continue. Personally, I think the scientific and spiritual premises of this quest are quite compatible. More so than one might think.

[svelte]

[quote=flyer]
Imo, as long as life and death exist, the search for immortality will continue. Personally, I think the scientific and spiritual premises of this quest are quite compatible. More so than one might think.[/quote]

Those religions that believe in a supreme being are at odds with science, IMO. It is only in the last ten years or so that I have heard Christians start adopting some of the scientific constructs and proposing that they aren’t at odds. Christianity is morphing, as it always has done and always will do.

I don’t mind any of that, but find it amusing.

What really gets under my skin, though, is when folks go to the ballot box and try to vote in their beliefs as law, so that all of us must live by the tenets of their religion. I see that mostly from Christians, but have no doubt if this country was a majority Muslim or Hindu population, they’d be doing the same thing.

So if your religion believes there is a Dyson DC50 way up in the sky that invented the earth in 16 days and thinks you have to scratch your butt for 5 minutes a day to worship him/her/it, I’m all for it. Just don’t pass any rules saying my kid has to scratch his butt at school for five minutes a day.

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