How Do You Know if You Were Born to a Satan Follower
Story highlights
- On their websites, the Church of Satan and the Satanic Temple say Satan is a symbol, not a being
- The groups refuse holy sites, gods and other things sacred to most religions, only they place a high value on symbolism and art
- They don't celebrate Jesus' nativity, just on satanist says he spends time with family and "enjoy(s) the richness of life" on Christmas
(CNN)When you recollect satanism, images of pierced, black-clad youths gathering at dark, listening to hardcore death metallic music and sacrificing animals may come to heed.
Simply you might exist surprised to learn that many satanists are a lot more interested in community activism and individual freedoms than heavy metal or performing bizarre rites.
Here are a few things you might not know almost satanism:
Most satanists aren't devil worshipers
Surprisingly, virtually menu-conveying satanists practice not worship Satan or whatever other form of the devil -- they are actually atheists. The Church building of Satan, founded in the mid-1960s, explains information technology this way on its website: "Satan to us is a symbol of pride, freedom and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. We do not believe in Satan as a being or person."
The Church of Satan puts the individual at the heart of the universe, what high priest Peter Gilmore describes as going from an "a-theist" to an "I-theist."
The Satanic Temple, which formed in recent years to fight a perceived intrusion of Christian values on American politics, says, "nosotros exercise not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To encompass the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions."
They are OK with jubilant Christmas
Why would satanists exist OK with celebrating the nascency of Jesus? Because, the Church of Satan claims, "Christians stole this holiday from the pagans -- Santa Claus has come up to signify indulgence, and he is a combination of Dionysos and Silenus from Roman and Greek myths."
"Then for the Yule holiday season we enjoy the richness of life and the company of people whom we cherish, equally we will frequently be the only ones who know where the traditions really came from!"
Michael Mars, a Detroit artist and member of the Satanic Temple, says he celebrates Christmas, simply not as a twenty-four hour period to commemorate Jesus' nascency.
"I personally just view it equally more of a fourth dimension to be with my family unit," he told CNN's Lisa Ling. He, like other members of the Satanic Temple, has no problem with other religions' holidays.
"I feel like everyone should have the right to celebrate their religion," Mars said, "but every voice has to be heard."
You won't find a satanic church building in your community
The Church of Satan doesn't have actual church buildings, considering "that would be against our individualist approach to living," its website says. For a short time, its founder Anton LaVey used his San Francisco dwelling house as the church building'southward headquarters, where he performed rituals. Now, the church building is based in New York, and its headquarters is not open to visitors.
The Church of Satan once had "grottos," or local chapters, just it disbanded those after deeming them "unnecessary."
The Satanic Temple has capacity in at least a dozen locations in the United states of america, too as Finland and Italy, but it also does not have permanent physical temples.
The temple had difficulty finding a temporary location for the unveiling of its massive Baphomet statue in Detroit this summer: Threats and protests caused the owners of several locations to back out. It finally found a venue, but it had to proceed the location secret -- even from those attending -- until the night of the upshot, because of security concerns.
In that location was a "satanic panic" in the 1980s and '90s
In the 1980s and 1990s, American talk shows and news programs linked reports of animal sacrifice and ritualistic killing to satanic worship. Slate.com, which explored the "satanic ritual abuse panic," reported in January 2014 that it all began with allegations of baroque rites and molestation at a California preschool -- a story that took on a life of its own with the advent of the 24-hour news cycle:
• As televangelists prayed for deliverance from Satan's scourge, talk show "experts" claimed that every imaginable form of abuse was happening on a massive scale in America and that networks of Satanists had infiltrated schools, the police, and local regime. Geraldo Rivera claimed in a televised 1987 special written report that more a million satanists were plying their evil merchandise in America correct at the very moment. (He has since apologized.) In 1989, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Michelle Smith and another woman who claimed to have recovered memories of beingness abused by a satanic cult; Sally Jesse Raphael, not to be outdone, ran two shows on the bailiwick.
The California preschool trial ended with no convictions and an FBI study concluding that the satanic ritual corruption allegations were non apparent. But, every bit Slate.com pointed out, that didn't put an end to the concerns: "A Redbook mag survey conducted in 1994 found that fully 70 per centum of Americans believed that satanic ritual corruption was real."
It probably didn't aid that at the fourth dimension, many American teens were listening to heavy metal bands that intertwined their rebellious music with satanic imagery and songs about the devil.
Symbolism and art are important
While satanism may eschew holy sites, gods and other tenets that are sacred to most religions, it places a high value on symbolism and fine art.
The Satanic Temple has used symbols of Satan to draw attention to what it sees as the hypocrisy of Christian symbols on authorities property. For years, it petitioned to have a massive Baphomet statue -- a caprine animal-headed symbol of Satan -- in the Oklahoma state Capitol, which was home to a Ten Commandments statue.
Afterwards learning of plans to display a nativity scene to commemorate Christmas at Michigan'southward country Capitol last year, the Satanic Temple placed what information technology called a "snaketivity scene" on the Capitol grounds. The three-human foot-tall sculpture featured a snake wrapped around a cross with the message, "The Greatest Gift is Knowledge."
"There's nothing wrong with (having a birth scene on government property) ... if other religions can be accepted besides," said Michael Mars, who helped create the satanic display. "There tin can't be one dominating voice to all the voices."
The display got a lot of news coverage and, Mars said, "a lot of people threatened to destroy it. Only for the most part, I felt like it was met with acceptance and curiosity."
The Church of Satan also incorporates art into its practice, although for very unlike reasons than the more customs activist-driven Satanic Temple.
"Symbols are essentially natural human being constructs," explains Gilmore, the Church of Satan high priest, who recently curated an exhibit and book called "The Devils Reign," featuring satanic-themed fine art.
"Satanists feel that we should proudly admire this most precious man capacity without the need to use mythological figures as distancing intermediaries."
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/11/living/5-things-satanists/index.html
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