That’s a subjective opinion, the emboldened words might help you grasp the contradiction.
I’m joking. The time for seriousness has passed. The time for laugher is upon us. Let the humour flow!
Ratty. Why must you insist on making a fool of yourself? Once again you have an untenable position. Have you not heard that it is better to remain quiet and let people think you are foolish, than it is to open your mouth and prove it?
Satanists do not think Satan is evil. He is in fact, subjectively good. Satan is the god of freedom, exploration, and experimentation. It is the Christian God that is the god of 'don’t do this and don’t do that." It is the Christian god that is the god of ignorance, fear, threats, and everlasting torture for not falling in line. Nothing at all exists like this in Satanism. Satanism is all about Freedom. The tenents of Satanism make this clear,
I
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
II
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
III
One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
IV
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.
V
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.
VI
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.
VII
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.
Crest image by LUCIANA NEDELEA.
Where do you find Evil in this?
I’m not sure what the sacrificing virgin thing has to do with anything. It’s unfortunate that people were so ignorant that they once believed in such nonsense. We call that ‘ignorance,’ not evil. Ignorance, you know, like belief in a black and white world while professing to be studying Buddhism. Complete and total ignorance.
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Thanks Cog. How fair of you to dispensate the “compassionate and wise” tenants of Satanism, while simultaneously insulting my basic humanity, portraying me to be a blind and ignorant follower of Buddhism.
I’m really reconsidering my trip to Korea that I was planning. We were going to pound back a few beers together. Now I’m not so sure.
Self deprecation is sometimes a healthy sign of a good sense of humour. Especially when the person maintains a fairly good level of self esteem while doing it. If you can’t laugh at your self (as they say) … who can you laugh at?
I honestly don’t give a shit about ethics and morality. I took a position, I held to it, and Sheldon and I have been going round in circles for over a week.
I’m not even remotely convinced that he was right. I happen to think that the only moral standard which matters is the one held by beings in positions of authority (ie. those who have the power to exact punishments). This has proven to be the case over history - from Solomon the wise king of the Israelites, to his disappointing son Saul, the despot.
I think you get my gist.
And to that end, I hold my self to the standards of my own moral system. I don’t hold others to my same standard. That happens to be a tenant of my moral collection of values. Nor do I exact punishment on anyone.
I may swear and curse at bad drivers for being idiots, however that is the extent of my “exterior” moral consequentialism.
My gainful employment actually puts me in a position of power; giving me the lawful right to use force in evicting people from my client’s property. I extend this right sparingly. More often than not I’m extremely light handed with the people I’m legally entitled to push around.
And, other than that, look at me the wrong way, and I’ll probably bust your chops. Chalk that up to my unusually large penis and above average levels of testosterone.
Have another banana, Cog.
LOL… You lose again ratty. You have not been paying attention. I don’t pound back beers. I can’t remember the last time I had a drink… Wait. About three months ago, I had some Kahalua on my ice cream. Before that, it had to be a year. You go ahead and pound back all the beers you like. Nasty stuff as far as I am concerned. And, I hate the buzz.
How about sharing a prostitute for the night?
Do you intoxicate your self with anything illicit? Cocaine, MDMA, mushrooms …?
Not in 25 years. I tried it all when I was younger and just outgrew the need. I would do shrooms again, I would try peyote (it escaped me during my youth) and I would probably not be opposed to MDMA once. I would also try iowaska if the opportunity presented itself. However, I do not take such things on a whim. My trips are all planned. Attention paid to location, time, things to do, and snacks.
I drink regularly. A couple of beers for the body buzz and then a few more for good measure … religiously … every weekend.
I also take Kava recreationally. Heightens the senses. Rather enjoyable.
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Long-term kava use may be associated with a range of problems including apathy, weight loss and liver damage.
I’ll give it a pass.
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Thanks I think this forum may help me learn more and answer some philosophical problems I have
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First, define good and evil.
In the 1950s (in the USA), interracial couples who married were evil . . . and the legal system that decided this was defending Christian virtue, so the legal system was “good.”
Now, we look back and have decided that the legal system was “evil,” and the interracial couples who broke the law to get married are now “good.”
Good and evil are fuzzy, grey, fluid, and amorphous ideas.
So . . . we are making conclusions about an omniscent being (ie: God) without even having a clear definition of the concepts that we’re arguing about.
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Don’t the Jews agree that he was not a bad guy either?
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It depends: Kabbalistic sources expand the view of Satan considerably, offering a rich and detailed portrayal of the demonic realm and the forces of evil in the world, which are to be warded off in some cases with various forms of magic, from amulets to exorcisms.
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Evil is an adjective which describes an action but it is a religious invention and there really is no such thing.
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Not really. Evil is an adjective that describes a feeling about an action and not the action itself. You bring evil into the world with your judgment. It really does not matter if there is no such thing when people act as if there is such a thing. The end result of evil in the world is witch burning in Nigeria. Prejudice against homosexuals. Exorcisms, damnation, and shunning by the Churches people attend. And much more. Evil describes a feeling one person has about the world around them. In that it is a feeling and not an empirically verified or accurate, it is as real as sadness, depression, happiness, etc. Be cautious around the Christian congregations less you become identified as ‘evil.’ Be doubly careful around Islamic congregations!
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Are evil and good (as in absolute good, I suppose) even real things? I would argue they aren’t, that moral judgements such as “good” and “evil” are relative. In short, I reject the basic question you’ve asked because, as far as I can tell, most people are good in some respect or other and most will probably do occassional bad things and those characteristics vary across a range (in addition to being judged differently by various people).
So here is a thought experiment I like to think about when it comes to ethics. It’s called the trolley dilemma. I won’t lay out the whole thing here, but I’ll post a link to the wiki.
The idea is you are faced with an impossible choice, and either outcome will result in the lose of life. The catch is, even a decision of inaction could be considered unethical.
I’ve tried to place my own thoughts on “good an evil” into this experiment. Everyone I’ve talked to about it has very different feelings on it. Is any single decision inherently evil to differing degrees or are they all equally evil choices?
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How did the choices become evil? It’s just a word. There is a choice to me made, your belief may be the most evil part of your perception.
A = The activating event. The trolley is coming and people are going to die.
B= Your belief = If I do this I am Evil. If I do that, I am evil. If I do nothing, I am evil.
C= The Consequence. Your action.
In your belief, you are wrestling with not being evil instead of making a decision. You are struggling with a way to avoid being a bad person and that is the real dilemma.
Acceptance of the fact that you are a bad person, that you have done bad things in your life, and that you will probably do bad things again, can free you to act. It makes no difference if you make a right or wrong decision. The only difference is, can you live with the consequences. Which consequence are you willing to live with? It may be unfortunate that someone is going to die. That is the reality. The trolley is not evil for rolling down the track, though it will eventually kill someone. The people on the tracks are not evil for being stupid enough to stand there while a trolley is coming. You are not evil for entertaining this problem and being forced to make a choice. Perhaps we can call the mind of the person who thought up the dilemma ‘evil.’ After all, who sits around thinking this sort of shit up? I know, God! Ergo… God is evil.
Or we could change the way we think about things.
A = The trolley is coming.
B= This is a shit place to be in, and I have no choice but to choose. I will make the best choice I can giveen my current assessment.
C= Make a choice and know that any choice you made at the time was done with the best possible intent and with the best information you had at the time. (No evil at all.)
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