Skeptic Project

On this page you quoted Alex Jones's mention of an alleged "ancient Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion" whose existence is indeed highly unlikely, but your explanation of why it's unlikely contains the following error:

By Luciferian I assume he's referring to Satanists who worship an actual anthropomorphic Satan. Such a belief system actually isn't too different from Christianity, considering if one is willing to worship "Satan" / "The Devil", then one essentially are agreeing that the Christian view of Lucifer is therefore real. And of course, if one admits that aspect of Christianity is real, then one is admitting to worshipping what is considered to be a lesser being, meanwhile acknowledging the Christian God actually exists.

In fact, there are many forms of theistic Satanism, with different theologies. The simple reverse-Christian theology you describe above is held by some but not most theistic Satanists, as far as I can tell. Other theistic Satanisms can be polytheistic, pantheistic, or Gnostic-based.

However, Satanisms -- of whatever kind -- clearly are MODERN religions. No matter what their theology, their symbolism is clearly derived from Christianity, hence their origin must be subsequent to the birth of Christianity. Thus they cannot be ancient pre-Christian religions -- although they CAN be syncretic religions, drawing on ancient pre-Christian roots as well as the obvious Christian roots.

Satanism to me sounds like just another branch of christianity, like Protestantism or Mormonism. Worshiping satan makes about as much sense as the worship of Mary and the saints, practiced by Catholics but renounced by Protestants.

BTW, I wonder how Protestants can get away with their "atheism" towards Mary and the saints. They might believe that historical figures with those names lived godly lives, and then continue to exist in some fashion in the afterlife. But unlike the Catholics, Protestants don't believe in praying to the saints, especially asking them to perform miracles, even though Catholic tradition claims that this woo has worked on many occasions.

So, why haven't the Virgin and the saints zapped the Protestants for their unbelief in them?

@Diana,

I was referring to Satanists who worship an actual satanic deity based on the Christian concept of Satan, not self-worship or anything like that as we see with Anton LaVey's Church of Satan.

If you have a suggestion on a better way to word that paragraph, I'd like to see it -- if it's good, I'll change it and mark you as a contributor to the article (if you'd like).

"And of course, if one admits that aspect of Christianity is real, then one is admitting to worshipping what is considered to be a lesser being, meanwhile acknowledging the Christian God actually exists."

Dont lose this point, I like this one.
Its worship by proxie, I like the point very much.

Not necessarily, to state that it does not apply to all satanism as a blanket statement would be incorrect. Likewise to state it is applicable to all satanists would be wrong.

It can certainly be attributed to the individual satanists that have the context of a being they worship or idolise, specifically in context of the anti christ deity.

This is regardless of whether they have all encompassing views of other methodologies of worship. If they admit that a satanic deity exists, even in the slightest form they are also admitting that there is a God of sorts due to its inherent associations in modern mythology/faith.

* remember I am discussing individual belief structures here, and this statement Edward has made can be attributed to this particular mindset.

I am suprised you dont think what I said to be reasonable to state, since what you are describing is ambiguous and generalised, therefore my specific statement regarding a particular mind set seems fairly acurate.

You would have to be absolutely specific to state it was not a fair statement.