Devil Worship?

Well, I'm not a Satanist, but I read somewhere that Satanism was born out of the Gnostic ideals, which were eventualy branded as Satanic by the Church.

The Gnostic ideal in summary is that there is a true deity out there that made everything. This deity, the Supreme Being, created everything and in the end created lesser gods.

One of these lesser gods is the Demiurge, a delusional god that thinks he created everything and that he is supreme.

Gnostics believe that the Demiurge is evil and that the Demiurge is the God of the Bible.

Some believe that the Demiurge created the Earth and everything on it and thusly, everything is evil and that it doesn't matter if they defile it. In fact, they believe that it should be defiled, hence the orgies, the sacrifices and everything.

Not all Gnostics believe that last part, though.

I think, maybe, Satanists believe that the Satan or to be more precise, Lucifer, is a good angel that merely questioned a tyrant God and was punished for questioning him.

It all differs, depending on what perspective you look at.

Gnosticism, by the way, involves ascending spiritually above these planes and reuniting with the Supreme Being or something like that.

Wow - THAT is really facinating!

So - Are those who call themselves Satanists today adhere to their Gnostic origins, belief that God is the Demiurge and so on?

The Gnostics believe the Demiure is evil? On what do they base this?

Do you know of any reading material on this?
I know this is taking this thread on a whole new twist, but boy, I'd like to know more.....

If Lucifer, the light bearer is preceived as being a good angel, do Satanists portray him in a good light during their "services"?

Reuniting with the Supreme Being, the one above the Demiurge, so that would be a positive things?

However, my initial ?'s still stand in how they pracitice in today's world, who they are, are they family people etc.

Not entirely sure.

Some say that the Matrix has some Gnostic leanings too.

The machines that made the human world are the Demiurge and are the gods of the Matrix.

Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" triology also has Gnostic leanings.



Your best bet is to go to Wikipedia and type in Gnosticism. You'll get a good article there.



I'm guessing it all depends on the frame of mind of the Satanist. If they're Gnostics, they aren't really Satanists, so they won't be focusing on Satan anyway.

As far as I can remember, Gnostics don't really believe or worship Satan. They try to ascend.

Satanists are those that just believe Lucifer was the one rebelling against a tyrant God. They thus do the opposite of what is preached in the Bible. They may or may not portray him in a good light, but it all depends on the Satanist. Some just like the darkness and I suppose they would portray him as evil.



For the Gnostic, yes.



You'd have to ask a Satanist about that.

I'm sure Wikipedia has an article on Satanism too, but I've never really looked.

P.S. Note that Gnostics and Satanists are not the same thing. The only thing they have in common is that both don't believe that the God of the Bible is the one true God. (There are also Christian Gnostic sects).

OK - Anybody else?

Slappy? You must know Something about this!

I'm fairly certain that many practicing Satanists make up their rules and rituals as they go along.

Several years ago there was a local case where a local teenage nerd was kidnapped and subjected to an evening of hazing with pentagrams and candles and lots of personal insults and a certain amount of physical abuse.

The ringleader was over 18 and spent a year in the county correctional facility. As I remember the charge was "unlawful detention" or some such plea bargain.

He made the papers again when he begged the judge to give him a holiday furlough so that he could spend Christmas with his family.

Christmas, fabulous!

Also, painting stop signs with reversed pentacles strikes me more as vandalism than as blasphemy.

Chai tea, One of my best and oldest friends is a Satanist. He keeps it secret as to not be jugde or scare people.You would never know it inless he told you.Every once in a while I flip through his satanic bible.They have there own 10 commandments(very interesting).Its a very arrogant religion in my view.Would you like me to post the satanic ten commandments?Also, Anton lavey(founder and author of the satanic church and bible)He didn't come up the church of satan because he believed satan was real but to position himself as far from christianity as possible.

Yes, yes I do.

Pentagrams, killing goats, and listening to Slayer is wicked cool.

Chai Tea, maybe you're talking about 3 different things here. Long ago the fledgling Catholic Church killed all the Gnostics they could find, both pagan and Christian, thinking them heretics. All written material by the Gnostics was distroyed, some of which was written by Jesus' disciples but not included in the bible as we know it. This would be, of course, knowledge of the indwelling God in all of us. Me, I didn't know there were religions that didn't teach this concept.

But, now, in 1945 an entire library of the Naassenes Gnostics was found buried in clay jars in Egypt. Scholars have translated and studied this material for decades. There were many differing "Gnostics" and some of them were Pagan, but the Naassenes, scholars think, were privy to the true teachings of Jesus.

But, don't listen to me. Maybe you could read a new book written by a biblical scholar: Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes, by Mark H. Gaffney. He does talk of all things discussed here and would be, at least, the healthiest source of such knowledge. He does speak of the different Gods. There are not many of these books in the hands of the general public because they are not interested but continue to argue and fight over who's religion is the right one. People are becoming more interested, however, since Dan Brown's books. But, Brown's books seem mostly about The Church. Gaffney pulls together all the major religions.

I don't know a thing about Satanism except it's a thing taken up by lost people, sometimes kids. Maybe it's like a gang for kids, but probably could become an obsession.

Before Gaffney's book I had read only Elaine Pagels of the Nag Hammadi library (books written by some of Jesus' disciples that Bishops of The Church chose not to include in the "bible."

One paragraph on page 4 of Gaffney's book: "We are going to examine powerful evidence that the Gnostic element was present in Christianity from the beginning, and was, in fact, the very heart of the teachings of Jesus. We will discover that the Gnostic controversy that developed in the second century C.E.--the issue that obsessed Church leaders such as Irenaeus--occurred not because pristine Christianity became polluted by Gnostic heresy, as the Church argued and still contends, but because the bishops of the fledgling Church so rearranged their priorities in their attemps to consolidate institutional Christianity that they lost contact with their own spiritual (Gnostic) roots."

I don't recall "Satan" being mentioned in this great and wonderful book. The bibliography alone is 10 pages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanism

Geez, it's not that hard to find these articles, people.

This has been endlessly fascinating.

Satanism is, by virtue of its doctrines, a left-hand religion, or one that focuses on advancement of the individual rather than adherence to a moral code. As with most other left-hand religions, it's been almost immediately thrown into the 'evil' category, although one might say that most society today is left-handed.

Lol. Yeah because slayer is soooo damn satanic.

But I believe Satanists don't necessarily worship Satan, and some are even atheist. They simply follow a moral code which goes against the Bible or "God's ways". Satanists desire to fulfill their base needs, provided they are not dangerous, and you actually see why it makes sense. They are not actually supposed to hurt or injure people unless that person is willing. Hence why Satanist cults etc are teeming with masochists and sadists.

so, is there a belief in an afterlife?
or is it a belief system purely for the here and now?

Are children raised in this relegion, the way one might raise their child to be a methodist.

Are there a significant of people who are practicing Satanists who are say, your accountant or own the dry cleaners down the street?
Or, are they, as El Diablo says, mainly composed of those into S&M?

Well, I don't know if most satanists are S&M but I think alot of sadists/masochists are satanist.

well
im a satanist
im a satanist because i while ago, i 'tried' out different religions and beliefs, just to see what its like to live as a christian or a buddhist.
after a lot of reading of philosophic and religious books and essays i realised satanism was the 'best' sounding of the lot as the views were pretty much the same as my own.
after deciding this i went out and bought myself the satanic bible and read through it.
it has a lot of stuff worth reading!
if you think satanists are all goths etc afore mentioned, you are wrong.
i have many friends that are from all different social backgrounds that are satanists.

and on the subject of life after death, me and my peers have agreed that there is no proof about the afterlife, if of course there is one.

if you wanna ask anything about satanism or anything else erm...just ask!!
thanks for your time!

So, is it an individual type of thing, or are there the equivlent of churches where believers regularly go?

Do you few being a satanist more as a way of life, or actually worshipping satan?

Proof or not, if there is no belief in the afterlife, why bother calling it a relegion?

This is an interesting subject. I've always wondered why some prefer to "believe" in something, yet keep it a secret. Something about that seems deceitful, or perhaps shameful, not sure which. Almost like one who places tattoos on parts of their body that will be hidden while at work. Does this sound like a lack of pride in belief?

I would be interested to see the 10 commandments spoken of. Thanks.

BD1

a man after my own heart,,