As mentioned in my previous entry, I enjoy modifying my body. I’ve recently acquired a new tattoo and several new piercings. My piercer is an awesome guy; I’d noticed the tattoos on his forearm before and thought one of them was Baphomet , which it was. Wikipedia being what it is, I clicked on various links and wound up reading about Satanism. My preconceptions of Satanism were:

1. It was invented by Christians who needed a foil for their ‘goodness’. You can only be as good as your nemesis is bad. Some Christians aspire to saintliness, as it makes them believe themselves to be superior to others, and thusly, they require an equal opposite-the demonic. This lends their earthly (read: boring) lives more purpose. They are then involved in a supernatural battle between good and evil. They get to be the ultimate good guys from the films. Good guys always win.

2. The people who called themselves Satanists were people (99% males) in their teens and perhaps early-twenties who felt powerless in their lives. Rather than aligning themselves with the supposedly all-powerful Judeo-Christian-Muslim God they would be in league with Satan, even though, within Christian theology he would be less powerful than God. The teenage Satanist can then look down on those sheep who’ve chosen to follow the good guy because it’s easier and they were told to. Also, having the ability to scare the ever-loving hell out of other people by making the statement, ‘I worship Satan,’ is irresistible. It involves no thought and you get to be the ultimate bad guy from the films. Bad guys are cool.

Being an atheist, Satan seemed just as out-there as any other human-invented deity. He was a way to explain/excuse their bad decisions. Just like when something good happens to a person they thank God, but when something bad happens they never blame that god. When they do something good they’re doing so because God helped them, but when they do something human they blame Satan. No, everyone is just human-we are all composed of good and bad. Buddhism has this concept down cold, but Christianity and Islam propose that people can be all-good. And if they’re not they must be all-bad.

You’re either with us or against us.

This type of thinking is what gets countries into wars and keeps politicos on TV. Whatever side you’re on, every move made by the other side is to be mined for actions/statements that can be cast in a negative light. All evidence of the other side being decent human beings that happen to hold opinions that differ from yours is to be roundly ignored.

And why should you listen to people whose opinions differ from yours?

After all, they’re completely wrong and you’re completely right.