h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Taking bets now that DarkGothSatanist is 14.

We have Christians to thank for modern day Satanism.....
They created it....

Not really. They introduced the concept of Satan the Great Adversary but Satanism was created when a bunch of nutters picked that up and ran with it.

The concept of Satanism was created by the Catholic church to try and degrade Paganism as being evil. Most Satanist symbology is linked to Paganism, such as the pentagram, the horn's of satan(Baphomet), Human sacrifice...

Which is basically what I said. To re-iterate: it was non-Christian nutters who actually took the idea of Satan and began to actually worship it.

Anyway... hold very still...
*Shoots the errant apostraphe lurking in 'horns'.*

Paganism itself is not a religion. This is a common misconception, the word 'pagan' acutually refers to any religion with a pantheon (more than one god)... or People Against Goodness And Normalcy...

Welcome to h2g2 by the way. Have a pint.

Yum bacon.

I worship sultanas.

Well, I prefer them to raisins.

Evil is simply anything that goes against the dominant moral code of the time. Take paedophilia (please, do!): it was perfectly acceptable for men in Ancient Greece to watch naked young boys cavorting around, and I believe many Athenian men did have young "companions". All fine and dandy.

Now, if you were to do the same you would be branded as "sick" and "evil", and find angry mobs at your front door.

I'm not condoning the practice but simply using it as an example. Evil changes like language and fashion.

There you go!

Fraggle (not a Satanist, Santaist, Santanaist or anything else)

One good question: why don't Hindus have a devil figure? Answers on a Prime Minister and send to your nearest postcard...

It is wrong and should be banned.

Woah there, Tiger. Freedom of speech? I believe the whole Satanist thing is a crock of shite, but I'd be quite happy to defend someone's right to say it. Even if they are wrong. And before someone throws the whole Nazi thing at me, you can say it, but it doesn't make you a human being. Satanism does not differentiate on grounds of race or gender. Nazism does. To vilify a human being because of their external appearance is so intrinsically stupid and unscientific that they deserve to be the laughing stock of the political world.

Ban a religion? what is this, the middle ages? Guess I'll burn in hell (which I believe does not exist...)

ACTUALLY...
The word Pagan literally translates from the Latin "paganus" as a villager or rustic. Paganism is not a religion, but a system of differing belief systems that are Pantheistic: i.e. they believe that the divine is all around and in everything. Paganism no longer exists, but Neo-paganism does, as the old Pagan religions were essentially wiped out. Anything that is now termed as Pagan is simply a rehashing of old ideas. I think a radical rethink of the word Pagan is in desperate need, to avoid it being used by those who either don't know or simply don't give a shit about its original meaning.

"
ACTUALLY...
The word Pagan literally translates from the Latin "paganus" as a villager or rustic. Paganism is not a religion, but a system of differing belief systems that are Pantheistic: i.e. they believe that the divine is all around and in everything. Paganism no longer exists, but Neo-paganism does, as the old Pagan religions were essentially wiped out. Anything that is now termed as Pagan is simply a rehashing of old ideas. I think a radical rethink of the word Pagan is in desperate need, to avoid it being used by those who either don't know or simply don't give a shit about its original meaning."

Actually there are many definition's...
It is a way of generalising religions focusing on nature...

<>

I already said that, I just wasn't so verbose.

There are many definitions, yes, but Fraggle and Mr Dreadful are right. You can't use one word to cover a multitude of beliefs.

why not
Christian covers a multitude of beliefs
everything from intolerant Fundamentalists to pacifist Quakers

Christians have more in common historically though and they choose the label for themselves (even if they do tend to claim none of the other splinter groups are *true* christians!). Whereas "pagans" has always included a lot of unrelated people and was effectively an insult applied to them by other people, not their name for themselves (even if it's now a choice in some cases).

true, about the only unifying thing for Pagans is having been persecuted by Christians
are Satanists an offshoot of Christianity or Paganism?
Satanists as depicted in popular culture fit the former but from what I've read Satanism has little if anything to do with the Christian Satan

Modern Satanism was thought up by Anton LaVey who looked like Ming the Merciless and decided that life should be all about selfishness.

From what I can gather, Christians like to blame pagans (some/any!) for Satanists but the whole lot actually developed together. The Christian Satan isn't something owned just by Christians. Nor is it a static idea (as people believing in a particular version of the Bible as infallible like to pretend).

The original religions from which Christianity derived itself (borrowing myths and rituals) already included many ideas which could be interpreted either way. A god of dual aspects being regarded as separate entities may have caused a large part of the problem in that people had different views of the split - and that kept on happening with new people. So you continually get splinter groups using whatever were the current rituals, whether Christian or its predecessors, but believing the intent of them was the other way round, eg that the creation was evil and that various rituals cause the opposite effect.

So there's Mithraism, a bit of Gnosticism, Cathars and Templars (ie starting pre-christian but being from the christian groups in the end). Overall, since people are just making up the religions anyway, they are bound to differ on what they make up or include/exclude from previous versions. Bible books also got added or booted out according to who was in charge at each stage. The funny thing is when the ones left in refer to ones booted out so you know the writers believed the missing ones to be valid.

This means Satanism is likely to look different whenever and wherever you happen to choose - just as Christianity kept changing. Disney's Beauty and the Beast isn't the same as the original(?) fairy story or the various versions in between. There's ongoing re-selection, re-interpretation and even re-writing according to prevailing cultural prejudices or personal whims.