Satanism and Atheism

[Thumpalumpacus]

My Pastor's got a Masters in Theology.

That's kinda like a Masters in Basketweaving ... only not as useful.

Sad that you should follow such a turnip.

[Alex K]

My Pastor said that Satanism and Atheism are same religions because in both, the adherents take personal responsibility for their actions. Is it true?

Atheism isn't a religion. Explain, though, what is Satanism?

[Anomalocaris]

My Pastor said that Satanism and Atheism are same religions because in both, the adherents take personal responsibility for their actions. Is it true?

Yes. It is true. My wife and I were discussing whether your pastor's infant son's liver would be suitable for liver Pâté. What is your opinion? Would you give us the pleasure of your company for dinner tonight?

[rexbeccarox]

Oh puleeese.

Atheism is a lack of belief in god. There are no tenants about personal responsibility for one's actions, because there are no tenants. That's because it isn't a religion. Satanism covers a variety of groups that don't have much to do with each other and I have no idea whether any or all of them believe that people are personally responsible for their own actions. I don't think your pastor does either. He certainly knows nothing of atheists.

That said, I do think I am personally responsible for my actions and you are personally responsible for yours. The entire legal system of the United States, and the rest of the western world, and every where else as far as I know, rests on that principle. It is a good principle necessary to civilization.

Your belief that god will forgive your sins is not a get out of jail free card on earth whatever you may think it will do for you at death.

Darlin', they're tenets, not tenants.

[Jenny A]

Oh puleeese.

Atheism is a lack of belief in god. There are no tenants about personal responsibility for one's actions, because there are no tenants. That's because it isn't a religion. Satanism covers a variety of groups that don't have much to do with each other and I have no idea whether any or all of them believe that people are personally responsible for their own actions. I don't think your pastor does either. He certainly knows nothing of atheists.

That said, I do think I am personally responsible for my actions and you are personally responsible for yours. The entire legal system of the United States, and the rest of the western world, and every where else as far as I know, rests on that principle. It is a good principle necessary to civilization.

Your belief that god will forgive your sins is not a get out of jail free card on earth whatever you may think it will do for you at death.

Darlin', they're tenets, not tenants.

Issssssssh!

[ForumMember77]

He's obviously misquoting his source to some extent, would it be so hard to help him instead of assuming the elitist stance. Oh, it's a Christian, everybody look smart and act condescending.

From the Christian perspective I would think the self determination of Lucifer, love that name, might be easily misconstrued will atheists lack of conformity with religions as a whole. If I were a Christian I might be susceptible to such a mix up.

[Lemonvariable72]

My Pastor said that Satanism and Atheism are same religions because in both, the adherents take personal responsibility for their actions. Is it true?

Well first allow me to clarify, atheism is not a religion, just like off isn't a tv channel. Now what your pastor is probably referring to is leyvan satanism. Now they are not the same thing per se, but leyvan a satanists are atheists. Meaning they don't actually believe in or worship Satan, but instead think of it much more symbolically. To them Satan is a symbol of enlightenment, critical thinking and standing up to oppressive authority.
So no this is not the same as athiesm, because if it was then atheistic communism would be impossible because Leyvan satanism and communism are inherently contradictory ideologies.
However its also likely that your pastor was simply referring to people who worship satan and atheists as the same thing. That makes about as much sense as saying a Pagan and a Christian are the same thing.

[robvalue]

That's like me saying if you don't believe in holy unicorns, you must be an evil-unicorn cultist.

It's just propaganda put out there by the church who is obviously afraid of atheism. You have come to the right place to ask this question, the mistake most religious people make is going to other religious people to ask questions about the truth of religious claims, only to receive more propaganda and spin.

As has been said, atheism is in no way a religion. It's not a belief, it's not a world view. All it includes is the lack of belief (rejection) of any and all theistic claims.

But to be clear, by rejecting the claim, "A god exists with properties x,y,z" all we are saying is that we don't have enough evidence or a good reason to agree and say "Yes, I believe that god exists too." We are not saying "No god does or could ever exist". This is a common confusion. Some atheists adhere to the latter statement, referred to as hard or strong atheism. But that, as everything else, is down to the atheist and not a requirement at all. Atheism is just saying that we don't have a good reason to believe that a god exists, until such time convincing evidence is presented.

Let me give another example to show how the claim rejection thing works:

Bill and I come across a sealed box. Bill says to me, "There are diamonds in this box." I ask Bill for his evidence or justification for this statement, and he offers none. He says, "I just know it."

My reaction to this claim is to reject it. I don't accept that there is a good reason to believe that it is true that diamonds are in the box. I am not saying that there is no way diamonds can be in the box. I am saying that until there is a good reason to think that there are diamonds in the box beyond a reasonable doubt, that there is no merit in stating or believing that to be the case. Now if Bill had brought along some sort of diamond detecting device, which had reliably shown accurate results before in diamond detection, he could give me good evidence with a reading from that. Otherwise, he's just guessing.

This does not make me closed minded. I am perfectly happy to accept the claim, once I have a good reason to do so. What I'm not happy to do is accept claims with no evidence to back them up. This also does not make me an anti-diamondist, or someone who is afraid of or hates diamonds.

However, if Bill said there was an invisible snooker ball in the box, I would not only reject that claim, but would require much more evidence and reasoning to ever believe such a statement. Again, I wouldn't be saying 100% that invisible snooker balls can't exist, I'm just saying I have no good reason to believe they do exist. As this is a more extraordinary claim, the evidence needs to be similarly extraordinary to back it up, because it is much more outside the realms of what I have experienced so far in reality.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

My Pastor said that Satanism and Atheism are same religions because in both, the adherents take personal responsibility for their actions. Is it true?

Your pastor is obviously as thick as you then, Poe.

Hail satan!

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

i hate to break it to you penguins do have a IQ higher than a pastor, even ants also a rock.

My Pastor's got a Masters in Theology.

I suspect he's also got some sort of traumatic brain injury.

But degrees in theology mean less than nothing - it is a subject with no content.

Boru