Your perception of theists

[Aoi Magi]

Whenever I hear an adult person is a theist, I feel them being a bit more "insecure" in their daily lives than the atheists. Other than that I don't have any other preconceptions about them.

[The Grand Nudger]

When someone claims to be a fallen creature, I generally accept that they know themselves better than I know them.

[Metis]

Edit:
And, upon further review, what I was told was utter bullshit. Luciferianism doesn't seem terribly different from LaVeyan Satanism.

Well, an "-ism" is just a word with an "-ism."  I wouldn't try to draw strong conclusions about what Satanism or Lucerferianism "really" are, or how they relate to each other.  Those words can have as many meanings as there are people who use them.

Mmm! The problem is with New religious movments is so many words can be used to mean several things, when talking about paganism we could mean Wicca, Druidism, Asatru, Neo-Hellenism...Too much.

I've heared Luciferian (especially historically) used to describe worshipers of an actual evil power, but I've also seen the term Infernalist or Infernal Satanist thrown around in a few books too.

[Catholic_Lady]

Thank you for the honest responses, everyone. I appreciate it.

[Esquilax]

I'm generally more interested in what a person does with their theism, since I recognize that theism itself doesn't really say much on its own; religion is so often a mirror that reflects back what a person already believes, with the added magic authority of a god. My mother-in-law uses her- increasingly vague- religious beliefs to do good, and generally to be a supportive person. My brother-in-law uses his to brag endlessly about being filled with the holy spirit and make rude, disparaging comments to his mom about who she is.

That does more to inform my opinions of them than simply knowing they both believe in god.

[bennyboy]

Words have meanings Benny. You can't communicate without accepted definitions.

Are you proposing you have some evidence that those words are used other ways or are you just wanting to make shit mean whatever you want it to for right now?

Do you want me to google it for you? How do you want the obvious served up to you? Link to sites claiming those names which are different than each other? Etymology? A bibliography?

The accepted definition of "Satanist" is "someone who believes in Satan, or who implements ideas about Satan in a system of thought" or something like that. How that applies to real people in real social contexts is obviously going to vary a lot. There's no Church of Satan™ to officially declare that Satanism is X and not Y.

[Napoléon]

Thank you for the honest responses, everyone. I appreciate it.

So... are you compiling all this data into some database to be used for Xtian world domination or something? You certainly have a lot of info from all of us. I'm skeptical about where all that is going, and what it's used for 

[Metis]

Words have meanings Benny. You can't communicate without accepted definitions.

Are you proposing you have some evidence that those words are used other ways or are you just wanting to make shit mean whatever you want it to for right now?

Do you want me to google it for you?  How do you want the obvious served up to you?  Link to sites claiming those names which are different than each other?  Etymology?  A bibliography?

The accepted definition of "Satanist" is "someone who believes in Satan, or who implements ideas about Satan in a system of thought" or something like that.  How that applies to real people in real social contexts is obviously going to vary a lot.  There's no Church of Satan™ to officially declare that Satanism is X and not Y.

There's at least three satanic organizations I know of, the LaVey Church of Satan, the Temple of Satan and the Left-Hand Path Church of Set which all consider the other two to be horrible plagiarists and not "real satanists".

[Faith No More]

I try not to speak in absolutes, so generally, no I don't think less of a person for being religious. I wouldn't have married one if it bothered me.

I definitely get a "Ew, really?" thought in my head when I find out someone is religious, though. It just seems so absurd to me.

[Whateverist]

Thank you for the honest responses, everyone. I appreciate it.

So... are you compiling all this data into some database to be used for Xtian world domination or something? You certainly have a lot of info from all of us. I'm skeptical about where all that is going, and what it's used for 

Oh shit, I had a filling put in recently.  What the hell was that, and what do you know about it, CL?