More Reasonable Than Thou…
How The Satanic Temple gets it right when Evangelicals get it horrendously wrong.
Ask any random person on the street who is the more ethical and moral person, and you’re more likely to get them to answer christian over Satanist every time. Naturally, this state of affairs exists because most people never take the time to do their homework, to properly understand reality beyond surface measurements. As with politics, voting, climate change or even something as mundane as Standard Time versus Daylight Savings, ask a well thought out question of a random stranger about religion and you’re more likely to get glazed eyes instead of intelligent answers.
Most people wont know, for example, that to be a Satanist does not mean one must adhere to a belief in the supernatural (IE — belief in the Devil) in order to identify as a Satanist(1). By contrast, even though it’s hypothetically possible to be a ‘christian’ Atheist(2), you’re less likely to meet an Atheist who identifies with christian doctrine and significantly more likely to meet a Satanist who doesn’t believe in the supernatural. The Satanic Temple, as one strain of belief under the Satanic umbrella, recognizes the self as the highest authority in the universe, whereas most christians consider such a notion heresy.
The differences go way beyond simple notions of what is and isn’t real. Adherents to the strain in question tend to have a more humanistic perspective, whereas many evangelicals support policies which do little to support a humanist ideal. What’s more, their guiding beliefs bare this difference out. To demonstrate what I mean, I would like to take a moment to examine the core principles between the doctrine of The Satanic Temple (The 7 Tenets)(3) and the core guiding principles of most christian traditions (The Ten Commandments)(4).
First, a few notes on the latter. In the case of the Ten Commandments, there is not merely ONE list in the bibble, but three places where the ‘Decalogue’ is referenced (Exodus 20, Exodus 34 & Deuteronomy 5)(5). It’s definitely worth the time to compare and contrast the three lists, but for my purposes here, I will be using the most commonly understood version. Touching on doctrine, there exist more than a few sects of believers who consider the Old Testament null and void, having been superseded by the New Testament, so it’s debatable just how vital are the Ten Commandments as a core facet of christian belief given all the available sects of christianity which exist today, some thirty thousand by reasonable estimates(6).
That said, let’s take a look at the two lists and then discuss the particulars.
First, the christian side of the equation.
1. I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
3. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
4. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
5. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.
6. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
7. Thou shalt not kill.
8. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
9. Thou shalt not steal.
10. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
And now, lets look at the list of tenets offered up by the website of The Satanic Temple.
1. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
2. The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
3. One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
4. The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.
5. Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.
6. People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
7. Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
From the start, we can see how the first five Commandments have no appreciable worth in terms of a humanist perspective. There is no evidence for a god, therefore there is no need for, or value in keeping the first five commandments with respect to something which most likely isn’t real (if christians can assert without evidence that Shiva isn’t real, I’m perfectly justified doing the same with Jehovah). And even if such a being were real, the fact that it is a self-professed cry-baby ready to punch you for not paying it proper attention pretty much undermines the implied morality of the whole affair.
No, Commandments one through five have nothing to say on how one should treat fellow humans in ethical and moral terms, real god or not. As for the rest, honoring your parents is a good idea, but respect should never be conferred. If parents can’t demonstrate that they are worthy of respect, children shouldn’t be forced to give it. And I speak from experience, having been raised by a narcissist who was very fond of bragging about the size of the belt she would use for correction.
Killing, cheating, stealing and lying are all unsavory abuses of personal power, for sure, so at least the last four go to some lengths to promote ethical behavior in a community, but they are merely prohibitions as read. They do the bare minimum in terms of fostering morals and ethics, but hold nothing in the way of commentary on why it’s important to foster morals and ethics in society. The Seven Satanic Tenets, on the other hand, go straight to the core of why such things are important, even if I don’t completely agree with number four (Trolls suck ass and shouldn’t be given the power to pollute the rest of society). Power corrupts, and each and every person should strive to keep abuses of power in check by approaching the human equation with wisdom, empathy, compassion and rational inquiry.
This can’t be overstated enough, how much more ethical and moral is the position of the Satanic Temple sect, because they make demonstrably beneficial efforts to improve society for the better, doing outreach in schools to promote fairness and advocating for bodily autonomy for women, even going so far as to use the religious exemption argument in favor of preserving abortion rights. Evangelicals, and their more sinister Far-Right cousins are, as we speak, attempting to infiltrate every level of government, from the local school board to the Supreme Court, in order to impose a distinctly christian point of view on everyone(7). What inspires in them the delusion that this is wholly NOT fascism is beyond me.
In the end, it comes down to the purity of belief and how those beliefs are applied in furtherance of a progressive, constructive end. No one, of course, considers themselves a bad agent. Even well-meaning christians can perpetuate inequity. And let us not forget that Hitler himself, the Nazi shitstick who perpetrated the Holocaust, had his christian faith splayed out all over his seminal work Mein Kampf(8). Clearly, Intention is for shit if what comes from action serves the darker side of human nature.
If I were to put it in baseball terms, the Seven Tenets are, for me, like a rookie pitcher who is healthy and steady, has a respectable ERA and who maybe throws a no hitter once in a while. The Ten Commandments are like an over the hill utility player who can barely hit .250 on a good day. If I were a manager going for a World Series ring, I know who I would want in my line-up.
If you would like to read more of my writings on matters of belief and non-belief, follow this link -
Sources
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanism
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_atheism
- https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/about-us
- https://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/
- https://amateurexegete.com/2018/10/25/michael-d-coogan-three-different-versions-of-the-ten-commandments/
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/500742.Handbook_of_Denominations_in_the_United_States
- https://www.rawstory.com/evangelicals-schools/
- https://www.learnreligions.com/adolf-hitler-on-god-quotes-248193
