We are supposed to start our lives in shame, feeling guilty for something we did not do. And it hit me that shame begets a need for justification, for aggressive action, for do-gooding, which is necessarily compulsive, and as prone to harm as help.
Without understanding fully all the creeds which adopt this name for themselves, it seems to me that Satanists, by and large, intend to reject this shame, this abhorrence of life and freedom.
And as parents would we ever contemplate throwing our children into the pits of hell if they failed to obey us exactly? Would we threaten them with this? Could we even contemplate this? No: we assume goodness on their part, and do our best to love them, to cherish them, to teach them, and to help them if they fall off the path. We never abandon them.
And who can accept a God who needs the ritual murder of animals, much less human beings? Who can accept a God who requires a sacrifice of his son to satisfy his irrational rage at people who are by and large doing the best they can?
The key addition of Christianity is the concept of eternal damnation. The Jews of course had the idea of Original Sin, but they had a system for managing the rages of their God, through sacrifice and piety. They thought little about the next world. They were like the Romans and Greeks in this.
Further, if God were as the Christians describe, would we only see his appointed representative once in the lifetime of humanity, in an insignificant part of the world, and would he only teach for something like 3 years? If you were a parent, and you wanted to teach your children, would you not give them regular or even constant, direct, instruction?
Deconstructing Christianity is not that hard, but it is necessary for me, for my own healing. I was raised as a Christian, taught John 3:16 and other similar verses, sang the hymns in church, was baptized, was taught to fear the Devil.
We need something like religion. We need worship. We need communion. We need a place for the holy in our lives, for the sacred. We need a concept of the Divine, of eternal life, of spiritual growth. Foolish people see our choices as belief and disbelief. I am no atheist, not even remotely. I am, I think I can say honestly. a visionary. I see visions. I feel new realities. I dream what has not been, but may yet be.
This is a hopeful post, one I intend to be filled with light. What we leave behind is darkness when we accept something brighter.