why do you believe? | Forum

I don't believe, I'm an unbeliever,  I take what it's convenient for me.  I'm here to know the views of other satanists about different topics.  I'm here to support the efforts of having a site of people who are like minded in the occult, by doing so, I have found a lot of  knowledge coming out of the brilliant minds of some of the participants in the forums, my respect to them.

The question doesn't compute. Could you tell me more about this "believe" of which you speak?

aw my bad, that late night reading, I forgot to finish the subject line oops haha. it was supposed to continue on. 

I think it's still possible to edit it.

I believe the Earth is a planet. Can't prove it. I'm just taking other people's word for it.

I believe in entropy. I like to put a coloured drop into a bowl of water and watch it disperse until it is evenly distributed. It doesn't resist - It just trusts! I think it could be a form of ecstasy... Imagine it - allowing something to touch and pull apart every particle in your body until you are completely blended and part of a hybrid.

Of course, it didn't work out too well for the Fly, but he fast-tracked his amalgamation. 

Whereas the first member to respond here is a nonbeliever , I am a very much a believer. I believe simply because i have experienced, seen and felt too much to NOT believe. My belief is not founded on the doubts of others nor do I try and convince others that they HAVE to believe. I am well aware that there are people who will never a day in their life actually have anything happen by which they may place belief, but I am not one of them. That being said, I base my belief by the life I live; starting in childhood and which has never let up, as a "different" kind of child who was always aware of "other things" and was having particular metaphysical experiences even before I really knew what they were, feeling drawn to the dark arts as if magnetically. For me to NOT believe would be uncharacteristic of me. This does not mean I take everything at blind face value, but if I actually experience something that makes it harder for me to argue with no matter who tries to discredit or explain it away. Also I consider the occult a science and I believe in that too, science that is :-p

Margaret: The one who started the philosophy of " believing "  once he said  : " All things are possible to those who believe ". My question is : Do you really believe? , or , are you just pretending to believe? .  I've seen too much of the so called 'supernatural '; I've seen dead people to come alive again, I've  walked on water and on fire,  I've drunk poison  and nothing has harmed me, I've spoken things to existing  and they have existed,  people have seen pillars of fire around me and shadows of darkness on me,  etc. I've  lived a life that a few persons have lived in the imposible  or a paradoxed life. I'm still an unbeliever,  I  don't care  what the so called ' beleavers '  ,  this is my life, and  I am happy to be an unbeliever. 

In Western religion the focus on doctrines has been immense. Christianity, by and large, is a doctrinal religion. The importance of belief is not as a practical, but as a social and adherential, even *salvational* advantage.

That is, whereas in Satanism, more often than not, the attitude is as represented in this thread, that belief is withheld until experience arrives to bolster it up as a kind of subjective evidence to support that belief. A great many Christians and Muslims (not so many Jews!, which should give us reason to link Satanism and Judaism again and again regardless of theology!) talk about "believing in" and "believing on" as a testimony of faith ABSENT anything whatever to justify it.

And so to ask "Why do you believe...?", without anything mentioned that IS believed, is a truly confused approach, striking right down into this gulf of mentality by implying that there is or that there is not any reason to do so.

My break with Western religion in this regard came to me long before i ever thought of becoming a Satanist. I was asked so many times "What do you believe?" that i undertook a complete philosophy of unbelief (really before ever reading tales like "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" by Stephen Donaldson or philosophic treatises such as "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener" by Martin Gardner). It took the form of a catechism in inversion.

"What do you believe?"

"I believe as little as possible."

"Huh? You don't believe in XYZ theories of origination, theology, origins of life, etc. Western doctrines?"

"No, i haven't found enough evidence to warrant my lending my intellectual weight to these ideas merely because they are popular. I think it is valuable merely to collect up the various hypotheses of the world on the matters involved and see where they lead."

"But don't you realize that {Paschal's Wager; you'll burn in everlasting flames after death for not believing as you are commanded}?"

"I've heard that story, and i avow that any god or spirit or human being whosoever extorts my belief i shall oppose until the end of my days with enthusiasm and justification for attempting to coerce my reason with a threat of pain. This is the true evil of the world that empiricism, the view that alliance to ideas should be based on experience and observation, rather than reward and punishment, should be put down and faith picked up on the basis of fantasy rewards in nonexistent realms relating to fictional essences for which have no reliable evidence."

"It's not a threat, it's a promise! I fear for your soul!"

"And i am here speaking for mind and body, that a life wasted on chasing after unfounded phantasms is a travesty!"

"Alright (relenting), so what DO you believe in? I mean, you said you believe as *little* as possible. What little is there you cannot help but believe?"

"I believe that i am a human animal living on a planet in a vast universe for a finite duration, aging and dying through a singular life of astounding and interesting phenomena of which i am beginning to learn. I believe that technology is the application of knowledge we can rest our belief upon confidently because it is tried and tested repeatedly through manufacture and usage. I believe that religion, spirituality, the occult, mysticism, and the variety of agents, intelligences, and techniques involved in these are very interesting and worthy of my time to test them out and see what they produce in the way of experience, information, and knowledge."

After such a catechism we would then begin an enthusiastic exploration of the things we had experienced and what we found interesting about that, rather than comparison of doctinal litmus, avowals of creed, or testimonies of faith.

Troll Towelhead, Satanist Grand Mufti

https://www.facebook.com/satanistgrandmufti

Why not.

"like certain sites using Satanism as a reason for their dumb beliefs i.e neo nazi shit, and got to the core and just kept going"

 I'm curious as to why neo-nazism doesnt qualify. You dont even have to believe it for it to be useful.

In the age of social media the meme bugs have gotten more viral. Pun intended.

A talented campaign can rile people up more easily and gain support more quickly for whatever bleeding heart cause they are on.

The social world is the very definition of lunacy.  A reactive, malleable hive mind with a tendency towards public shaming through indirect faceless criticism. The anonymity makes it decidedly more vicious.

It's puritan shunning redefined with a technological twist. Same old mass of stupid new medium to express it. Albeit with melodramatic poise and thin skin.

Neo-nazism put to use:  I have moral indignation towards moral indignation. The judgemental christian saving the world with red words and the angry faggot who must rid the world of hate speech are kindred to me.

Hearing either one tell you how to think can make a Devil out the former and a Nazi out the latter.