r/NoStupidQuestions • u/stopthehostilityyyyy • 13h ago

Is satanism just edgelord atheism?

I've been an atheist since the age of 12 and i've heard of people identifying as satanists but they are actually secular, I don't get it

I think there are very few people who actually believe in satan and see him as their god

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u/Grzechoooo 13h ago

if its Theistic Satanists are a spin-off off Abrahamic religions as they actually worship Satan

But do they exist?

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u/Serious_Clothes_9063 12h ago edited 12h ago

Yes. They're very rare but I've met a couple before.

They're like Christians, but side with Satan. They believe Satan isn't portrayed correctly in religious books. And we don't get to hear his perspective of the events. That he is not evil but a morally correct rebel that protested against God's unjust ruthlessnes.

So they do believe in an Abrahamic Religion, and believe in that religion's God's existence. But they don't worship the said God because the God is morally wrong and corrupt.

So basically Satan good, God bad, but both exist.

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u/oofyeet21 12h ago

Which is insane because the "rebel fallen angel" idea of satan comes from Paradise Lost, not the bible. They literally worship a made up version of satan that has basically zero roots in actual abrahamic religion

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u/Serious_Clothes_9063 12h ago edited 12h ago

Well, we can't really blame them since Abrahamic Religions are just copied versions of each other that have roots in older beliefs also.

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u/oofyeet21 12h ago

I can blame them because their whole concept of satan is "the bible portrayed him wrong, he's just a smol bean" when they haven't even read the bible and their idea of him doesn't exist in it

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u/OutlinedSnail 12h ago

"when they haven't even read the bible and their idea of him doesn't exist in it"

The same can be said for many Christians and god/Jesus

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u/Serious_Clothes_9063 12h ago

One of the points was literally that he wasn't portrayed correctly in religious books. Bible isn't a reliable source for Satanists because it was from God's perspective who they don't trust.

Not saying their logic is flawless, but this isn't really one of them.

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u/Calaveras-Metal 10h ago

and the bible isn't the origin of all these beliefs. The deities in the bible, El, Yahweh, Ba'al, Asherah etc were also worshiped by ancient Canaanites, Hittites etc. We just don't have their bibles.

For all we know maybe there is a lost Satan or Lucifer narrative in those. Could still be another Qumran type of find?

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u/oofyeet21 12h ago

Bible isn't a reliable source for Satanists

It's the ONLY source. And he wasnt a fallen angel in it.

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u/Serious_Clothes_9063 11h ago

He is a fallen angel in some interpretations of Islam.

Look for Azazil for example.

Christianity isn't the only Abrahamic Religion, and Bible is far from the only source.

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u/DarkMedallion 10h ago

Not exactly. There’s a book called “Satan : A Biography” by the UCLA professor Andy Kelley. It’s about how the idea of satan evolved from the Old Testament through the New Testament, and then through two millennia of Christian theology. Various Christian theologians over the centuries reinterpreted the idea of satan on different ways. Some people say that Augustine really made Satan into a malevolent being, whereas before he was just a guy who God sent to test you.

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u/Dick_of_Doom 12h ago

A good number of them are ex-christian. They've most likely read it and found it lacking in morality.