are any guys of opeth satanists?

Most of you are completely mislabling Satanism. It's not about worshiping the Christian archtype of evil or summoning demons etc etc unless you're 14 years old. The actualy church of Satan (founded by Anton LaVey) has nothing to do with this. Here's a couple good quotes from www.everything2.com about Satanism:

Belief in a pre-Christian concept of Satan that is more of a force than a deity, and embodies virility, sexuality, and sensuality.

Emphasis is placed on individuality, and that one should explore their lusts and desires instead of trying to suppress them. Indulging in this life instead of preparing for an afterlife. Wisdom instead of self-deceit. Human life is sacred, else how can someone enjoy theirs?

Unrelated to the Christian concept of Satan.

One thing the above nodes failed to mention, is aside from Satanists believing in indulgence rather than abstinence etc., that they too want to return Humanity to its primal form. In the more extreme forms of Satanism, it is believed that Humanity should be running through the trees naked, foraging for food, grunting, fighting over women, living life as they see fit with purely primal instincts; rather than living in an ordered life with laws, a religions trying to shove their propaganda down your throat. In other words, the Satanist wishes for chaos to consume the world and order to be thrown to the wind, and in so doing, returning Humanity to primal instincts.

The tenets of LaVeyan Satanism. Written by Anton Szandor LaVey in 1967.

1. Do not give opinion or advice unless you are asked.
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3. When in another's lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9. Do not harm little children.
10. Do not kill non-human animals unless attacked or for your food.
11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

Source: http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/Eleven.html


Now, let me say that I am not a Satanist, nor do I adhere to any other religion. However, Satanism (the ACTUAL Satanism) has some good ideas. In essence, it's a celebration of life and knowledge. What's wrong with that?
 
it does have appealing guidelines, but the worship of knowledge and indulgence is anything but a return to primal humanity. it encourages people to seek out everything and anything --- material posessions instead of what it intends: natural and simple animalistic life.

why i disagree: though enticing, it only allows such a society to exist within its current state or context. you can't further a society in satanism. everyone would think only of themselves, their desires, and not of future consequence. of course, that's probably one of its goals. to regress rather than progress.
 
i thought about it a bit, and actually "satanism" does appear in the bible, though it's not called such and it's portrayed only as "those who worship things and each other and themselves" aka material posession and self interest.

all the iconography commonly associated with satanism is pretty made up though, as you guys have said.
 
@saut: dude, i appreciate all that info and it's pretty interesting. However, and like I pointed out earlier, Satan (and his many other names) orignates (as far as I understand it) *from* the Jewish texts. Thus, what is contained therein is *it* as far as knowledge of Satan goes. For someone to come up with a Church and a Bible of Satan is complete crockery - no different than when Homer Simpson came up with his own religion. Well, sorta. You know what I'm getting at: there is no Satan without the Judeo-Christian Bible. Now, paganism is a different story....and is *completely* unrelated to the idea of a satan or devil or what-have-you.
 
R0l0 said:
I doubt many christians give money away to charities either. Paying dues to your local church(so that you can go to heaven) doesn't count. Singling out atheists for being greedy is bullshit, people are subject to being greedy regardless of their beliefs.
@R0l0...and Trey and Snow. you guys got awfully defensive. i didnt mean that athiests dont give money to charities or dont care about humnanity....and i definitely didnt say athiests are "greedy". my experience has been the opposite. i was talking directly to you guys who are sitting in your parents' houses bashing on christians for no reason. and you took the bait. i urge any of you to post your 1040s and let us know how much you gave away. my bet is not one dime.
further, i didnt say anything about giving money to a church "so that they can go to heaven", despite the fact that those weekly tithes *do* go to pay for homeless shelters, rescue efforts, and disaster relief. but i see, and respect, your point and that is why i dont give money to churches - i dont want a dime wasted on something i feel is unnecessary.
 
dorian gray said:
@saut: dude, i appreciate all that info and it's pretty interesting. However, and like I pointed out earlier, Satan (and his many other names) orignates (as far as I understand it) *from* the Jewish texts. Thus, what is contained therein is *it* as far as knowledge of Satan goes. For someone to come up with a Church and a Bible of Satan is complete crockery - no different than when Homer Simpson came up with his own religion. Well, sorta. You know what I'm getting at: there is no Satan without the Judeo-Christian Bible. Now, paganism is a different story....and is *completely* unrelated to the idea of a satan or devil or what-have-you.

Yeah, I agree that it's a crockery. Apparantly, LaVey only called it Satanism because he liked the way it sounded. Whatever.

Also, I think it might be worth mentioning that nowhere in the bible does it say Lucifer and Satan and the same being.
 
saut said:
Also, I think it might be worth mentioning that nowhere in the bible does it say Lucifer and Satan are the same being.
kinda. it depends on what Book it's mentioned in. Usually, Satan is referred to as *the adversary* and sometimes, because Hebrew doesn't use "a" or "an", it could be "a" or "an" adversary. However, the name Lucifer (Latin for "light bearer" - ie, Venus, the morning star) was added to the texts by Christian redactors between 300 and 400 AD. My point being that the history of the Judeo-Christian Bible is so convoluted and borrows from so many other older and varied cultures, that it almost certainly is not true. Which would make the idea of a real Satan downright absurd.
 
Silent Song said:
they aren't the same thing.
mmm...true but not true. see above. depends on where and what you're referring to. The name Lucifer was most likely borrowed from the pagan idea of the morning star and was inserted during the rise of Christianity for obvious public relations needs. (ie: easier to blame Lucifer for the strange and violent acts of God found in earlier version of the Old Testament).
 
while i don't agree with your reasons for saying so, i do agree they aren't one being because if they were, instead of saying "Satan" or "the evil one" etc etc it would simply name "lucifer" as it did during that part discussing lucifer
 
Rekkr said:
The concept of a "higher force" is a clearly human idea. In most religions, the deities are personified as human-like. They tend to have human emotions, etc.

Now, if you don't believe in a god from a religious perspective, "God" is still impossible. For a god to exist before the universe (and then create it), he would have to be infinitely more detailed and complicated than our universe. It is much more logical to believe our universe always was than to believe a god always was.

And remember, in an infinite amount of time, the infinitesimally improbable will happen an infinite number of times.

You presume to have some concept of a) the nature of God, b) the nature of the universe, c) how anything can have 'always' been, and d) logic when applied to the creation of something from nothing. Well done. You are obviously God himself to know all this. I don't remember this course at school....

ps: there are far, far more religious-run charities than there are athiest ones. That is a fact.
 
ignorance is being unaware of that reality that surrounds you. that includes unaware of other beliefs and ideas. it includes unawareness of knowledge of the subject at hand as well. if you're discussing something you're not familiar with, and make sweeping statements, that is called ignorance.

nothing can answer all life's questions.
 
Silent Song said:
while i don't agree with your reasons for saying so, i do agree they aren't one being because if they were, instead of saying "Satan" or "the evil one" etc etc it would simply name "lucifer" as it did during that part discussing lucifer
thats kinda what i was saying. however, i dont really understand the last part of your sentence.