Having read some of the materials on the Satanic Temple website (the organization who wish to donate the statue to the Capitol Preservation Commission), their adoption of the 'Satanic' label and image seem to be controversy pulls, not actually statements of their beliefs. It seems to me that they take up the image to, somehow ironically, show up the pettiness within religion (simply because of their image, they are faced with various insults, death threats etc, all because of what they believe is illogical offense grounded in religious superstition).
Typically, LaVeyan Satanism is rather self-centered, egoistic and not particularly altruistic, but this group's statement portrays that they believe in; the removal of superstition from religion; in the underlying principle that compassionate and altruistic thoughts should ideally govern the motives of every human individual, and that reason accords to the validity and correctness of said principle; that a judicial system of understanding, compassion and fairness supersedes law and institution; that the freedoms of others should be respected and that encroachment on another's freedom is essentially encroachment on your own; that people are fallible, thus if a mistake is made it should be rectified and any harm done should be understood and helped at one's best ability; that all these tenets are to inspire consistent nobility in action and thought, and such compassionate thoughts should always be held in higher esteem than what is mere written or spoken word.
In all honesty, those beliefs really aren't far from what many Christian churches teach in many moral respects; love others, have compassion, defend justice, seek forgiveness, don't follow ritual or dogma, respect people as human beings. Obviously they differ tremendously in that this organization do not believe in God, but it seems to me that their attitude, at least where other human beings are concerned, is fairly rational and not really the evil that people seem to make it out to be. Of course, it could be argued that the mission and tenets of a religion are rarely what the adherents to that religion actually follow. I suspect many young people join up to these kind of organizations on merit of their rebellious image, failing really to understand the point behind the choosing of that image in the first place.
Still, I was suprised that this wasn't (at least from their statement) a cultish extremist group of some kind, promoting selfishness or downright animalism.
Typically, LaVeyan Satanism is rather self-centered, egoistic and not particularly altruistic, but this group's statement portrays that they believe in; the removal of superstition from religion; in the underlying principle that compassionate and altruistic thoughts should ideally govern the motives of every human individual, and that reason accords to the validity and correctness of said principle; that a judicial system of understanding, compassion and fairness supersedes law and institution; that the freedoms of others should be respected and that encroachment on another's freedom is essentially encroachment on your own; that people are fallible, thus if a mistake is made it should be rectified and any harm done should be understood and helped at one's best ability; that all these tenets are to inspire consistent nobility in action and thought, and such compassionate thoughts should always be held in higher esteem than what is mere written or spoken word.
In all honesty, those beliefs really aren't far from what many Christian churches teach in many moral respects; love others, have compassion, defend justice, seek forgiveness, don't follow ritual or dogma, respect people as human beings. Obviously they differ tremendously in that this organization do not believe in God, but it seems to me that their attitude, at least where other human beings are concerned, is fairly rational and not really the evil that people seem to make it out to be. Of course, it could be argued that the mission and tenets of a religion are rarely what the adherents to that religion actually follow. I suspect many young people join up to these kind of organizations on merit of their rebellious image, failing really to understand the point behind the choosing of that image in the first place.
Still, I was suprised that this wasn't (at least from their statement) a cultish extremist group of some kind, promoting selfishness or downright animalism.
