A Better Way To Live Your Life...

[Johnny Cupcakes]

Are the Seven Tenets of the Satanic Temple morally superior to Christianity's Ten Commandments?  Which do you think provides a better guide for living your life? I know how this will shake out on this forum, but I figured it was worth some discussion anyway.

Seven Tenets of the Satanic Temple
- Strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
- The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
- One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
- The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo your own.
- Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.
- People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and resolve any harm that may have been caused.
- Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

Christianity's Ten Commandments
- Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
- Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
- Honour thy father and thy mother.
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Thou shalt not steal.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.

[CKwi88]

Commandments and tenants are nice and all, and I think that both sets, if actually adhered to, are a solid way to live life. However, the "golden rule" (One should treat others and one would like to be treated) found in many religions is just as effective.

And boiling it down to the simplest: Don't be a dick.

Much could be solved by adhering to just that one.

To answer OP, first set is pretty solid. Should have left out the Satanic part and fooled the non-googlers into saying Satanism trumps the Commandments.

[SunsetBengal]

Both are perfectly fine, and appear to have much in common. Just stated differently.

However, a set of tenets or commandments to live by only works, if one actually lives by them.

[*bfine32*]

To believe in Satan is to believe in God; so both seem like good rules to follow. Except the part where the Satan folks say you should form your beliefs to conform to society.

[hollodero]

I'd go with the satanic ones, I just wonder what's so satanic about them to begin with. As for the ten commandments, I always thought god appears a bit vain in those.

[*bfine32*]

(02-13-2018, 08:35 PM)hollodero Wrote: I'd go with the satanic ones, I just wonder what's so satanic about them to begin with. As for the ten commandments, I always thought god appears a bit vain in those.

Oh, there is no doubt that God is vain. He is God after all. 

[BmorePat87]

(02-13-2018, 08:35 PM)hollodero Wrote: I'd go with the satanic ones, I just wonder what's so satanic about them to begin with. As for the ten commandments, I always thought god appears a bit vain in those.

Satan means adversary. It's a term that Christians have used to label rival groups long before they linked it to the idea of Lucifer or the Devil, who himself was not this ultimate evil figure in most of Christianity until recent centuries. 

They don't worship the devil. They use satanism in its original form as adversaries to established Abrahamic religions which they think promote values unnatural to human instinct.

It's really a form of atheism that's libertarianism meets Bill and Ted with a respect towards scientific knowledge. 

[SunsetBengal]

(02-13-2018, 09:01 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Satan means adversary. It's a term that Christians have used to label rival groups long before they linked it to the idea of Lucifer or the Devil, who himself was not this ultimate evil figure in most of Christianity until recent centuries. 

They don't worship the devil. They use satanism in its original form as adversaries to established Abrahamic religions which they think promote values unnatural to human instinct.

It's really a form of atheism that's libertarianism meets Bill and Ted with a respect towards scientific knowledge. 

..

[hollodero]

(02-13-2018, 08:45 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Oh, there is no doubt that God is vain. He is God after all. 

OK that makes sense. If I were almighty I'd probably be quite full of myself too. I just wonder about the infallibility aspect - isn't vanity a weakness? 
Also, it comes across as a bit insecure.

(02-13-2018, 09:01 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Satan means adversary. It's a term that Christians have used to label rival groups long before they linked it to the idea of Lucifer or the Devil, who himself was not this ultimate evil figure in most of Christianity until recent centuries. 

They don't worship the devil. They use satanism in its original form as adversaries to established Abrahamic religions which they think promote values unnatural to human instinct.

It's really a form of atheism that's libertarianism meets Bill and Ted with a respect towards scientific knowledge. 

 cool, I learned something from that. Appreciated.

[*bfine32*]

(02-13-2018, 09:11 PM)hollodero Wrote: OK that makes sense. If I were almighty I'd probably be quite full of myself too. I just wonder about the infallibility aspect - isn't vanity a weakness? 
Also, it comes across as a bit insecure.

Vanity is a weakness for a mortal perhaps. 

No Jesus who was God in the flesh was not vain. 

[hollodero]

(02-13-2018, 09:17 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Vanity is a weakness for a mortal perhaps. 

No Jesus who was God in the flesh was not vain. 

Well... all these commandments concerning how to properly worship him look strange. Also that in the old testament God always seems to throw quite a fit if people disobey him, sending floods and all that. The "old" God sure looks vindictive and vain to me. 
But this debate is probably quite moot, so let me ask another question I honestly have no idea about. Which is: If Jesus was indeed God in the flesh, why in Mark 15:33 does Jesus shout God why have you forsaken me?

[*bfine32*]

(02-13-2018, 09:27 PM)hollodero Wrote: Well... all these commandments concerning how to properly worship him look strange. Also that in the old testament God always seems to throw quite a fit if people disobey him, sending floods and all that. The "old" God sure looks vindictive and vain to me. 
But this debate is probably quite moot, so let me ask another question I honestly have no idea about. Which is: If Jesus was indeed God in the flesh, why in Mark 15:33 does Jesus shout God why have you forsaken me?

Many feel it was him drawing attention to Psalm 22; which begins with those exact words....and contains this:

14 I am poured out like water,  And all my bones are out of joint;   My heart is like wax;  It is melted within me.  15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;  And Thou dost lay me in the dust of death.  16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; 18 They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.

[hollodero]

(02-13-2018, 09:32 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Many feel it was him drawing attention to Psalm 22; which begins with those exact words....and contains this:

14 I am poured out like water,  And all my bones are out of joint;   My heart is like wax;  It is melted within me.  15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;  And Thou dost lay me in the dust of death.  16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; 18 They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.

OK... still strange Jesus would shout about being forsaken by God when he himself was God in the flesh. The psalm doesn't really address that conundrum, unless I overlooked it.

[*bfine32*]

(02-13-2018, 09:39 PM)hollodero Wrote: OK... still strange Jesus would shout about being forsaken by God when he himself was God in the flesh. The psalm doesn't really address that conundrum, unless I overlooked it.

As I said that's what many believe. Others believe it is the first time the flesh of God actually "sinned" as his purpose was to take on all of men's sins. 

Personally I struggle with the true meaning of the Trinity; as do many. 

[hollodero]

(02-13-2018, 09:48 PM)bfine32 Wrote: As I said that's what many believe. Others believe it is the first time the flesh of God actually "sinned" as his purpose was to take on all of men's sins. 

Personally I struggle with the true meaning of the Trinity; as do many. 

Many indeed, caused whole schisms. It's quite hard to grasp what to make out of it.

As for my Mark 15:33 problem, I still don't get how if Jesus were God he would not know that God had of course not forsaken him, for, well, he was God. So when he shouts God, why have you forsaken me? he is either unaware of him being God - which would make the whole trinity aspect look like a case of divine schizophrenia - or he was just acting up for a reason I can not understand.
I don't know how he "sinned" (except maybe lying about his doubts about God/himself) or what the psalm leads me to, in my case it lead me to no answer for that conundrum still. If necessary I could live with that of course.

[BmorePat87]

(02-13-2018, 11:33 PM)hollodero Wrote: Many indeed, caused whole schisms. It's quite hard to grasp what to make out of it.

As for my Mark 15:33 problem, I still don't get how if Jesus were God he would not know that God had of course not forsaken him, for, well, he was God. So when he shouts God, why have you forsaken me? he is either unaware of him being God - which would make the whole trinity aspect look like a case of divine schizophrenia - or he was just acting up for a reason I can not understand.
I don't know how he "sinned" (except maybe lying about his doubts about God/himself) or what the psalm leads me to, in my case it lead me to no answer for that conundrum still. If necessary I could live with that of course.

It's the same reason why there's issues between Star Wars Episode 7 and 8. When you have different authors write different pieces of a story and then have someone else edit it and put it together, you're going to have inconsistencies. 

But then you also have the novels that come years later and fill in gaps, adding new concepts.While they're not completely treated the same as the movies, the pope... I mean director then adds into the movie 20 years later when it gets rereleased as a special edition. 

And that's why a concept developed centuries after the fact doesn't completely mesh with one of the many independently written books in an anthology. 

[*bfine32*]

(02-13-2018, 11:33 PM)hollodero Wrote: Many indeed, caused whole schisms. It's quite hard to grasp what to make out of it.

As for my Mark 15:33 problem, I still don't get how if Jesus were God he would not know that God had of course not forsaken him, for, well, he was God. So when he shouts God, why have you forsaken me? he is either unaware of him being God - which would make the whole trinity aspect look like a case of divine schizophrenia - or he was just acting up for a reason I can not understand.
I don't know how he "sinned" (except maybe lying about his doubts about God/himself) or what the psalm leads me to, in my case it lead me to no answer for that conundrum still. If necessary I could live with that of course.

If you read the complete Psalm the question can be answered; although it starts out with why have you forsaken me; it ends with Salvation. So Jesus very well may not have been crying out "to good" as he could have just questioned this in silence; but he was calling out for the folks to hear and to annotate so thousands of years later we can refer to the Psalm and understand the prophecy was fulfilled. From what I've heard the Psalm spoke of Crucifixion100s of years before it way of putting folks to death.   

As to the "sin" option. He is filled with sin as he died to take man's sin.

As to the Trinity; I doubt it is anything as secular as mental illness. One way it have been explained to me it that God is The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost, but the father is not the son or the holy ghost, The son is not the father or the holy ghost, and The holy ghost is not the Father or Son.  

[hollodero]

(02-13-2018, 11:57 PM)bfine32 Wrote: If you read the complete Psalm the question can be answered; although it starts out with why have you forsaken me; it ends with Salvation. So Jesus very well may not have been crying out "to good" as he could have just questioned this in silence; but he was calling out for the folks to hear and to annotate so thousands of years later we can refer to the Psalm and understand the prophecy was fulfilled. From what I've heard the Psalm spoke of Crucifixion100s of years before it way of putting folks to death.   

All the world is stage... but ok I get that one now.

(02-13-2018, 11:57 PM)bfine32 Wrote: As to the "sin" option. He is filled with sin as he died to take man's sin.

As to the Trinity; I doubt it is anything as secular as mental illness.

Of course. That was just a casual remark referring to Jesus asking "himself" why he'd forsaken him, nothing too serious.

(02-13-2018, 11:57 PM)bfine32 Wrote: One way it have been explained to me it that God is The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost, but the father is not the son or the holy ghost, The son is not the father or the holy ghost, and The holy ghost is not the Father or Son.  

That makes sense, although I won't overemphasize the word sense, but I get it. I have now googled for an answer to my question, and I now believe that Jesus rather asked the "Father" and not so much "God" why he'd forsaken him - the father that he himself is not. I can live with that.

OK then, that theological puzzle's solved and I can go to rest after yet another olympic skiing event was canceled. God, Satan or whoever: That's just a mess.

[Millhouse]

Christianity really only has 2 commandments. Love your neighbor as yourself, aka the golden rule. And then love God as the second.