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Author Topic: Satanic Temple’s Seven Tenets Morally Superior To Ten Commandments?  (Read 2905 times)

PerditaPickle

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I'm not sure if this was the right place to put this, but anyway.

I came across this on Facebook and it struck me as amusing.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/01/satanic-temples-seven-tenants-are-morally-superior-to-ten-commandments/

(Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about Satanism and I'm also unfamiliar with this website.)
“Radiate boundless love towards the entire world — above, below, and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity.” – The Buddha
(From the Metta Sutta)

My Portrait of Perpetual Perplexity blog

Sefiru

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I'm not sure if this was the right place to put this, but anyway.

I came across this on Facebook and it struck me as amusing.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/01/satanic-temples-seven-tenants-are-morally-superior-to-ten-commandments/

(Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about Satanism and I'm also unfamiliar with this website.)

Skimmed briefly through the article. First response: moral code composed recently is closer to current concept of morality than moral code that is 3000 years old, film at eleven.

I haven't yet considered what I think of the Satanic Temple's tenets, nor how the many differences between the two codes' origins and purposes affect how they can be compared.
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EclecticWheel

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I'm not sure if this was the right place to put this, but anyway.

I came across this on Facebook and it struck me as amusing.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/01/satanic-temples-seven-tenants-are-morally-superior-to-ten-commandments/

(Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about Satanism and I'm also unfamiliar with this website.)

Morality at very least in our understanding and application of it evolves with the times.  My moral code is basically humanistic (which for me includes concern for animals as well and of course the planet).

Even for traditional Christians I think one would nearly always find that their moral code is influenced more by modern values than by many texts of the Hebrew bible at least if taken at face value.

But there are of course lots of things people do with these biblical texts when it comes to interpretation.  I'm not as familiar with Jewish interpretation, but Christians I know tend to read the texts through the lens of Christ and his admonition (taken from Jewish tradition) to love God fully and the neighbor as the self.

That leaves lots of texts that are difficult to interpret, but sometimes they're interpreted as purely historical exceptions that were then but not now necessary (such as genocide).

Others will say these accounts aren't historical, and we should read them as symbolizing spiritual warfare against primarily our own vices.

Orthodox Christians will say that dashing little ones against rocks in the psalter is to dash our vices when they first arise against the rock of Christ. And so forth.

Some Christians will argue that the Torah's laws were progress for that time and culture, but that in that given time and place God tolerated certain evils such as slavery to gradually prepare society to come to a higher moral code while giving some restrictions on treatment of slaves.  This is similar to my grandfather's view.

Some will view Paul's instructions about women similarly and argue that we should move beyond Paul 's views on the subordinate status of women while not abandoning his more progressive principles that highlight love of wife and equality under Christ.  Another friend of mine reads Paul in such a way that he believes Paul intended to give a nod to the social order to then go on to subvert it, and that he was actually arguing for equality.  His line of argument on this is very interesting.

So I'm sure with all these approaches people can do what they will with the ten commandments.  I come across self-identified esoteric interpretations of them as well that are very far from literal.

Generally I don't like to compare ancient and modern moral codes so as to disparage ancient ones.  They were in a different time and place, and they did what they could to build a moral code with the knowledge and assumptions they had to work with.  I respect it for what it is.
My personal moral code:

Love wisely, and do what thou wilt.

Klaw

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I'm not sure if this was the right place to put this, but anyway.

I came across this on Facebook and it struck me as amusing.

All religions have some form of ethics, that doesn't make any of them morally superior over another. The Satanic Temple doesn't worship any form of a deity. They believe in Science and the pursuit of being a good person. Their tenets even have some similarities of caring for others like the Havamal.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2019, 07:26:13 pm by Klaw »

arete

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I'm not sure if this was the right place to put this, but anyway.

I came across this on Facebook and it struck me as amusing.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/01/satanic-temples-seven-tenants-are-morally-superior-to-ten-commandments/

(Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about Satanism and I'm also unfamiliar with this website.)
The pagan tenets are better. Dharma wins.

PerditaPickle

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Generally I don't like to compare ancient and modern moral codes so as to disparage ancient ones.  They were in a different time and place, and they did what they could to build a moral code with the knowledge and assumptions they had to work with.  I respect it for what it is.

You're right, of course; I was being flippant and naughty.  But I hope I can be forgiven, because you've posted some interesting points in response - my thanks.
“Radiate boundless love towards the entire world — above, below, and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity.” – The Buddha
(From the Metta Sutta)

My Portrait of Perpetual Perplexity blog

EclecticWheel

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You're right, of course; I was being flippant and naughty.  But I hope I can be forgiven, because you've posted some interesting points in response - my thanks.

Well, there are those who want to impose their own brand of religious morals or their cherry picked favorites anyway, and since most of us in this society are better suited to modern morality (including I would argue most Christians) and we're not all Abrahamic anyway, the Satanic Temple has its purposes.

In regard to the Ten Commandments I think they're mostly trying to preserve church state separation, so I am sympathetic toward them to some degree despite my quibbles noted above.
My personal moral code:

Love wisely, and do what thou wilt.

Failivrin

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https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/01/satanic-temples-seven-tenants-are-morally-superior-to-ten-commandments/

I think the Ten Commandments are massively overrated. Every human society has ethical codes, and Jews were not nearly the first group to write them down (See, for example, Egypt's Fourty-Two Laws of Ma'at). As for the Golden Rule, it is recorded in the teachings of all religions, all over the world.

The biblical commandments are also riddled with flaws. For example, Yahweh told Moses, "You shall not kill," then immediately changed his mind and told him to massacre his fellow Hebrews, to say nothing of the genocides in Canaan. The Bible proposes a few nice ideas but does not provide a framework to make those ideas into realities; in fact, it usually provides the opposite. This is not necessarily the case with other scriptures or religions.

At the end of my book, Gods of the Flesh: A Skeptic's Journey Through Sex, Politics and Religion, I wrote a series of ten principles that I personally feel are much better than the Ten Commandments--and it wasn't hard. Besides proposing a healthier, more sustainable ethical framework, my goal was to show that each of us has the power to develop a path that is both unique and timeless in its wisdom.

Zlote Jablko

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I'm not sure if this was the right place to put this, but anyway.

I came across this on Facebook and it struck me as amusing.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2016/01/satanic-temples-seven-tenants-are-morally-superior-to-ten-commandments/

(Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about Satanism and I'm also unfamiliar with this website.)

I think the 2500-3000 year gap between the two codes certainly shows. No ancient system of laws or morality is likely to stack up well against something formulated in modern times.

 

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