|
I do buy into a certain tenets of satanism, though I don't believe in God or Satan. But there are aspects that I do accept, such as a strong sense of personal responsibility and individualism that is part of some sects of satanic beliefs. I don't buy into the actual worship of Satan, or the undesirable aspects of satanism, but this is an intersting passage that explains my approach to it a bit better... Doubt should be held as the highest intellectual value, otherwise the search for truth and the search for happiness both fail. Firstly, doubt is required as part of the search for truth. In addition, without doubt, any search for truth can compromise happiness. I conclude that doubt and curiosity should be encouraged from childhood and in adulthood in order to allow more powerful searches for truth and to prevent such searches from compromising happiness.
When the truth is dangerous, is it more worthwhile to hide the truth? If ignorance is bliss, and those of Orwell's 1984 are truly happy, how is it that we think truth should be revealed even when they make people unhappy? Truth isn't inherent in happiness and vica versa: Who is better, they who promote truth over happiness, or happiness over truth? In society, in general, I would say that philosophers, mystics, materialists and freethinkers have pursued truth despite the danger to happiness, and the masses nearly always (sometimes ignorantly) pursued happiness whether or not they are also pursuing truth. The adoption of doubt as a central tenet causes the above questions to become mute, as will be shown.
By doubt, I mean the ability to doubt any and all facts, to spot assumptions and to doubt any believed fact even though evidence may be in favor of it.
There is something lacking in those who the truth is dangerous, or a threat. In order for truth to be revealed, the ground must be paved for people to learn to doubt their own truth... with doubt, I conclude in this text, comes an ability to be happy despite the times when the search for truth become threatening.
Nietzsche, nihilism, Satanism and materialism are all very self-conscious about the search for truth in taboo places, but of these only the latter two state that nothing else besides materialism is required for happiness (and in this I include psychological matters, not even materialists believe that money alone makes people happy). But of all the groups, and all the people, none have found a formula for happiness, even Buddha's teachings are only workable by some, not all. Given that happiness is so subjective in nature, can any truth or system ever produce a formula for a happy life or a happy society?
We have seekers for truth through logic (materialism, metaphysical naturalism), through experience and alternative states of mind (mysticism, religion), seekers for happiness through materialism, seekers for happiness through truth, and finders of happiness through the most random of methods, but hardly ever through the search for truth. -- "Satan represents Doubt. God did not want Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Good and Evil. Allah did not want his creation to doubt his word. In both theologies, it was Satan, the most intelligent created being, who stood up against this enforced ignorance. Satan tells mankind: Search for knowledge, even in taboo places. Shaitan told the Djinn: Let us test God's word, let us not mindlessly believe all that God says. Although these myths are irrelevant to the modern world, the role of Satan is very much relevant to our lives and our search for knowledge. Enlightenment is the ability to look past stated truth and dogma, and Lucifer is the Crown Prince of Satan that represents our search for enlightenment." Join us! :evilgrin:
|