Current Events > I love that we are recontextualizing hell

(+) Yeah! (+)

A lot of christianity's power comes from fear of god's threats of eternal punishment in hell, which is basically the most disgusting way to try to rope somebody into your religion ("if you don't join me, you'll burn forever")

I love that the people who've been historically threatened with hell are now taking agency and co-opting that imagery and owning it

and now christian conservatives are like "nooooo you're not supposed to ENJOY hell :("

Recontextualizing hell nullifies the power of their threats. Hopefully soon there won't be so many kids growing up attending fire/brimstone hell sermons.

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It just drags the concept into the light and show how absurd it is.

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As an atheist I agree that we shouldnt be taken in by superstition. At the same time I kind of worry about it sometimes.
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This battle has been going on since the beginning. Nubz

Wii_Shaker posted...

It just drags the concept into the light and show how absurd it is.

yeah exactly. The way fire-and-brimstone christians talk about the devil and hell is so nebulous and silly

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cuh posted...

lmao

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Given some people's view of how everybody is going to hell for the most minor infractions, all the most interesting people will be there anyway.

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so. satan was an angel, right? and he rebelled against god. but since god didn't give angels free will, god made satan rebel against god. because... i dunno, we just really need a villain. anyway, god wins, because of course god wins. creates hell, banishes satan there with all the other angels who didn't have the free will not to rebel, to be punished for all eternity for doing the thing they were literally designed to do. but also, for some reason, they're in charge of hell. that's right, the inmates are running this asylum. and if you masterbate, they're going to torture you for eternity, i guess during the parts of eternity that they're not being punished.

all perfectly logical.

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Pretending Hell is a good thing doesn't change the fact that it is not.

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Vyrulisse posted...

Pretending Hell is a good thing doesn't change the fact that it is not.

I think you forgot to end your sentence with real.

It's a good time to talk about the philosophy of satanism and strip away the LaVeyian Church of Satan's grasp on it. LaVey and "Lucien Greaves" are a bunch of carnie hacks who extort copyrighted symbols for cashflow, using their position as self-appointed authorities on satanism to enable eugenicist and neo-nazi rhetoric, but then turning around and suing a small group of progressive satanists for "politicizing" the church because they espoused anti-fascist views.

Satanism at its core is looking out for your own wellbeing and questioning power structures as to whether they're helping or hindering your personal freedoms, but also being responsible to the people around you and facilitating a fair and equal world for everyone. The "Satan" part of "satanism" isn't anti-religion, it's egalitarity and freedom - and that means honoring the faith of others.

The LNX video is more of a cultural satanism, poking fun at the Christian boogeyman of Hell. That in itself is an interesting conversation - personally, the Christian backlash against this music video rings hollow when I remember the irreverent way the Simpsons handled Hell and Satan. Hell hasn't been taboo for decades. And the commentary of the video, that LNX is trolling about religious conservatism as a response to his repression and backlash as a gay man, justifies the video in my eyes.

But my current bag is philosophical satanism, and the hokeyness of LeVayian Satanism in relation to the egalitarian roots of philosophical satanism. If we're talking about satanism right now, let's talk about satanism.

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MrMallard posted...

The LNX video is more of a cultural satanism, poking fun at the Christian boogeyman of Hell. That in itself is an interesting conversation - personally, the Christian backlash against this music video rings hollow when I remember the irreverent way the Simpsons handled Hell and Satan. Hell hasn't been taboo for decades.

exactly -- this video isn't really about ACTUAL satanism and neither are the shoes. And it's certainly not an endorsement of satanism.

Love the insight about laveyan satanism.

The video only concerns satan/hell to the extent that Christians have lazily tried to weaponize the threat of hell against gay people for centuries. that's the whole reason he chose this setting.

And yeah hell hasn't been taboo for ages. There have been plenty of depictions/references to it (and the devil) in pop culture, this one is only upsetting conservative christians because it taps into their homophobia.

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