For the third time, the Illinois state Capitol rotunda will have a statue from the Temple of Satan included among its winter holiday display. They claim it celebrates the allegedly “satanic holiday” of Sol Invictus.
This year’s display will feature the satanic deity Baphomet, depicted as a swaddling babe. The group claims Baphomet’s message is one of “harmony and reconciliation” … which totes explains why their winter holiday display is a blasphemous slam at the Christian celebration of the birth of the Son of God.
Critics of the display point out that Baphomet has nothing whatsoever to do with Sol Invictus celebration. Sol Invictus means Sun Unconquerable; celebrating the Sun as an all-powerful god traditionally occurs on the shortest day of the year. But members of the Temple of Satan do not worship the sun. Nor do they worship Satan, as Christians understand him. They worship themselves.
Personally, I think they claim Sol Invictus as a religious holiday is precisely so they can force sacrilegious displays on any municipality that attempts to erect a Nativity scene.
Baphomet is a half man/half goat demon that Anton LaVey adopted to represent the highest ideals of his Church of Satan. As far as I could tell, the Church of Satan and the Satanic Temple are different organizations that don’t much like one another. But they both use the same symbol. I guess it’s like the squabbling factions of Christianity that all use the cross.
Oddly, both organizations are churches, yet neither acknowledges the existence of anything supernatural. For them, there’s no soul or afterlife or spiritual realm at all. You live, you die, and that’s it. Satan isn’t the Prince of Demons; he is just a symbol. The Satanic Temple says they “embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions.” The Church of Satan website says man’s true nature is “that of a carnal beast, living in a cosmos that is indifferent to our existence.”
However, there are signs of hypocrisy within their teachings. For example, the Church of Satan has nine “sins,” an odd concept for a group that proclaims there is no higher authority than the self.
And their Satanic Rule #7 says followers “Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.” So, the material is all there is … but magic is real??
The Satanic Temple sneers at the Church of Satan’s belief in magic, but has its own hypocrisy issues. Its chief tenet is, “One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.” But they pride themselves on their outspoken, pro-abortion activism.
And the Satanic Temple states that it “is not interested in establishing itself as the sole arbiter of Satanic practice,” but hosts a page listing all the reasons why it is superior to the Church of Satan. LOL
- https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/state/2021/12/18/satanic-temple-install-holiday-display-illinois-state-capitol/8952418002/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus
- https://www.exposingsatanism.org/who-is-baphomet/
- https://www.churchofsatan.com/
- https://thesatanictemple.com/
- https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/church-of-satan-vs-satanic-temple
- https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/faq
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