The Satanic Temple Should Take Their Own Advice
Recently, The Satanic Temple (TST) had a statue of Baphomet wheeled onto the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol. Baphomet is the name of a false god associated in times past with the Knights Templar and today with Satanism and the occult. Modern representations of Baphomet picture it with a goat’s head on a human body (with both male and female traits); between the goat’s horns is a torch, and the image often includes a pentagram.
The Satanic Temple had the statue brought there to protest a recent bill that was passed allowing a monument to the Ten Commandments to be placed on the State Capitol grounds. Organizers took umbrage to the perceived preferential treatment of one religion over others.
I’m not here to address their protest or the Constitution or the rightness or wrongness of either side. Instead, as I read the article, I was struck by the seven tenets TST promotes. And since the article addresses the fact that TST doesn’t really worship Satan, I looked at the FAQ of TST’s website to see what it had to say.
You may be surprised to learn that I agree to a large extent with the seven tenets TST promotes, although I disagree with their grounding. With a little bit of critical thought, it is easy to see they make claims they have no right to based on their prevailing worldview. And I think because they use words that we all use all the time (and they have no right to on their worldview), we fail to see the error. As a matter of fact, they sound good, they sound noble. Who could possibly find fault with that?
To better understand where they diverge from the very thing they promote, reason, we have to look at a couple of other things they have to say on their FAQ page in addition to the seven tenets.
When asked if they worship Satan, their response is, “It is the position of The Satanic Temple that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions. The Satanist should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things. Our beliefs must be malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world — never the reverse” (emphasis mine).
So right off the bat, they state that their worldview is based on philosophical naturalism or materialism or physicalism. While slightly different perhaps, these are all effectively philosophical systems that believe that only matter, the physical world, exists and nothing supernatural does. So of course they don’t really worship Satan because they don’t believe Satan exists. The natural world is merely the material world that is available to the senses augmented by instruments. In holding the a priori position that all that exists is the natural (or material) world, then TST have effectively painted themselves into a corner and must assert that “our beliefs must be malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world.” They leave themselves no alternative.
But I have to ask why. Why must our beliefs be malleable to the best scientific understandings of the material world? Is that reasonable? Just off the top of my head, the problem of human consciousness comes to mind. It is obvious to even the casual observer that mind does not equal brain, thus materialism cannot be true. For further exploration of the issue, see my post on human consciousness here.
Furthermore, let’s look at the belief that science is the only begetter of truth. An engineer completing his doctorate in physics said, “Only science is rational; only science achieves truth. Everything else is mere belief and opinion. If something cannot be quantified or tested by the scientific method… it cannot be true or rational.” What’s ironic (and wrong by the way) about his statement? It’s self-contradicting; the statement itself cannot be tested by the scientific method. It’s a self-defeating philosophical assumption.
JP Moreland has argued that there are some things we know more certainly through introspection than we know from the sciences. For instance, I know I have free will on the basis of my introspection. And we know much from history even though we can’t test it by repeated experiment. So it is patently unreason-able to limit ourselves merely to “the best current scientific understandings of the material world.”
But I am by no means trying to exclude science as a begetter of any truth. Of course science gives us great information. And that’s just it, science gives us information. It is up to us to use reason, something championed by TST themselves, to interpret that information. As a matter of fact, there is a mountain of scientific information that logically and reasonably points to the supernatural. I have presented a great deal of that evidence on this blog as well. Simply scroll through the posts to find evidence from physics, chemistry, biology, cosmology and more.
One last thing before we look at the seven tenets. The Satanic Temple prefaces the seven tenets with this statement: “We believe in the pursuit of knowledge and freedom of Will.” There’s just one problem, there can be no free will in a purely physical world. If we are nothing but the accidental collection of atoms and molecules bumping into one another, then we can only function according to scientific laws. If all that exists is the material world, then free will - an immaterial entity - cannot exist. It is self-contradictory to posit free will on a materialistic worldview. With that in mind, let's look at the seven tenets.
Tenet 1: “One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.”
Why? You see, the materialist has no right to use the words should or ought. Should and ought fit quite nicely into a theistic worldview. God has said what we should do and how we ought to behave. But the materialist has nothing in which to ground should and ought.
And why in accordance with reason? What even is reason on a materialistic worldview? Things are neither reasonable nor unreasonable on a materialistic worldview. They just are. There is just brute fact.
Tenet 2: “The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.”
Now here I agree with the statement. The Satanic Temple, however, has no grounding for the statement. Once again, how does the concept of justice fit into a materialistic worldview?
Theism (Christian theism in particular), on the other hand, posits that there is a Creator who has determined right and wrong, good and bad. Justice is easily conceived on this worldview.
Tenet 3: “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”
Why? Again (and I realize I am beating a dead horse here, but it bears repeating ad nauseam), if all that exists is the material world, then there is no right/wrong, there is just brute fact. And in such a world, right/wrong devolves into simply might is right. In other words, if I as a bigger person want to take advantage of a smaller person, then there is no reason for me not to.
However, Christian theism holds that a personal Creator made us and has delivered to us standards of behavior and rules of interpersonal relationships. Additionally, counter to TST’s assertion, your body is not your own (1 Cor. 6:19).
Tenet 4: “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 one’s own.”
Again, I agree in large measure, only I as a Christian theist can logically ground such statements. What is freedom on materialism? For that matter, what is respect, and why should I have any for anything other than myself?
I do agree that we should have the freedom to offend because the truth is important, and it will offend some.
But we circle back to concepts like human will and justice. How do atoms and molecules just bouncing around willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of others?
Tenet 5: “Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.”
For the most part, I agree. We shouldn’t distort scientific data to fit our beliefs. And some beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world, but not all beliefs. If we actually looked at the beliefs we hold that do not conform to scientific understanding, we’d have to jettison a great many of our beliefs. But they’re not invalid just because they don’t conform to this criteria. Science is not the begetter of all truth or of all facts.
And once again there’s that word should. So when I see it, I am forced to ask why. Why should we take care to never distort scientific facts to fit out beliefs? The oughtness of the statement can’t be upheld on materialism.
Tenet 6: “People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and remediate any harm that may have been caused.”
Why? Oh I agree people are fallible. Find a Christian theist who doesn’t. But you can’t tell me why, on philosophical materialism, this is true. As a matter of fact, there is no true (or false for that matter) - there just is.
Tenet 7: “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.”
Define nobility on materialism. How do you get compassion on materialism? Atoms bumping into one another have no compassion for the electrons that get displaced. Where is their refugee status? Who’s looking out for them?
And to continue whaling on this dead horse, wisdom and justice are defined how again on materialism?
You see, TST is exactly right that critical thinking and reason generally need to be exercised more, and certainly better when they are. They just need to take their own advice and really consider the logical implications of the statements and assertions they make.