Religious Horror

[UzumakiW]

The Exorcist
The Omen
Hell
Sky High (Not really horror, but Fright has a review up for it, so I guess it can't hurt to put it up)
Art of the Devil (Kind of feel voodoo, witchcraft, and religion basically fall in the same area)
Rosemary's Baby

[levil666]

How could I forget Angel Heart? Damn, definitely one of my favorite religious themed movies. :bigthumbup:

[C.H.U.D.]

Although being a "dark art" or whatever pop masses want to label it, Satanism is still technically a religion, just not a christian religion, much the same as wicca, judaism, islam, or anything else not centrific of Christ.

Technically, you could consider Atheism a religion as well. Boiled down to it's roots, having a religion means having "something one believes in and follows devotedly".

Satanism is as much a religion as the chess club. Rather, it's a term used to describe particular Atheists. It's merely a group of like minded people.

Religion has:

Belief in God(s)
Prayer
Churches / temples
Holy Book / Scripture
Priests / religious leaders
Belief in supernatural (including angels / devils)
Miracles
Afterlife
Holy wars
Heaven / Hell
Lifestyle restrictions (dress, diet, marriage etc. etc.)
Belief without evidence (faith as a virtue)
Belief despite conflicting evidence
Supernatural origins of universe and / or humans
Murderous fundamentalist extremists
Annoying street / doorstep preachers
The soul
Regular ceremonies / acts of worship
Sin
Blasphemy

How many of those does Satanism have? One could argue that there actually IS a Church Of Satan. However, the whole idea of creating the church was to MOCK religion. It's just as much of a church as my studio apartment is. One could also argue that there is in fact a Satanic Bible. It's no more a bible then numerous books touting Atheism however. Again, the term bible was used to MOCK religion.

EDIT: For the uninformed, TRUE Satanism has NOTHING to do with sacrifice, demons, and all that other Hollywood crap. Satan simply means "adversary"...as in adversary to religion. We don't actually believe in Satan because that would mean we'd have to believe in God and in fact, Christianity.

[levil666]

Totally get you on that C.H.U.D. ...
I realize that it is a mockery of Christian beliefs, and much to the point of an inverse reflection of christianity and its symbols. However, and I mean no disrespect, just curious about a couple of the items from your list:

Belief in God(s) Even though there might not be belief in a singular "Satan", isn't there still a belief in a Dark spirit?
Prayer Aren't there incantations for ceremonial purposes
Holy Book / Scripture Like you said, it is meant as mockery, but I have met self-proclaimed satanists preach from it like gospel, and always found it strange
Priests / religious leaders Anton LaVey?
Belief despite conflicting evidence I guess it could be argued that believing Christianity is a farce could fall into this collumn
Annoying street / doorstep preachers I've seen some pretty strange satanic street corner preachers, preaching from the satanic bible, and they were just as annoying.
Regular ceremonies / acts of worship Maybe not regular, but I remember reading up on LaVey, and there were many a ceremony during his time

I guess when it comes down to it, the only real belief that can be argued as a non religious belief would be nihilism. Thanks dude, look forward to the response.

[Dragonmanes]

There may be two conflicting versions of Satanism based on what CHUD is saying; I had always believed Satanism was direct belief and worship in and of Satan and the AntiChrist. Taken from the adversary approach, I can see where you are coming from CHUD, but I have never heard of that interpretation of the term.

[C.H.U.D.]

Totally get you on that C.H.U.D. ...
I realize that it is a mockery of Christian beliefs, and much to the point of an inverse reflection of christianity and its symbols. However, and I mean no disrespect, just curious about a couple of the items from your list:

Belief in God(s) Even though there might not be belief in a singular "Satan", isn't there still a belief in a Dark spirit?
Prayer Aren't there incantations for ceremonial purposes
Holy Book / Scripture Like you said, it is meant as mockery, but I have met self-proclaimed satanists preach from it like gospel, and always found it strange
Priests / religious leaders Anton LaVey?
Belief despite conflicting evidence I guess it could be argued that believing Christianity is a farce could fall into this collumn
Annoying street / doorstep preachers I've seen some pretty strange satanic street corner preachers, preaching from the satanic bible, and they were just as annoying.
Regular ceremonies / acts of worship Maybe not regular, but I remember reading up on LaVey, and there were many a ceremony during his time

I guess when it comes down to it, the only real belief that can be argued as a non religious belief would be nihilism. Thanks dude, look forward to the response.

1) We don't believe in "dark spirits"
2) There are no incantations or things of that nature
3) If somebody is preaching from the Satanic Bible, then that's their thing. Just as if somebody wanted to preach from any other book. They are however, not a TRUE Satanist by going through this act since it goes against the very nature of Satanism.
4) Anton LeVay was the creator of the Church Of Satan. It's kinda hard NOT to be in the spotlight when you basically INVENTED Satanism.
5) We don't "believe" Christianity is a farce...we KNOW it's a farce.
6) Satanists preaching on the street corners are not Satanists. They are people claiming to be Satanists and want attention.
7) The "black mass" ceremonies that LeVay held were purely for shock value and fucking around with the media.

A lot of information about Satanism is misconstrewed due to the media's input and presentation of it.

[C.H.U.D.]

There may be two conflicting versions of Satanism based on what CHUD is saying; I had always believed Satanism was direct belief and worship in and of Satan and the AntiChrist. Taken from the adversary approach, I can see where you are coming from CHUD, but I have never heard of that interpretation of the term.

There is only one Satanism.

When you hear of people sacrificing goats, drinking blood, and "speaking" to Satan while wearing black robes...those are not Satanists. Those are morons. Those morons are held in lesser regard then the Christians or any other religion.

Next time you hear of somebody being a Satanist, simply look at it like they are a normal Atheist. Reality is that I am an Atheist since all Satanists are. Atheists know that there is no god. Satanists know that there is no god except for myself...who is "god". It's a slightly different perspective on things, but primarily exactly the same thing as Atheism.

[3/6]

[Dragonmanes]

Sorry to the OP for getting the thread off track but its taken an interesting turn, CHUD I mean no disrespect in questioning you Im just very interested in your perspective. What would someone that worships the Christian Satan be considered then? It is perceivable that there are legitimate Satan worshippers, would they not be considered Satanists?

[strtfghtr]

it's ok i like to hear all idiotic ramblings of people beliefs or disbeliefs

Personally I find anyone that takes a definitive stance on the subject of god's or a higher being's existence or non-existence to be very presumptuous. We all know there's no way to prove or disprove that one does in fact exist so all one's personal religion boils down to faith. Whether you have faith that god exists or whether you have faith that he/she does not. Either way you have faith...it is the rest that go searching for their faith or have lost their's, the ones looking for an answer that really interests me.

As for organized religion they always start with the best of intentions and try to make the world a better place but most often they end up creating conflicts and will probably drive humanity to the brink of self destruction.

Anyway I saw this crappy Sci-Fi movie a while back about a monster left over from Noah's Ark...the name eludes me but it was a fun semi-religious cgi-fest.

EDIT: found it...it was Monster Ark

[C.H.U.D.]

Sorry to the OP for getting the thread off track but its taken an interesting turn, CHUD I mean no disrespect in questioning you Im just very interested in your perspective. What would someone that worships the Christian Satan be considered then? It is perceivable that there are legitimate Satan worshippers, would they not be considered Satanists?

First off, you're not disrespecting me. It takes a lot to get me heated as I'm generally a pretty nice person.

As for answering your question, those people you refer to are morons. Plain and simple. What they do is in the same caliber when junior high school kids consider themselves "vamps" or vampires. Sure, I guess you can call those people Satan Worshippers...but certainly you cannot call them Satanists.

Honestly the amount of "Satan Worshippers" out there is very slim.

I'm willing to bet that roughly half of those Satan worshippers got into it because of musical influence (namely, Black Metal). There's probably a quarter of them that consider themselves Satan worshippers because they simply want to "rebel" and they are young and screaming for attention. The final quarter of them most likely generally believe that worshipping Satan will give them some type of benefit. Magical spells and secret powers of the occult...I don't fucking know.

My point here is that Satan Worshippers are primarily fraud. Very VERY few people truely WORSHIP Satan. A lot of people that are "in tune" with the devil most likely have pre-existing mental issues as well.

[C.H.U.D.]

it's ok i like to hear all idiotic ramblings of people beliefs or disbeliefs

Personally I find anyone that takes a definitive stance on the subject of god's or a higher being's existence or non-existence to be very presumptuous. We all know there's no way to prove or disprove that one does in fact exist so all one's personal religion boils down to faith. Whether you have faith that god exists or whether you have faith that he/she does not. Either way you have faith...it is the rest that go searching for their faith or have lost their's, the ones looking for an answer that really interests me.

Atheists/Satanists don't have to "disprove" God's existense. Why? We didn't create religion. It's in the same sense that I can't disprove that a flying pumpkin monster who eats cats exists. If you tell me that it in fact DOES exist, that's on you for the burden of proof. For the sake of arguement, I can't disprove that an infinite number of things exist.

[choptop2]

Rock n Roll Nightmare.

A rock band led by an Arch Angel vs. latex puppet Satan? All on a budget that couldnt buy a large pizza.

Blood Freak.

You're body is a temple, why get addicted to marijuana and mutate into a were-turkey? Why did a church agree to fund a film by makers of nudie cuties and stag flicks?

[3/6]

[FeindMummy]

the legend of hell house... it wasn't a "religious" movie but it dealt with some satanic religion things... and it is one of the true classic horror movies

[Joker]

Ice from the Sun

[slimeisacharacter]

I can't disprove that a flying pumpkin monster who eats cats exists.

He ate SNOWBALL! The poor kitty didn't even see him coming. I swear I saw it! Jesus is my witness! He made me some wine later and I felt better.

[strtfghtr]

Joker your cobbreti signature is amazing

[steelba]

that wasa another cultflick albiet pure cheese.

[Ashstrodamus]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Prince of Darkness. It's one of the best religious horror flicks.