Ten Commandments and the Temple of Satan Tenets

Let me first put the Ten Commandments up, and explain a little about why each of them exists.

20 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Explanation: The reason why, is that the LORD taught a perfect ethic, and deviating from it leads to suffering. If the LORD's Law were honored, it would create peace, love, and joy, and it would lift the hearts of many.
 
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.


Explanation: Idolatry, such as Cell Phones, or the idols where people prayed to their past relations, is twofold. On one hand, idolatry distracts us from relationship with our fellow man and creature, while on the other hand idols cannot answer prayer. They cannot bestow upon us the joy nor peace nor love, but rather, if anything, bestow on one a somber melancholy, and distress, and at the worst, it leads to murder, and abortion, and perversion of a sexual nature. Idolatry, at its fruition, will always teach a bad ethic, as one is placing an idol above God, and therefore, looks to that idol for their answers. Which, the idol can give none, except despair and disorder. It can only answer its worshipper with silence, or it will answer them with emptiness and grave countenance. 

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Explanation: The LORD will not hold the man guiltless, who takes His name in vain? Why? One should be a friend of the LORD, and in communion with Him in everything. One should answer, and talk with the LORD as a friend. And one does not take their friend's name as a word of profanity. Also, the LORD is like a spouse. He is like a husband, engaged to us through the Holy Spirit, and taking His name in our mouth, is like taking the one we are married to, and using their name as a curse. The LORD is also like a Father, and profaning Him is like taking one's own beloved father in their mouth---even if one does not have a beloved father, the LORD can fill a heart.

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
 
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Explanation: The Sabbath Day is about economics and rest. The core being, that when there is rest, there can be enjoyment and community with the things God has gifted us. The Sabbath is about enjoying the rest of the LORD, communing with fellow believers, and if we do our own pleasure on the Sabbath Day---that is go and exact others of their labor, and find our pleasure at their expense---we cause them to have no rest. And when there is rest, there is equity, and the Law abounds and people can go about their lives, and have more prosperity. As work builds up when there is rest, and it leaves more opportunity for work to be done, and therefore gain and prosperity.

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Explanation: Even having the most abusive and degenerate parents, we ought to honor them in everything. For they gave us life, and even if our life is hard, and our days long, we ought to honor our father and mother. For by bestowing this honor upon them, we teach ourselves mercy if our parents were hard, but also gratitude if our parents were merciful. And by this, we sow into the world kindness, and not bitterness, and can be right toward all peoples.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

Explanation: Murder is the easiest sin to understand... but there is a time to kill. Which in war, there is a time for evil. But unless the commandment to kill comes from Authority, it cannot exist. And at the end, Death will be at the bidding of the LORD, and the LORD will have authority to punish sin, and throw into hell.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Explanation: Adultery is cruel. There is no more precious love in this world, than a man and woman. And to dissuade or be distant in that relationship, it causes the lovers to feel angst, and confusion, and weakens the bands of love. Not only this, but we can extend the knowledge of adultery to our every day, by not being aloof or avoidant, but by allowing ourselves to be charitable toward all, and allow ourselves the opportunity to bond with new people. But, also, to create boundaries, as the marriage bed is to remain undefiled, for there is no greater scorn, or injury, than to have one's beloved be unfaithful. There is no other injury worse, and no pain as deep.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

Explanation: Theft is easy to understand, except there are many who wish the state to enforce theft, for the masses. What a man works for, by that he ought to live. And only be begrudged to give his sustenance by means of tax, or by means of his own charity. When we wish to excise taxes so that the whole of one's income is pooled by those who have not worked for it, that is sin. For the sin of the world, is to  want to reap a harvest, where they have not sown.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Explanation: You ought to never bear false witness against your neighbor. For the simple fact, that someone ought not be accused of something they hadn't done. We've all made uncouth accusations. Yet, I'd think this is one of the worst crimes imaginable, is accusing one of something they hadn't ever done. As such a crime leaves a man vulnerable, and gives them a stain which will never wash away in this life. Not a stain of sin, but a stain of distrust.

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Explanation: For the simple nature, that covetousness leads to all other sin. Wanting what is not ours, or wishing to obtain that which doesn't belong to us, is the whole motivation of sin. If adultery, we wish to obtain that which is not legally ours. If murder, it is to obtain vengeance or appease our wrath, and therefore obtain what belongs to the LORD, which is judgment. If theft or blasphemy, it is to obtain that which is not ours by right, and to obtain by some other means. For all gifts come from God, and all that comes from God comes from hard effort.



The Satanic Tenets and Why they are Flawed

1. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.

Criticism: Yet the same empathy gets used to elicit hatred. For, empathy is only empathy with sin? Is it not? One does not, as a school of Satan, empathize with disciplining a child, or preventing the loss of the unborn? Or preventing the frustration same sex relationships create. It is simply to empathize, and thus encourage what is unlawful, and therefore, it is not empathy, but rather a means to creating suffering in this world.

The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.

Criticism: If there is no Eternal Justice, there can be no justice. For, every evil committed will go unpaid, and the very injustice the Satanic Temple wishes to fight, is indeed a sort of justice which would create eternal suffering. For, if men did what the Satanic Temple thought was just, there could be no justice, for justice would punish the rightful and reward the wrongdoer.

One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone.

Criticism: Yet, does not this very notion exclude the autonomy of the child's life in the womb? Also it extends to the mother's right, outside of the womb, to subject her children to her negligence. Or the father's right, to abandon the mother and child, and therefore leave them in poverty. Simply put, our own autonomy, and our own negligence, creates more suffering than any other crime imaginable. To have autonomy and inviolability to our bodies, is to neglect our duties to our fellow man.

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.

Criticism: Yet, at what point does the offense become an offense? To defend the right of the murderer---as an attorney does---this is free speech, but to coerce the converts into murder, this is solicitation of a crime. Sure, freedom is important, but there are limitations to our freedoms, to where we cannot be defamatory, nor libelous, nor cause damages to others. And while freedom is important---such as my freedom to say this, or yours to espouse your tenets---there are indeed times when those freedoms are encroached.

Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.

Criticism: Yet all the scientific knowledge supports the Bible. It doesn't refute it. Genesis 1 follows the pattern of Evolution. The Archeological Record supports the Bible. The ethics and Laws of Scripture create happy states of civilization, makes them prosperous, and induces welfare. It even encourages the strong to uplift the weak. Where was that in your tenets? I've seen you scorn the unborn, I've seen you advocate for relationships which would create suffering, I've seen you worship a Murderer, Thief and Liar as your Idol, do you not then, at the end, become just like him? Therefore, by very science of morality, your cult is lacking. For, it does not promote wellbeing in your members, and it promotes hatred of what's good. It is insufficient, as it cannot even empathize. For it advocates by its empathy, what would create universal suffering.

People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.

Criticism: People are fallible. But by whose standards do you know this? By Empathy? You do not wish the child to be corrected, so he grows to harm others. You do not wish the child to be born; you wish to give and separate the bonds of charity between man and his brethren, by giving them autonomy, therefore, rejecting the common strings which hold us together. Does your philosophy hold true? It says "Empathize" But also "Do what you will." If I empathize with you, while being exceedingly cruel, is it empathy? Your aloofness is cruelty, your unwillingness to accept the fact that we are not autonomous, but harmoniously connected together through strings incorporeal, which bounce and reverberate off of all creation. And yet, you wish to become isolated from it, and cut yourself off, by rejecting the Savior, and worshipping the devil. Therefore, you put out into the world despair, and darkness, and not light, for you reject the light. And that is the science I follow.

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.

Criticism: Nobility? You call the ethics of God "Arbitrary". There is nothing noble about your belief, other than the root of societal norms, which strives for a very basic answer of the truth, but cannot find it. For, there is nothing noble in your nobility, for the very word must come from somewhere, and where have you stated it? Yet, I can rightly say my God has, and does, in every book of the Bible. And very wisely, too, which conforms my thought to His, and my knowledge to His, knowing my God and being in relationship with Him, which is why He being my teacher, is necessary to first have any conception of what nobility is. Not that nobility cannot be found apart from God, but only that a few true geniuses have ever found it. And they, too, prove the Laws of my God.