Evil religions?

If I remember my time on the paranormal boards correctly, there really aren't any truly evil religions.

The only evil religions are the few cults that preach suicide or violence. There are a few of those out there, but they usually draw in the crazies all on their own.

Pagans really aren't evil from what I know. Being pagan just means that you believe in multiple gods that are usually nature based. Wicca is the only mainstream group and they are all just naturalists and people who want to be in touch with their inner self. There's also a lot of feminist empowerment going on (in general).

As far as Satanic cults go, there are a few mainstream practices.

The first is the Church of Satan. These are just a bunch of atheist jerks (this is coming from a fellow atheist) who have nothing better to do on Sunday but make fun of Catholicism's practices.

There's what a believe is called theistic Satanism. It's basically just Christianity reversed. The practices vary by group, but they just pray for self aware from Satan (the original one...the one they believe in is usually a god of personal pleasure/knowledge). The differences aren't too great. They use a special Bible and honor demons instead of saints, but they kinda twist the whole thing to be a self-awareness thing (as you noted).

The last group is what I believe you'd call pagan satanists (I thought that was the term someone used once upon a time). They are there to "worship." They worship the pagan god Satan who was supposedly just the god of Gluttony, Lust, etc. Think of the Greeks who worshiped Dionysus. It's basically an excuse to get together, pig out, and have an orgy.

The evil Satanic cults aren't too prevalent. There has only been one or two that I know of and they were basically rounded up quickly for a few murders they committed. It was a case of crazies using the idea of Satan to justify their crimes. Most of the talk of Satanic cults comes from a frenzy in the 80s and 90s that was spurred on by evangelists and psychologists cashing in on it. A bunch of people claimed that they were dragged into Satanic cult practices, but in hindsight, the FBI declared that they were all cases of false memories implanted by a therapist's guiding and their own religious fears.

I had actually heard a few light conspiracy theories that Manson was hooked up with one of the worst cults. I'm honestly a little afraid to say the name on the Internet. I just read a few reports that said that a few old friends visited him from California at some point. Once they came, he calmed up and refused to answer any questions about the cult. Scaring Manson to silence is really saying something.

Religions (assuming it's fake, which it isn't ) are most likely used in almost every case to enhance the good way of living of humans. Why would somebody decide to make a religion that like believes in killing people? That may be evil, but do you really think anyone is going to follow that particular religion?

What type of evil religions exist today? I'm not aware of any, which is why I'm a bit confused right now, mind sharing? O.O

Any of the evil cults that I've seen seem to be based on a crazy person's ideals. There's unfortunately a lot of people who can be brainwashed or who are already broken in the head.

Akuma said:

Some people think that the Satanic/Pagan religion are evil whilst others don't see them as harmful religions and instead consider them to be peaceful.

Do you think a religion can actually be evil? I personally think a religion could be abused in a way that it's justified for evil means, but I don't know too much about either of those two religions to really consider them evil, although by Christian standards they technically are. I have however thumbed around some of the Satanic beliefs (mainly just LaVeyan Satanism) and most of it appears to focus more on yourself rather than worshiping Satan which many people think is the sole purpose of the Satanic religion. However that religion does deny God as apparently such a divine being has no affect on humans whatsoever according to them.

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HAH! As if christians have any right to say which religions are evil. Judging by history christianity is just about the most evil religion there is. Killing off the pagans, spreading the religion with fear and force, killing scientists for opposing views, burning "witches", the inquisitions. If that doesn't scream evil, I don't know what does.

Evil is in the eye of the beholder.