From: gerald_duck	Date: June 25th, 2003 09:56 am (UTC)		(Link)

Actually, the human rate of mortality is only about 60-70%.

i.e. About a third of all humans ever born are still alive. (-8

	From: vexen	Date: June 25th, 2003 10:40 am (UTC)		(Link)

I wasn't just talking of Human life though...

but... aside from that... is that stat true? I couldn't for the life of me come up with a guestimate of many people have existed in history!

From: katminnaar	Date: June 25th, 2003 10:45 am (UTC)		(Link)

We can die in smaller ways before we experience the final death. But yes, not contemplating what Death really means might be trying to deny that inevitability. Anyone who's been told they do or may have a fatal disease probably looks on life and death a little differently after that.

Imbalance is an important point: true, there's no life without death. And as someone once said, "a man who's afraid of dying is afraid of living!"

We will not release our attachments to this world and attain Buddhist or Hindu Nirvana.
I've been doing much reading on Buddhism recently. It still smacks of denial. For all its fighting against 'ignorance,' it seems to contain an ironic element of ignorance all its own. To have to *renounce* so much of life seems a waste of it. (Refuge? From what?) I think I'd just rather die having sex. :)

The question of souls is interesting. My only comment is "who knows!" How and when will we ever know, except possibly after death?

Great article, as usual. :)

	From: vexen	Date: June 25th, 2003 10:54 am (UTC)		(Link)

I respect much of Buddhism... but... the monasticism and asceticism (despite being a Middle Way from extreme asceticism) and aims are not Human. The methods are great for the most part, intellectualism comes as part of the parcel (which is rare in religion!) and method of reducing attachments are sometimes very refreshing.

But the mythologies, the fantasy of it all - all the Hindu elements - are so out-there it's hard to take it seriously. Western Buddhism has dropped nearly all of this - or did for a time - but we are, in the West, re-learning what Buddhism is and beginning to realize it's as full of myth and nonsense as other religions (and isn't just karma & reincarnation!).

The history of Mara and the class of Asura demons is fascinating though, and follows exactly the same process as Christianity did, almost along the sime times too - a series of consolidations of spiritual forces into increasingly powerful dualistic-exlusive elements.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: June 27th, 2003 05:54 am (UTC)		(Link)
Can god be one of the alien which are more superior than humans?

I have been wondering... i think that there must be somesort of living organism out there beside earth. Maybe god is just one of the aliens that rule humans. hahahaha~ then he must be a really bad ruler.

From: panzer_rune	Date: June 25th, 2003 11:26 am (UTC)		(Link)

Have you ever written for The Black Flame?

	From: vexen	Date: June 25th, 2003 11:54 am (UTC)		(Link)

No, but I'm in both issues of Rule Satannia :-)

	From: megadog	Date: June 25th, 2003 11:47 am (UTC)		(Link)
	The Joy of Death.

Must confess, I take some comfort from my own mortality. I like the idea of finality. Death doesn't really hold any fear for me - indeed, I find the whole idea of eternal life as being seriously disturbing. If there is any sort of reincarnation, and I'm somehow reincarnated without prior consent, I'll be heading straight for the complaints-desk.

	From: vexen	Date: June 25th, 2003 12:11 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: The Joy of Death.

"Hello, this is Karma Complaints, if you've rung this number before and have a Incarnation DNA Number, please press 1."

From: (Anonymous)	Date: November 25th, 2003 02:50 pm (UTC)		(Link)
what are spiritual pipe dreams

what are spiritual pipe dreams

From: (Anonymous)	Date: December 20th, 2003 02:15 am (UTC)		(Link)
yes...

i think this is one of the religions (if it counts) that makes the most sense of all. denying the idea of worshipping something that they have never seen has a lot of sense in there. i am terrified of christians that are so extreme, they are to the point where they seem like they will kill in order to purify. That, is pure ignorance.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: March 15th, 2004 08:48 am (UTC)		(Link)
damn straight

Christians who go to the extremes of the bible and follow it in every way will go to the extremes of killing someone to purify...if not in life but also in death. Fucking christians look down on everyone and everything that does not have the same beliefs and thoughts of them...and i want to murder them for that....they will succomb to the true reality of this world and that there is no god...fucking morons....

From: (Anonymous)	Date: May 8th, 2004 08:04 am (UTC)		(Link)

clearly you have no idea what you are talking about otherwise you would be sure that we will rise and destroy the powerful one and then we inherit the earth once again.

	From: vexen	Date: May 10th, 2004 12:09 pm (UTC)		(Link)

So you believe that anyone who doesn't believe what you believe "has no idea what they're talking about", and let me guess, you're trying to "open" people's minds with this closed-minded, ignorant attitude?

From: fallenangelaila	Date: May 18th, 2005 01:36 am (UTC)		(Link)

I know this sounds odd, but I just want a straight-up transaction, sell my soul for specific things, screw the pentagram & blood. How?

From: vampire_logos	Date: June 12th, 2005 01:25 am (UTC)		(Link)
"I don't see dead people!!"

[[1. Satan represents Death
Everything dies
Satanism is about reality. In reality, all living beings die. There are no known exceptions. Satanism, in embracing life and indulgence, is in affect striving against death. However, death will eventually win, it is inevitable. Satan, representing reality and the Human condition, symbolizes the victory of death. This eternal truth is more meaningful and potent than deceitful symbols of life, reincarnation or other spiritual pipe dreams.]]




This is my opinion as an agnostic atheist. Most theists have very poor reasoning skills, and what’s left of their minds gets totally corrupted by the insidious effects of faith. They can’t tell the real from the unreal and it shows in the logically flawed and panic-derived ideas they propound. For instance they are obviously afraid of death, thinking that they will “survive” their death but lose the things they value in this world, so they neurotically decide to put all their stock in ‘god’ and banking on their afterlife horse coming in first place. Christians for instance often approach theism from a position of fear, yet they tend to deny this and proclaim to be “in the spirit” instead. They tip their hand though when they first meet a nonbeliever and say the equivalent of ‘aren’t you terrified of making the wrong choice?’ or ‘there are no atheists in fox holes’, etc. Little are they aware that they are telling me that they are terrified of death and their capricious “mighty” ‘god’ they neurotically invent and then kowtow to.

They tend to commit a lot of logical fallacies. Among them are (a) assuming there is an existent ‘god’, ‘till proven otherwise (of their personal choice of course, while ignoring how their ‘god’ has no more support than ‘mutually-exclusive’ Zeus does), (b) assuming that ‘god’ (or any other type of mystical source or mechanism) is an intelligible concept and is “revealed” to them or they learn from being “enlightened” and thus special, (c) assuming that the subject of that concept CAN possibly exist ‘till proven otherwise, and it’s all motivated by (d) fear of being a dead person.

Of course, the REAL irony is that there are no dead people.

There are DYING people of course, but dying is not the opposite of life, it IS life. It is the last stage of life and only the living die.

They think they will survive death, but as an atheist friend of mine often says, “no one is getting out alive”.

They are afraid of being a dead person, a person lying there in “darkness” aware of having lost all worldly values. But the thing is, there are no dead people, only corpses. The “person” is no longer there and a corpse can’t lose or miss a value (or at least there is no reason to think so).

One goes from being a dying person (who still has their values intact such as the life they still have, loved ones, etc) and then they die and are no different than a table or chair.
Somehow I don’t think a wooden chair mourns the loss of no longer having leaves or a ham sandwich mourns being a live pig eating corn and rolling in mud. I don’t believe in the existence of dead people for the same reason I don’t believe in ‘god’. There is no reason to believe it and both have all the earmarks of being spooky ghost stories.


It is only the concept of life that makes the concept of value possible. All values lie with the living (because we can assume the nonliving don’t value anything). And life feeds off of life in some manner, so it is only logical to value and revere life in general and to value our own lives, (which is the rational standard of moral choice) however, I don’t personally fear being a dead person (because there are no dead people).


:-)

The Vampire
LOGOS

From: (Anonymous)	Date: June 27th, 2005 08:12 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Deadism/Deadites

Have you seen the newest "Hellraiser" flick yet? "Hellraiser:Deader".
The cult therin called "Deaders" made me think fo your essay on deadism. If you have'nt seen this fim, I encourage you to. That said, is thier any possibly connection between "Deadites" as you refer to, and the use of this group called "deaders" in the new "Hellraiser' movie, are they similar in outlook or symbolism in any way?

Just curiuos.

In reason

Hail Satan

Bill Baker

From: (Anonymous)	Date: July 28th, 2005 11:52 am (UTC)		(Link)

If bad is the only thing that exists, then there wouldn't be a meaning to the word good. There wouldn't be a word for good. There wouldn't be a word for bad. There wouldn't be any words.

The soul lives on forever. This is your time. You earn your time in heaven now, in hell. Yours is looking pretty dull.

Don't let them take you over.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: October 19th, 2005 08:17 pm (UTC)		(Link)

jesus saved me from death, he changed me and gave me power to trample over sankes and scorpians. jesus saves and he loves u all u got to do is take him seriously and have faith. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.!!!! God Bless yall.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: December 19th, 2005 09:41 am (UTC)		(Link)
Satan Represents Death

Satan belongs to a class of beings that wield power over the creations of others. In Buddhism, there is being similar to Satan called Mara. Mara belongs to the class of beings as Satan. The Buddha taught that there is no power as hard to conquer as that of Mara. In Buddhism, The Buddha taught that the only power that can subdue the force of Mara is the power of an Arahat. For this reason, Arahats are the guardians of the BuddhaDhamma. Today, Arahats dispense the BuddhaDhamma to liberate beings from the power of Mara. Stan's power is equal to the power of Mara but inferior to the power of an Arahat. Satan does not have the power to vanquish the Arahats. Satan is incapable of vanquishing a single Arahat. Satan can be annihilated by Arahats.

Whilst the Buddha taught that life is a preparation for death, he did not teach his disciples to look for salvation in death. The correct name for the self-enlightened Buddha is The Tathagata. The Tathagata discovered the Four Noble truths

The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha are in two categories, Sickness and Cure. the Sickness is caused by craving. The Cure is effected by living your life according to the Noble Eightfold Path:

The Four Noble Truths

1 Sickness - Dukkha
Disease
2 Craving - Tanha

3 Cure - Nirodha
Cure
4 Treatment - Magga

The Noble Eightfold Path of the Buddha is in three categories, Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom.

Magga - The Noble Eightfold Path

Panna – Wisdom III

1 Right View
2 Right Thought

Sila – Morality I

3 Right Speech
4 Right Action
5 Right Livelihood

Samadhi – Concentration II

6 Right Effort
7 Right Mindfulness
8 Right Concentration

Methodology

I + II = III

Morality plus Concentration equals Wisdom

The Tathagata is known as a Great Physician, or Doctor. In the Four Noble Truths, the Cure is listed before the Treatment because if it were not true the Treatment would be a waste of time. Unlike Science, there is no speculation in Buddhism. Also, there is no Mythology in Buddhism. The Dhamma exists in its original language of Pali.

In Pali, the Cure is called Nirodha. There are similarities between Nirodha and Death:

Similarities
1 A dead person is motionless.
A person in nirodha is also motionless.

2 A dead person does not breathe.
A person in nirodha also does not breathe.

Differences
3 A dead person becomes cold some time after death
A person in nirodha remains warm

There are 6 senses in Buddhist Psychology
Mind(Mind), Body(Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch).

4 A dead person's senses are destroyed sometime after the death of
a person.
The senses of a person in nirodha remain intact.

When a person has attained Nirodha, he has Annihilated the Personality of Satan or the Personality of Mara. He is liberated, free from the rounds of rebirth in Samsara (the Plane of Relative Reality). He is free from the suffering of birth, sickness, old age and death. He has become an Arahat, Enlightened. When an Arahat dies, neither Mara nor Satan have any idea where he has gone to. They are in ignorance. When an Arahat's life is over, he may enter Nibbana. However, he may take the Vow of The Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva postpones going into Nibbana. Instead, he takes rebirth to teach fallen, ignorant beings the path that leads to Nirodha, Enlightenment. He will not personally go into Nibbana until all beings have been saved. When he is reborn, Satan and Mara have no power over him.

In Buddhism, The Teaching of the Buddha is called The Dhamma (Dharma). When the Buddha, the Tathagata, went into Nibbana, he left the Sangha as Guardians of The BuddhaDhamma. Satan and Mara have no power over Arahats. The BuddhaDhamma has never been corrupted by Satan. There is no similarity between Buddhists and Satanists. Buddhists do not seek salvation in death. Death brings only suffering, not liberation.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: February 11th, 2006 01:42 am (UTC)		(Link)
Re: Satan Represents Death

I am new to this type of religous discussion but I do feel that all religions have one thing in common. They all have to have a bad person, demon, devil, satan whatever they wish to call it. It is probably the only thing that every religion in the world agrees on. Surely it verifies that no matter what religion you follow you have to believe in "the devil" or beelzebub or some evil entity to justify your religion. Personaly I think it is more realistic to believe in your own basic faults than pretend to follow some entity that is always telling you you have done something wrong and you have to ask for forgiveness every time you do something that might benefit you. Why does religion always have to make you sacrifice to make you feel better about yourself. If Satanism is about self belief then I am all for it and I would be very interested to hear from anyone who thinks that religion is a pain in the good book - whosoever it belongs to.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: July 1st, 2006 05:42 am (UTC)		(Link)

I have been raised strict baptist. HOWEVER,I believe that the bible is a good horror-fiction book. I am now even having trouble in even believing in satan, because I have tried to sell my soul to him many times and . . . he never showed up. Now I definitely believe the book belongs on the fiction shelf!

From: (Anonymous)	Date: November 12th, 2006 11:01 pm (UTC)		(Link)
That Nietzsche Quote

Where exactly did you find that Nietzsche quote, Vex? I read all of the Genealogy and Ecce Homo and never came across it once. Do you remember what passage you got it from exactly?

	From: vexen	Date: November 13th, 2006 01:59 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: That Nietzsche Quote

I reference it on the page as:

From my copy of "On The Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo" by Friedrich Nietzsche. Translation by Walter Kaufmann published in 1969 October by Random House, Inc. Original work by Friedrich Nietzsche 1887. (The Amazon.co.uk link does not link to exactly the same book I have quoted from).

The specific quote on death is from p185. Nietzsche cites the quotation taken as being from "The Wanderer and His Shadows (1880)" paragraph 194.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: October 20th, 2007 02:40 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Don't Confuse Knowledge With Wisdom

Having read the entries so far it seems to me that the majority of writers are intelligent people. It is quite likely that I can't compare to their academic prowess, but my intent is not to compete, but to warn my brothers.
There are may ideologies surrounding God, Jesus Christ, the human soul, afterlife and ultimately death, and Satan. It would be a bold man indeed who could say with absolute conviction that there is nothing more to life than the brief few decades we are allowed, before we become worm food. To deny the existence of a human soul, or the possibility of one, is foolish. I agree that it is probably impossible to prove its existence to the satisfaction of a die-hard non-believer. The question is one of faith.
Faith is a hard concept for so many these days, and this attitude is partially a byproduct of this realistic world we inhabit. "Got to have what we want, when we want it...will not believe what I can not touch for myself."
I've spent 36 years of my life trying to find my own beliefs, and constantly battling with the physical side of me that must see proof of something before it can be real. Ultimately I reasoned that my eternal salvation is nothing to lightly ignore. It is as important as each breath I take, yet most people simply discount it as irrelevant.
Study your enemy by all means. Know more about Satan, because I'm absolutely sure he watches you constantly. To know how Satan attacks our lives will give us knowledge and power to face and defeat him, but you'd better get God on your side first. To ignore Him, to pretend that you are on your own against Evil, simply because you can see Satan's works affecting our lives more easily than God's influence, is a dangerous tactic.
Today, much of the Western world pays scant attention to a reality that fundamentally affects their lives and future - the fact that the devil is a real spiritual being who attempts at every turn to harm them and thwart the loving purpose of God. Christians are admonished to be aware of Satan’s schemes so they can refute them through the guidance and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. (Unfortunately, a few Christians have gone to a misguided extreme in a "hunt" for Satan, and they have unwittingly created additional fodder for those who ridicule the idea that the devil is a real and evil being.)
Satan need not personally attempt to deceive. He can work through humans who spread false philosophical and theological ideas. Humans can also be enslaved by structural evil and deception embedded in human society. The devil can also use our own fallen nature against us, making people think that they have "the truth," when they have really given up that which is of God for that which is of the world and the devil. Such people believe that their misguided belief system will save them (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10), but what they have really done is "exchanged the truth of God for a lie" (Romans 1:25). "The lie" appears to be good and true because Satan presents himself and his belief system in such a way so as to make it appear that his teaching is truth from an "angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14).
You are correct in mentioning that many Christians have this attitude of having to uphold God's Laws, and to forever beg forgiveness. What many forget or do not know is that Gods Grace and Mercy is above His Law (the ten commandments), and that your salvation is attained not by your works (what you do), but by your faith in Christ as your Lord, who's Grace provides you with what you do not deserve (salvation from your sinful self) and His Mercy by not giving you what you rightly deserve (judgment for your sins)
It's never too late to take the salvation offered to you, but be warned. Total rejection of Jesus, and deliberate blaspheming against God condemns you as surely as you take your next breath. Be careful that whilst finding your way through life, you don't lose that final chance to save your soul. Satan's watching you like a lion prowling in the shadows, and will happily take you the moment you ultimately reject God. Keep that final Ace in your hand on your quest for knowledge. To throw your hand in entirely shows no Wisdom at all.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: February 7th, 2009 04:53 am (UTC)		(Link)
Satan

So from what i believe in accepting death one rejects it from what you write in the effect of deadism in which like one would find for example in finding something credible in feeling they are credible yet meaning something negative they merely feel something credible because they feel the need to, in a perspective of one thinking if they meant something that hurt someone yet felt peace with it, so if they are objective to the natural built in beliefs they have acquired then they in some way acknowledge pieces of the truth, because in doing the same they hate another does , which is not based on motive they see the other doing, and in a way of saying yet witnessing to whats good for one being good for another, they call someone else a hipocrit yet are unforgiving thinking themselves credible while from someone elses perspective who thinks they are negative (not being from their own perspective from mentioned before also) when they accept what they dont want to accept they can truly live because they have judged through such instead of not judging through these things which leads to a subjegation of self for negative to be self justified in self realization to do unto others as done unto.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: February 7th, 2009 05:01 am (UTC)		(Link)
Guy that wrote before

So what i meant to say, is in judging the best thing as not the good thing, instead of not judging, is where knowledge comes from, sorry if i blasphemed. Im confused about some things. and the positive attracting positive thing they say about a lie that doesnt exist may not be true. in my eyes.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: February 8th, 2009 12:46 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Guy that wrote before

sorry about that i was drunk. im irresponsible i know. but what i was trying to say is if a christian feels something in a sense of what they feel needing to be felt is it really credible if its taken wrongly by someone else and at the same time if christians do the same they hate regardless of motive yet call someone else a hipocrit while being unforgiving and saying whats good for one is good for another can they really be credible by feeling credible in a sense of how the truth determines them vs how they accept the truth? so i was saying in a sense of deadism by judging and objecting to perspective people accept things differently. sorry about that i wont post again.