I'm not trying to make this a debate, but Crowley is a part of the evil and deception. It's the whole "Do What Thou Wilt" attitude, just like LaVey. Man is not their own God. There is not a difference in occultism and the magic you speak of, it's all demonic. Scientology is a part of satanism as well. Jesus is not just a "space hippy". Jesus is the only way to God and the only way to get to Heaven. That just shows how Crowley has deceived people. So we'll agree to disagree about it.
Wait, now, I don't usually like to get into these things, but I am having a hard time resisting here cause you always seemed pretty open minded to me.
So, I am agnostic as is and think MOST LIKELY god doesn't exist, but i think it is impossible to know for sure, so i take the attitude that i don't know, but to play devils advocate, if you are a christian, and it sounds like you are, then do you really believe that Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Hari Krishnas and Buddhists are all going to burn in eternal hellfire for not accepting Jesus in that same way that many christians do?
If you do believe that, well, then I'm not going to debate with you as everyone should believe whatever they want, but i just cannot personally fathom that way of thinking.
That is one of the lines of thought that keeps me aligned with metal music; because most metal bands are very against that kind of prosthelyztizing, which i personally think is more dangerous than almost anything any satanist or other occultist or system of belief does.
One of the most dangerous things i can think of that has kept us from world peace is the idea that any one belief system has it all figured out and that if others don't agree with them then they are going to hell or going to meet a horrible fate.
There's no way to get along well with someone if you bring up the fact that you think their belief system is going to doom them LOL, and that's pretty much the end of the conversation, and sometimes the friendship/relationship, right there.
Thats why i often keep my beliefs, and they are often pretty lose and malleable, to myself.
I will allow for the VERY slight possibility of a god, and an even slighter possibility of a heaven and a hell.
i don't think that preaching that heaven and hell are on earth right now, which is essentially Lavey's line of thinking, is evil.
Yes, he was a hedonist, and while i have forgotten most of what i ever read about him and would surely disagree with much of it now were i to read it again, he mostly believed in opportunism with a ''life is the hear and now and you can't count on a god or an afterlife so if you want something then go for it'' kind of view.
I would assume he probably donated to charities or helped people who needed it in his life and was far from evil from what i ever read, he just was not into religious bullshit.
He was into wasting no time on spiritual fantasies and on taking the bull by the horns and living in the here and now.
I don't think that's right IF it leads you to do others wrong, but he never said that.
I think he honestly left a lot more UNSAID about his belief system from what i remember.
He made many of his ideas clear, but it really from my memory was not a very sophisticated thought system.
Crowley on the other hand, yes, he had a very very detailed system of thought, and again, what i read about it was long long ago and i have forgotten most, and i think he was a bit crazy too lol...and did LOTS of drugs, but i will always have a certain respect for those who are able to indulge in the dark side of life ARTISTICALLY AND AESTHETICALLY SPEAKING like crowley, lavey and many metal musicians have, also people like William Blake too, and who are not afraid to be rebels and say that they really could care less whether or not there's a god, that they are going to live life by their own standards, love who and what they want, and think of each moment as fleeting reality, rather than dream about an afterlife that might never come.
