You’re wrong about something. That I can say with certainty. There are things I’m wrong about and I don’t know it; there are things you’re wrong about and you don’t know it. How are either of us ever going to find our way if we don’t challenge what we think we know, as often as possible?

The gap between what we’re able to achieve as a species and how wrong we’re capable of going in our thinking never ceases to amaze me. On the one hand, we’ve put people on the moon, and on the other--well, a quick look at the political climate in my own country, the United States, is certainly evidence of how much trouble we have thinking clearly and critically.

This will be a shorter and somewhat atypical episode because I’ll be writing here about the blog and podcast themselves and my plans for them for next year.

My aspiration for religion is that it be a reflection both of who we are and of our highest aspirations for ourselves as humans, but in terms of morality, traditional religion seems to fail at this. 

My question is, should Paradise Lost, John Milton’s 17th-century epic poem concerning the fall of Satan from Heaven, be considered a sacred text, especially with regard to the Satanist?

The fact that this same book, the Bhagavad Gita, “The Song of the Lord,” was a major inspiration for both Gandhi and the man who assassinated him has fascinated me ever since I learned it. I’ve examined the text before, in a piece about hedonism; here, I’ll be taking a broader look at the text and also the matter of the proper interpretation of sacred texts.

I’ve written this story before, but I’ve also mentioned that I never want anything to be fixed or definitive in this religion that I am creating for myself. Religion is a question that I am seeking to ask as sincerely as anyone ever has. So the above title is not so much a statement but a question that I am asking myself: What exactly do I mean by all of this?

Odd that this has never come up in the year now, almost, that I’ve been doing this. No one’s ever asked me what I do for a living, what my day job is. I’m a teacher, primarily working as a private tutor for gifted children and those with learning disabilities. I have some other gigs as well, but these days, I primarily think of myself, at least in terms of what I consider to be my “job,” as a teacher. More generally, I think of myself as a scholar and a philosopher and critic of religion, but my job as an educator is very important to me and, I think, an integral part of my Satanic philosophy.

This week I’m taking a break from my usual focus on the sacred texts of the Abrahamic tradition and turning my attention to those of Hinduism. In reading the Text, I’ve come to a new and different understanding of what hedonism might mean for me in the context of this Satanic religion that I’m building for myself. Hedonism is traditionally thought of in terms of indulgence in sense-pleasures, but I think there may be a greater indulgence to be found.

I really enjoyed writing the last piece I did on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and philosophy, so I’m doing another one. This one will be focusing on the villain Ronan the Accuser and the conflicts that he’s involved with in primarily in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie (though he appears in the movie Captain Marvel as well), and using that as a jumping-off point for exploring the ethics of warfare.