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Throughout human history, people, civilizations, tribes, nations and countless types of groups have been battling over their differing beliefs. Whether it be the ancient holy wars or the modern-day battles such as pro-life versus pro-choice, groups of like-minded individuals have aligned themselves and gone to the greatest of extremes – including war, violence and death – to battle for what they believe in.

Religious beliefs are certainly no exception to this rule. Throughout history, we have learned of and studied the great holy wars that have existed, which in some ways continue even to this day. Even atheists are no exception to this rule, as atheists are often lumped into such nonsensical religious beliefs as the so-called “war on Christmas” being waged by not only those of different faiths, but also those who do not believe in anything supernatural at all.

These types of arguments are easily classified as battles of “atheists” versus “believers.” At first, this comment makes logical sense. On the one hand, you have the so called “believers” who believe in a “god,” whether it be the Christian God, the Jewish Yahweh, the Islamic Allah or any one of the thousands of variants of the concept of the highest being, the creator of all. On the other hand, you have the so-called “atheists,” otherwise known as the anti-theists, who simply do not believe in “god” or the existence of any type of divine supreme being or deity.

It is that last part – the fact that an atheist does not believe in “God” – that made me realize that the argument that atheists and believers are opposites is simply false. Let me rephrase this argument in different terminology to prove my point:

BELIEVERS (THEISTS): I believe in God.
ATHEISTS: I do not believe in God.

Both believers and atheists actually BELIEVE in something, even if that’s something is opposite. You can’t not believe in something (sorry for the double negative), it is simply impossible. Saying “I don’t believe in God” is the equivalent of saying “I believe there is no God.” Saying “I don’t believe in aliens” is the equivalent of saying “I believe there are no aliens.” Both statements, while worded differently, convey an identical fact.

Now that we have a clear understanding of what constitutes a belief, let’s tackle another issue that is important to much of the Satanic community: the abortion issue. Many of those out there feel that pro-choice is the opposite and adversary of pro-life when this is simply not the case. The opposite of PRO-LIFE is ANTI-LIFE. The opposite of PRO-CHOICE is ANTI-CHOICE.

While pro-life has been adopted as the definition of an individual who is against abortion and pro-choice as the definition of an individual who is in favor of abortion, by simply looking at the root terminology you can see that this is untrue. Pro-life is in favor of life, there is little room for dispute there. It becomes a little more complicated when the same logic is applied to pro-choice, which many would argue is solely an advocacy for abortion. What those with a pro-life leaning position would have you believe is that, going back to our previous statement, anti-choice automatically means the opposite of anti-life. Veering away from semantics and arguments about logic in wording, let us look at this argument from a more practical standpoint. Choice is not the opposite of life; in fact, choice may actually be in favor of life. An individual who is pro-choice may nonetheless choose to start a family. They may choose to take birth control as a measure in favor of life, in such a circumstance where becoming pregnant may be harmful to the life of either the unborn fetus or the mother. They may choose to abstain from such activity which would result in pregnancy to prevent the creation of life. In this scenario being pro-choice wouldn’t be in favor of death, it would be in favor of preventing the creation of life.

As Satanists – or, more generically, as atheists – our beliefs and values are in constant state of being ridiculed, mocked, ignored, discredited and disregarded in order to silence us. Theists will be quick to judge and condemn us for their perceived belief that we worship a literal Satan without taking the time to understand that’s Satan is a symbolic figure of rebellion. As Satanists, the burden is unfortunately on us to defend against these types of verbal and ideological assaults. By understanding how our adversaries in the theistic world use wording and terminology against us, we can, collectively, better craft arguments and positions to defend our beliefs and values. Proving our adversaries wrong may not result in victory; however, proving them wrong will defeat their arguments and may just win others over to our cause.