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heavy metal, Philosophy

LOGICAL FALLACIES OF CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT HEAVY METAL MUSIC AND BANDS (PART 4)

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FALLACY #17: FAITH IN GOD IS CRUCIAL FOR HAPPINESS

The author states that Behemoth´s (band) goal is to persuade people that faith is not crucial for achieving happiness. After this statement, his answer follows:
 

“It is sad that people think that they can achieve happiness by worshipping the One who is the founder of all evil, and the One is the Devil, Satan.”[1]

Now, Behemoth´s goal and author´s reply do not add up. If their goal is to persuade people that faith IS NOT crucial for happiness, then how can one assume that they worship Satan. Sure, Behemoth is a satanic metal band, but how can one assume that they actually believe in a mystical being Satan? Someone who has a Christian perspective over worship and gods will surely think that Satan is a mystical being which is the embodiment of all evil. In this case, if Behemoth band members think that faith is not crucial for happiness, then how can they have faith in some mystical being called Satan? I think anybody who has such perspective over religion in a way that everything is mystical should try looking outside the box and realize that not every religion is about almighty, mystical deities. Maybe they should understand some things differently, like Satanism in this case, that you cannot see everything from your own perspective. Maybe the author wants to say that if you do not have belief in God or belief at all, it is also Satan worship?

  FALLACY #18: BURZUM IS SATANIC

Burzum is a one-man project created by (in)famous Varg Vikernes. He wrote that in 1993. Album “Aske” there is an instrumental song called “Dominus Sathanas” or Lord Satan. He didn´t explicitly say that Burzum is Satanic, but, since his goal from the beginning was to show how all these bands have “bowed down to Satan”, I believe that he wanted to imply it.

Burzum´s mini-LP “Aske” from 1993.

Now, I will prove that Burzum is definitely not a Satanic metal band/project.

This is the front and back cover of the “Aske” mini-LP (taken from burzum.org). The back cover is excellent physical evidence that Burzum is not Satanic. You have the song “Dominus Sathanas”, but the interesting part here is that in the bottom right corner, there is a picture of Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, crossed out. This is definite evidence that Burzum is not Satanic, and this can also be evidence that the second wave black metal was not Satanic and that Satan was indeed a codename for Odin.

  FALLACY #19: WAS JESUS A SAVIOUR OR A FANATIC?

When contacting the band Demoncy, they sent him a poster via e-mail where it says that Jesus is wanted for crimes against humanity and nature. Christ is wanted as an accomplice to the persecution and murder of countless millions. Christ is the founder of Christianity, a fanatical sect that promises eternal life but results in human slavery.

Now, I will not elaborate much about this, but the problem I see here is the battle of perspectives. One perspective can say that is the worst thing that ever happened, while the Christians will, of course, say that he is the ultimate idol.
Perspectives aside, I can also add that Christians should also see the history of their religion- inquisitions, persecutions, murders such as Hypatia´s murder, wars and so forth. The history of Christianity is not as “heavenly” as they think it is.

  FALLACY #20: THE MEANING OF LIFE

This fallacy concerns what the author stated in his book about Jon Nodtveit, former frontman of Dissection and his meaning of life. He stated (from Croatian to English):

  “He left a note on which was written that he fulfilled the meaning of his life by founding a true Satanic band. The truth is that he missed the meaning of his whole life and the band he left behind is actually doing evil things.”[2]

The statement that the band is “doing evil things” is not explained to the point, therefore I will not worry about it now. The main point here is about the meaning of life. This is probably one of the most common questions in philosophy. What is actually the meaning of life? Is that something universal and can be applied to every one of us or is it merely an individual thing, to fulfill your meaning of life? To judge someone that on the fact that he or she has missed the meaning of life, the “judge” first needs to know what is the meaning of life and then he can apply it to Jon Nodtveit.

NOTA BENE! I will also research if Jon actually said that (his meaning of life) because the author didn´t give us the source for it.

  FALLACY #21: THOSE WHO WORSHIP SATAN END UP COMMITTING SUICIDE

When writing about Enthroned, a Belgian black metal band, the author stated how Dan Vandenplas, a.k.a Cernunnos, made a suicide on the 19th of April 1997 by hanging himself, and then he said how those who worship Satan end up this way. I do not think I need to explain this fallacy much further. This is an another case of  “if you worship Satan, something bad will happen to you”. I think that there should be much more explanation why someone even commits suicide.

  FALLACY #22: KING´S MAIL

The author contacted the former bassist of Gorgoroth, King ov (or of) Hell, through e-mail where he warned the whole band about their concert in Krakow in 2004 and said that what they did is highly blasphemous, a massive sin and that God does not forget such things. He got a reply:

  “I don´t believe in a Christian God or Satan. I believe in elitism, freedom and personal growth. We won´t ever speak the same language, so there´s no point in sending me more emails. Thanks for your time.”- King[3]

Then the author starts asking questions in order to prove that King and the band are Satanic like, “If they don´t believe in a Christian god, why are they insulting Jesus in this way?” “If they don´t believe in Satan, why is one of their songs titled “Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam?”

Again, Satan does not necessarily need to be a mystical being in which someone has to believe as Christians interpret it. It can be a form of expression in many forms and in this case, it can be a form of expression of oneself´s anti-Christian perspective. If someone is a Satanist it does not mean that he is a theistic Satanist. And again, I repeat myself, if someone´s music and lyrical content is Satanic, it does not mean he or she or they are Satanists.

  FALLACY #23: MIKA LUTTINEN´S EXPLANATION OF THE BAND´S NAME “IMPALED NAZARENE”

When writing about Impaled Nazarene, the author stated how the band founder, Mika Luttinen, explained how they came up with the band´s name: “He said that the only way to kill a vampire is to impale him with a stake. I think you can, judging from this answer, understand what kind of blasphemies these people do.”

Now, in my opinion, the author misinterpreted Mika´s answer. Also, you cannot judge from his answer that they are doing some kind of “blasphemies”. I believe what Mika wanted to say is that Jesus is like a vampire. He sucks the blood of the people, meaning he brainwashes the people with his teachings, which sucks their life force and turns them into vampires (meaning his disciples). This can also be implied to The Church, priests, Christian philosophers and scholars who brainwash the people, so to speak. Note that this is my interpretation of the name and it does not need to be the actual interpretation of the name that was given to the band. I used it because one cannot judge that someone does bad things or blasphemies just because they have an anti-Christian band name. NOTA BENE! I will also get to the interpretation soon!

[1] Žažar, page 21

[2] Žažar, page 37

[3] Žažar, page 50

heavy metal, Philosophy

LOGICAL FALLACIES OF CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT HEAVY METAL MUSIC AND BANDS (PART 1)

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  Today, I will be talking about logical mistakes that Christians make when they make their ultimate judgement about our beloved heavy metal music. That it is satanic just by looking at its lyrical content and imagery. I will present the fallacies from the previous book that I reviewed, written by Krunoslav Žažar. His perspective can be generalized so it is most probable that you can encounter someone with a rock hard christian perspective about heavy metal (and most probably you already have in real life or the internet). Ultimately, I haven`t found any logical mistakes concerning NS bands like Grand Belial´s Key or Infernum. NOTA BENE!!- I will not write about Christian fallacies in general. Only if they are related to heavy metal.

  FALLACY #1: The author states in his book that his motivation for writing the book were disasters like wars, earthquakes and says that one should ask himself, do we live in the last of our times aka The Armageddon (found in The Book of Revelation). In the next part, immediately after the motivation statement, he writes about how there were a vast number of satanic heavy metal concerts in Zagreb in the past 10 years. Judging by his Christian perspective he is probably implying that these kind of concerts are a disaster and a sign of a oncoming Armageddon. Saying that satanic heavy metal concerts are a sign of endtimes and a disaster equal to those like war and earthquakes or floods is nonsense. Natural disasters happened in prehistoric times, our times and they will happen in the future and we cannot avoid it. Grand diseases like the black plague also occurred more than once in our history and wars are a product of greed for material or other gains. Judging by his statement, if it was true, then heavy metal bands would exist from the beginning of times (wouldn´t that be epic!!).

  FALLACY#2: SATANIC HEAVY METAL CONCERTS LEAVE FATAL CONSEQUENCES FOR ALL HUMAN LIFE.
  This statement could be understood in two ways. First one, “for all human life” one could understand that it leaves fatal consequences for all humanity. Second one, the other explanation for “for all human life” is the whole life of a one human being. Attending such concerts or listening to such music and having fatal consequences afterwords is again bunch of nonsense and it is not scientifically or empirically proven. Here I can speak from my own experience, that listening to satanic metal or generally heavy metal genres only improved my way of thought and also enhanced my imagination and seeing things from other perspectives. On the other hand when one speaks of satanism, not everyone thinks of “Satan” in the same way. In other words, Satan could be an expression only for death or only for the devil or only for an enemy. It doesn´t necessarily need to be only one way of Satan´s embodiment.

FALLACY #3: THOSE WHO CHOOSE JESUS CHRIST ARE ALREADY WINNERS

  This statement could imply that those who listen to heavy metal music or attend concerts that have satanic imagery are already losers. Just for the sake of this fallacy, the definition of loser follows: “A person that loses or has something to lose, especially a game or contest”. A concert or music isn´t something that you lose. It can only elevate you and your mind. Also, concerts and music or not contests (although they could be, between bands, but thats for another time). Basically what he is saying, Christianity is a two-way game in which you can choose rightly or wrongly. The mythic battle between ultimate good and ultimate evil which doesn´t actually exist in real world.

FALLACY #4: PEOPLE WHO PLAY HEAVY METAL MUSIC “GET THEIR BREAD WITHOUT ACTUALLY WORKING”
  He states in his book that one of The Devil´s seducements is getting food without actually working. He didn´t put his definition of work in the book but here is the textbook definition: “Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result”. Learning and playing instruments takes a lot of skill and training, especially on stage because you need to be extra concretated, fearless and skillful. It takes work, a lot of work for that, hence I disagree with him concerning this statement.