Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
reported cases of abuse done in the name of religion). Something
like 10,000 cases are reported annually in the United
States in recent years. A significant number of those touting the
peril of rampant satanism in America, including law enforcement
officers who organize seminars on the subject, turn out to
be Christian fundamentalists; their sects explicitly require a
literal devil to be meddling in everyday human life. The
connection is neatly drawn in the saying 'No Satan, no God'.
Apparently, there is a pervasive police gullibility problem on
this matter. Here are some excerpts from FBI expert Lanning's
analysis of 'Satanic, Occult and Ritualistic Crime', based on bitter
experience, and published in the October 1989 issue of the
professional journal, The Police Chief:
Almost any discussion of satanism and witchcraft is interpreted
in the light of the religious beliefs of those in the
audience. Faith, not logic and reason, governs the religious
beliefs of most people. As a result, some normally sceptical
law enforcement officers accept the information disseminated
at these conferences without critically evaluating it or questioning
the sources . . . For some people satanism is any
religious belief system other than their own.
Lanning then offers a long list of belief systems he has
personally heard described as satanism at such conferences. It
includes Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox Churches, Islam,
Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, rock and roll music, channelling,
astrology and New Age beliefs in general. Is there not a
hint here about how witch hunts and pogroms get started? He
continues:
Within the personal religious belief system of a law enforcement
officer, Christianity may be good and satanism evil.
Under the Constitution, however, both are neutral. This is an
important, but difficult, concept for many law enforcement
officers to accept. They are paid to uphold the penal code,
not the Ten Commandments . . . The fact is that far more
crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the
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