In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with famed atheist activist and youtuber Aron Ra. We discuss the battle against encroaching theocracy in his home state of Texas, his coming out as a Satanist, whether Satanism qualifies as a religion, and much more.
Find Aron here: http://www.aronra.com/
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Music for the show is by Eleventyseven and The Jellyrox.
Stephen Bradford Long 
Ha! Aron Ra is an official out and proud Satanist?? Excellent. 🙂
I’ve been a fan of his for quite some time….and he’s always had the an almost mythic larger than life Nordic devilish look going on. Hyper metal.
So it’s cool to know he now identifies with us.
Now we gotta convince Matt Dillahunty to take the plunge, though I don’t really see that happening. He’s been openly supportive of the cause in the past, but I get the sense he has some trouble seeing past the “this is silly, just be an atheist” mindset.
Looking forward to this one.
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Yeah, I’ve definitely considered inviting Dillahunty on in the past, but I’m worried the conversation would go sideways.
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Just finished listening. That was an enjoyable one.
It’s funny….much like you Stephen, I got into Aron’s videos 10+ years ago during the online atheist boom…and I’ve always very much enjoyed his content, especially the Creationist stuff. He has one video called “Christianity Reverses Everything” or something like that….that genuinely blew my mind the first time I saw it. It’s a live lecture he gave…and it was kinda stunning to me at the time to hear his argument that Christianity is literally 100% wrong about literally everything. Sounds hyperbolic for sure, but he makes the case well.
Anyway…all that to say, I honestly don’t think I agree with Aron on several points towards the end. It’s nothing big; I just think there’s a wee bit of inflexibility in his understanding of certain concepts. Which isn’t to say he should be more of a fuzzy thinker and discard the idea of definitions. Rather I think he’s just coming from a perspective that I think doesn’t always hit the mark all the time.
But 90% of the time I’m in total agreement with him. The bit of friction where I’m not is just the spice of a good conversation.
Thanks for this one! To mention Matt Dillahunty again….have you ever reached out to him? He’d be a cool guest….and I’m curious what his thoughts are on modern Satanism.
Also….random guest idea, but I would die if you got her….is Ethel Cain. That’s her “stage name”, her name is Hayden Silas Anhedönia. You can easily contact her through her website.
She’s a super smart interesting creative trans woman who, I think, is going to go on to huge things as a musician. Her debut full length album is due out this spring. She has a very interesting life story…that very much informs her music and art and entire ethos. She grew up in a hyper religious, almost cult-like, community in the panhandle of Florida.
She was interviewed on the podcast Artist Decoded, which is a great way to get introduced to her as a person, aside from the music itself. That interview is here: https://artistdecoded.com/216-Ethel-Cain
Anyway, it’s a long shot, but if I somehow enticed you enough to reach out to her and snag an interview with her, I’d be over the moon. I think she’d definitely be up for it.
Just throwing that out there and crossing my fingers. 🙂
Sorry for the super long comment…I’m terrible at brevity. 😛
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Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! I had similar disagreements with Ra but, as you said, that just makes the conversations interesting.
I haven’t heard of Ethen Cain. I will look into her!
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