The photo above is the altar to the unknown god that we find reference to in the book of Acts. In chapter 17, Paul finds himself in Athens.

“While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.” (16-17)

To understand this, a little bit of history is helpful. In ancient Athens, one of the most impressive sights was The Parthenon, the temple to Athena. It would have been visible from the boat as Paul approached the ports. From there, it was about a 3 mile walk to get into the city of Athens proper. Inside the Parthenon was a massive statue of Athena measuring about 38 to 42 feet high. A recreation has been the center piece of Centennial Park in Nashville Tennessee since 1897 with the recreation of the statue of Athena added in 1990. To get a scope of the size, the Parthenon measures 45 feet high, 98 feet long, and 62 feet wide. That is over 6,000 square feet of floor space which equals about the equivalent size of a total of three homes which have three bedrooms.

This is a photo of the Nashville recreation and the Athena statue it holds. This was not the only statue or altar to ‘the gods’ in Athens however. The streets of Athens, and most public areas, were lined with statues to any number of gods and goddesses. You could not walk anywhere in the city and not encounter one. Paul speaks in the synagogue, as well as the marketplace where orators would go to practice their skills. Specifically, Paul seeks to reason with people.

What’s Baphomet Got To Do With It?

In Des Moines, Iowa, A Satanic Temple display that was legally inside the Capital building was destroyed beyond repair. Numerous Christians and politicians have decried the ability of the Satanic Temple to even be able to display such things. There are some things to understand about the display. The first is that it was legal under the town charter, the state constitution, and the constitution of the United States. The Satanic Temple is a recognized religion, and subject to the First Amendment protections that entails. The Satanic Temple is a different organization than The Church of Satan. The Satanic Temple does not believe in anything supernatural. None of this is in defense of the group, just factual representation of them. They are a non-theocratic religion which is to say they are functional atheists. They do not believe in an actual Satan, or in any god at all.

The image of Baphomet has a long folk history and has been associated with Gnostic belief, The Knights Templar, actual ritual worship of Satan as a deity, and also as a protest against supernatural religious belief in general. It was chosen by the Satanic Temple to invoke exactly the type of responses that it is getting in order to prove the point that religions are detrimental to society as a whole. A man who says he is a Christian has been criminally charged in the matter. Another man sat in front of the display offering Christian prayers. For reference, here is an AP article about the event: https://apnews.com/article/satanic-temple-display-vandalized-iowa-capitol-199fb41983a3f3a390b7be370214bb64

Like it or not, The Satanic Temple is recognized as a religion by the I.R.S. and as such, in a society that is based upon laws, we have to treat it as such. That does not mean we need to agree with it, endorse it, or even remain silent about it, but it does mean that we do not take criminal actions against it. Legally, this may classify as a hate crime in the same way that desecrating any other religious property can be. Paul did not destroy the Parthenon, or any of the other various shrines or statues. Paul did not even call for them to be torn down. Why is it then that so many think that we should?

Advocating Foreign Gods

“A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (18-20)

Because of Paul’s ability to reason and speak, the leading philosophers of the day began to engage with him and brought him before what was, in ancient Athens, the equivalent of the city council. The charge advocating for foreign gods is significant here. This council was empowered to investigate foreign ‘cults’ and religions to decide if they would be granted the privilege of speaking. This is the same group who, centuries earlier, executed Socrates for doing the same thing. While Paul was not in danger of that here, Luke’s audience would have made this connection and its ties to wisdom being ignored.

Speaking reason to The Temple of Satan would be the same as advocating a foreign god to them. It doesn’t mean that they will be converted, though that is a possibility, but it does show that Christians are rational and not violently reactionary to anything they disagree with. It proves their assertions false in that believers in a deity, in the case of the Christian, the Creator God, can be, and are, as rational as their atheistic belief in reason and science alone. It gives us a chance to communicate instead of agitate.

The Unknown God

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. (22-34)

Finally, Paul’s master stroke plays out. Paul, understanding stoic philosophy, and likely being a bit of a stoic himself, uses the same strategy that diaspora Jews in the region had been using for centuries. He takes the portions of the philosophy that resonate with his beliefs and uses them to make belief in the Creator Gad and the Risen Christ respectable among the Greeks. I am not going to go into the various rhetoric devices he uses in this speech as that is a long topic, but they are present.

With a small amount of research, you can find that The Satanic Temple has 7 basic tenets. Among those tenets are compassion and empathy for people, the understanding that people are fallible and that when mistakes are made, they should be rectified and any harm resolved, respect for personal freedom, and striving for justice. Certainly there are a few things in there that have some direct connections to Christian beliefs.

Conclusion

I don’t like the imagery of Baphomet or what it represents. Frankly I find it offensive. That is its purpose anyway. The people who use this image are not Christians, so I will not expect them to act like Christians, or to believe what Christians believe. There are a good many things in the public sphere that I do not care for honestly. I do not like the use of the cross as a fashion symbol. I am not fond of people who don’t show respect for the national anthem. I don’t particularly I don’t like the fact that the Satanic Bible is available in my local public library. I don’t like gambling casinos, the state lottery, the two party political system, and really the list is probably endless. I don’t like them, and what is more, I do not respect them, but I do respect their right to exist. I am a Christian. It is my sincere desire that all people may come to know the truth of Christianity and become Christians also. The way to do that has a lot more to do with Paul and the unknown god than it does with some guy no one heard of and a destroyed statue.