Hindrance of progress Many religions have negative stereotypes of earth religion and neo-paganism in general. A common critique of the worship of nature and resources of "Mother Earth" is that the
rights of nature and anti-
ecocide movements are inhibitors of human progress and development. This argument is fueled by the fact that those people socialized into 'western' world views believe the earth itself is not a living being.
Wesley Smith (of the conservative
Discovery Institute which advocates for Intelligent Design ) believes this is "
anti-humanism with the potential to do real harm to the human family". rather than prioritizing the well-being of others in his coven. Crowley is purported to have admired
"Old George" Pickingill, another nature worshipper who garnered negative attention. Critics labeled Pickingill as a Satanist and "England's most notorious Witch." These behaviors severely tarnished Crowley's public image and, by extension, cast a shadow over earth religion, leading to a misperception where many began to associate all followers of earth religion with perverse Satanism." An all-evil being does not exist within the religious perspective of western earth religions. Devotees worship and celebrate earth resources and earth-centric deities. Satanism and Wicca "have entirely different beliefs about deity, different rules for ethical behavior, different expectations from their membership, different views of the universe, different seasonal days of celebration, etc." Neo-pagans, Wiccans, and earth religion believers do not acknowledge the existence of a deity that conforms to the common Semitic sect religious concept of Satan. Satanism stems from Christianity, while earth religion stems from older religious concepts.
Accusations of Satanism as religious harassment Some earth religion adherents take issue with the religious harassment that is inherent in the social pressure that necessitates their having to distance themselves from the often non-uniform, Semitic sect religious concept of Satan worship. Having to define themselves as "other" from a religious concept that is not within their worldview implies a certain degree of outsider-facilitated, informal, but functional religious restriction that is based solely on the metaphysical and mythological religious beliefs of those outsiders. This is problematic because outsider initiated comparisons to Satanism with the intent of condemnation, even when easily refuted, can have the effect of social pressure on earth religion adherents to conform to outsider perception of acceptable customs, beliefs, and modes of religious behavior. To illustrate, a problem could arise with the "other" than Satanism argument if an earth centered belief system adopted a holiday that a critic considered to be similar or identical to a holiday that Satanists celebrate. Satanists have historically been prone to adopting holidays that have origins in various pagan traditions, ostensibly because these traditional holidays are amongst the last known vestiges of traditional pre-Semitic religious practice in the west. Satanists are, perhaps irrationally, prone to interpreting non-Semitic holidays as anti-Christian and therefore as implicitly representative of their worldview. This is not surprising given the fact that this is, in fact, how many Christians interpret holidays such as
Samhain. In spite of any flawed perceptions or rationale held by any other group, earth centered religion adherents do not recognize misinterpretation of their customs made by outside religious adherents or critics inclusive of Satan worshippers. Organized Satan worship, as defined by and anchored in the Semitic worldview, is characterized by a relatively disorganized and often disparate series of movements and groups that mostly emerged in the mid-20th century. Thus, their adopted customs have varied, continue to vary, and therefore this moving target of beliefs and customs can not be justifiably nor continuously accounted for by earth centered religious adherents. Once a Satanist group adopts a holiday, social stigma may unjustifiably taint the holiday and anyone who observes it without discrimination as to whence and for what purpose it was originally celebrated. Given these facts, many earth centered religion devotees find comparisons to Satanism intrinsically oppressive in nature. This logic transfers to any and all religious customs to include prayer, magic, ceremony, and any unintentional similarity in deity characteristics (an example is the horned traditional entity Pan having similar physical characteristics to common horned depictions of Satan). The issue is further complicated by the theory that the intra and extra-biblical mythology of Satan that is present throughout various Semitic sects may have originally evolved to figuratively demonize the heathen religions of other groups. Thus, the concept of Satan, or "the adversary", would have been representative of all non-Semitic religions and, by extension, the people who believed in them. Although, at times, the concept of the "other" as demonic has also been used to characterize competing Semitic sects. Amongst other purposes, such belief would have been extraordinarily useful during the psychological and physical process of cleansing Europe of traditional tribal beliefs in favor of Christianity. This possibility would account for the historical tendency of Christian authorities, for example, to deem most pagan customs carried out in the pagan religious context as demonic. By any modern standard, such current beliefs would violate western concepts of
religious tolerance as well as be
inimical to the preservation of what remains of the culture of long-persecuted religious groups. ==Ethics==