Baphomet is a name of unestablished origin. It first appeared in trial transcripts during the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 1300s. Some modern scholars believe the name to have been an Old French corruption and misspelling of the name Mahomet (Muhammad)[1] (see Etymology for a list of possible origins).
I suppose it depends on what you consider a devil, but my opinion would be an emphatic no.
This question does bring up something that drives me a little crazy about these discussions. What do
you mean by Pagan? There are a number of different neopagan belief systems ranging from wiccan to
native American animism that are commonly referred to as well as self referenced as Paganism. Then
of course there is the Abrahamic monotheistic usage of pagan which is the Christian equivalent of
gentile with perhaps the more pejorative implication of infidel or heathen. This is by no means an
exhaustive list of what people mean when they use the word pagan.
"Pagan" by operational definition is a belief other than Judeo-Christian belief. It does not
necessarily have to be devil worshipper. Budhists, Confucionist, Hindu would all fall under Pagan
and I don't for a millisecond consider any of those the same as devil workship. Native American
tribes had many natural spirit beliefs they worshipped, would you tell me all those tribes were
Satanic? How is praising the Wild Salmon spirits which bring you fish food the same as worshipping
Satan? Ridiculous.
Plus you throw in this Baphomet historical discussion, there is nothing linking Baphomet to all
Pagan belief. And you bring up this supposed Muhammad (Muslim) link hinting the Muslims are pagan
but historians almost always include Muslims as one more part fo the Judeo-Christian line of
religious thought.
03 Nov 2008 06:49
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