One day, I said to myself, “I wonder what Satanism is all about?”. I think it was either Halloween or April Fools. Anyways, I go to the Church of Satan website, and I started reading about them…and they seem like a very VERY interesting group of fellows…
For one, I understand their basic philosophy and I really think I like it. I’ve always been facinated with religion and philosophy, and I’ve had a christian background (now I consider myself Agnostic), and I’ve been educated with Catholic Theology. But I think the Nine Satanic Statements is really something I could apply to my life, unlike almost everything else I’ve read. (Though maybe its the fact that I’ve been a bit fed up with religion and its seemingly un-reachability…)
I’m sure many of you who first think of “Satanism” will think of stuff like Rape, Murder, Child Molestation, Violence, and, of course, Satan. Though the truth is, LaVey’s Church of Satan encompasses none of this, and even the concept of the devil Satan isn’t really fully present, if at all. The way I see it, its called Satanism because it goes against most fundamental Judeo-Christian beliefs, but like I’ve stressed, it doesn’t delve into senseless violence or horror which is commonly stereotyped.
So, enlighten me if you can. What are your thoughts on this mysterious religion/philosophy? Are any of you members of the Church of Satan?
There are many aspects of LaVeyan Satanism that do appeal to me. I wouldn’t call it a religion, in the true sense of the word…it’s kind of an anti-religion. It’s about self-worship, rather than worship of another being.
I can’t honestly even call myself a true Satanist because there are several points of the philosophy that I don’t agree with, but it’s the closest thing to “Truth” that I’ve ever found. The entire philosophy is rather fascinating.
Also, I like that one of their deadly sins, you know, like the Seven Deadly Sins? Well, the first one is stupidity. Yeah.
I think that LaVey was basically a huckster (his background was in circus performance) who came up with some nonobjectionable humanistic/hedonistic principles, added some spooky rituals, gave it a sensational name, and got at least slightly rich and famous off it.
One of my friends in high school got seriously into this version of Satanism for a while, but never wanted to pay the dues to be formally affiliated with LaVey’s organization; accordingly, he identified himself as a Protestant Satanist!
That reminds me of one of the funniest conversations I have ever heard in my life; this friend and I and another guy were skipping school on my Satanic buddy’s birthday (in accordance with his general embrace of hedonistic self-indulgence, LaVey taught that a Satanist’s highest religious holiday should be his/her own birthday). We were questioned by a couple of cops, and my friend quite calmly and respectfully explained that he felt he could not attend school that day due to his deeply held belief in Satanism. The cop clearly did not have the slightest idea where to go with this and asked me and my other friend if we were also “involved with this Satanist group”, to which I replied deadpan “No, sir…we’re Secular Truants”.
I can’t speak to the subject of the LaVeyan folks, as I’ve never looked into them terribly thoroughly; the theistic splinter group called the Temple of Set I have looked into a bit. They strike me as having a modernistic but essentially respectful and accurate take on Big Red, at least in their public materials. I’ve occasionally considered joining just to see what their private stuff is, but it’s never been worth enough to me to make the investment.
While I like and agree with LaVey’s general rejection of the anti-humanist flavor of traditional religion, Christianity in particular, from what I’ve read the costumes and ceremonies in which his outfit takes place seem to be laughable. John Lovitz’ “Devil” character would be right at home.
Yeah, I like a lot of what LeVey had to say, but I’m not ponying up $100 to them or anyone else for an official membership. The real problem for me is that the core message of hedonistic secular humanism got wrapped up in too much Crowlian type Golden-Dawn-mystic-San Franscicso-in-the-60’s-costumes-and- ritual-“magick” jerkoffs. I’ve never been one for ceremony. I’ll stick with calling my beliefs “Antagonostic”.
The Church of Satan, as far as I can tell, fully admits that 1. This is a religion made up by a man, and that 2. A lot of the shit that went down in the sixties was pure shock value to get the name out, a la Marilyn Manson.
You don’t have to pony up the money to be a card-carrying member, too. It states that on the site, as well.
One thing I like about the Church of Satan is that they refuse tax-exempt status. For some reason the tax-exempt church thing always bothered me, especially when I see a bishop driving a Mercedes.
When I was younger and more interested in shocking people, I probably would’ve called myself a Satanist. Nowadays I’ve little interest in that sort of thing, but I do agree with a lot of the principles laid out by the First Church of Satan (a splinter group convinced that the original Church of Satan has lost sight of LaVey’s vision since his death).
Wow, that FCOS site is fascinating reading. It’s the COS stripped of all the goofy politics and theatre. They still espouse magic, which I think is silly, but that’s much closer to the mark than anything I’ve read in years.
I agree that the costume/ritual/magic stuff that is involved in Satanism seems kindof silly. Is there a name for such a group that follows the fundamental philisophical beliefs of Satanism without the ritualistic magic or likeness to my fantasy computer games?
Years ago when I saw the Satanism homepage, I read through most of everything they had on it. The way it was written and the rules of membership and whatnot made it seem that they specifically had two layers of “Satanism.” One was for idiots, and taking advantage of them is A-okay (selling bibles, candles, and whatever.) And the other was for intelligent humanists who might feel would read between the lines that all the magic and bible-selling and whatnot was just a scam, but who really don’t care because the idiots are after all idiots.
In total, I was fine with most of their philosophical things. But the inherent, “our superior brains give us the right to toy with wannabes” bit made be rather disinterested. (Plus I plain off refuse to subscribe to any philosophy, regardless of how much it may mesh with what I believe.)
I’ve heard LaVeyan Satanists called “Ayn Randians in black robes”.
The funniest thing is to hear LaVeyans talk about how they are “real Satanists” as opposed to “Devil-worshippers”. Um, no- “Devil-worshippers” are REAL Satanists; LaVeyans are Selfists who want to look more bad-ass than they are.
Exactly. Even if I believed in their nonsense philosophy (which, as you say, is a lot like objectivism), their pretentious invocation of something they don’t believe in is just plain silly. It sounds to me like one part half-baked philosophy and two parts trying to freak out their parents.
I have never seen how “The Church of Satan” has anything to do with Satanism. The CoS is as others said a rehashing of individualism and Neische with some libertarianist leanings. It has naught to do with being Evil for the sake of Evil or even for siding with the fallen angel against God, which would to my mind be real Satanism.
Here’s a wild thought: adopt principles you like from a number of sources and be your own person. These guys aren’t ‘Satanists’ at all; they’re just using the name to sound cool, which is pathetic, really.
