Church of Satan

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I stumbled across this link, and opened it, for a bit of a laugh.

http://www.churchofsatan.com

I didn't know quite what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting something of this calibre. It doesn't even sound like a religion - it sounds like a protest against catholicism, and at times even comes close to Von Glower's philosophy. Be sure to check out, under Theory - Practice:

The Nine Satanic Statements
The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth
The Nine Satanic Sins

Some of it is quite reasonable, and you can clearly see where everything else is coming from. Now, I don't want to start another hot-religion-thread, God knows we have enough of them (God, in this case, being CJ, the forums' owner. Implicit pun which is only funny at 1.30am), but some of the points are, indeed, rather interesting, and are so clearly aimed at some principles of catholicism that we can't help but rethink some of those catholic principles. For instance,

4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!

5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek!

6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires!

Accourse, a world full of Satanists like this would be as bad or as good as a world full of Catholics (but both would be preferable to a world full of hard-boiled Puritans!).

EDIT - Should I, in the morning, look at this thread in a more awake state of mind and stare in wonderment, unable to understand how I could have ever posted it, I'll disavow any knowledge of any of this at all, and brain-wash myself in order to forget all about it, and maybe someday repeat the mistake because forgetting it means learning nothing from it.

[Steel Drummer]

Is this the Anton LaVey Church of Satan, or is this something else?

Never mind... it is. They seem like a bunch of geeks who are trying to form their own religion. Of course, they deal with witchcraft and stuff, but they're really a joke. I remember something Helm said a while back:

Lavey and his so call church of satan are anything but devilworshippers. They're plastic-card-carrying rational egoists who desire to belong to some sekrit club and have sex with each other as if it's a big blaphsemous ritual. It's not. It's just old bald people having sex with each other every other saturday dressed in goat skins. They don't believe in Satan. They don't believe in anything other than fun.

That's basically what most Satanists are. Some of them may actually be evil or whatever, but a lot of them just want a 'religious' reason to have sex all the time.

[LUniqueDan]

Sounds cool.
I think I wanna join. My local Knight of Columbus are becoming way too quiet these years. I think I have now a clue where they all gone.

[deadsuperhero]

I'm actually trying out Satanism. I kind of felt disconnected from God, and figured I'd try it for 30 days, to see what it's like. Seriously.
Acually, it's got a lot of interesting points.

1) Points out a lot of inconsistancies in the Bible.
2) Points out possibilties that the Bible "lifted" a lot from other religions, by comparing them.
3) A different kind of thinking. Catholiscism is about holding yourself back for God, Satanism is pretty much just doing whatever you want.
4) Interesting Propoganda- Some documents talk about a possible ancient conspiracy about Christianity being a farce made up by the Jews. I really don't know if I believe that, but it's nevertheless amusing.

In any case, I'm trying out the Joy of Satan stuff. The LeVaye guy is a bit more depressing, but all documents of Satanism say it doesn't matter how you worship.
It's actually kind of nice, really. I'm not scared of the dark anymore. And, more confidence so far.
But, don't condemn something you don't know about. Read into it. If we can understand the basic principles of religions, it helps us understand why people do the things they do.
And with that, I give out a big "HAIL SATAN."

In any case, don't worry about me. I chose to just try this out for 30 days, and if I don't like it, I can tell Satan "I don't want to do this anymore.", and then I won't have to do it.

[vertigoaddict]

Well, some people like Aliester Crowley strongly believes in stuff like using the energy in sexual intercourse to conduct wichcraft.

Although, I do agree with steel Drummer that thee are a lot of people who join this religion just to have sex, especially since a lot of movies make these rituals seem like S&M or something.

[Tiki]

Alliance:  The fact that you accept Satan's existence means you also must accept God's existence.   In such a case, would you really want to be on the losing team?  Just curious, 'cause frankly you sound like you don't know what you're getting into.

In any case, don't worry about me. I chose to just try this out for 30 days, and if I don't like it, I can tell Satan "I don't want to do this anymore.", and then I won't have to do it.

This isn't like trying a new hair cream for a month

[deadsuperhero]

Alliance:  The fact that you accept Satan's existence means you also must accept God's existence.   In such a case, would you really want to be on the losing team?  Just curious, 'cause frankly you sound like you don't know what you're getting into.

In any case, don't worry about me. I chose to just try this out for 30 days, and if I don't like it, I can tell Satan "I don't want to do this anymore.", and then I won't have to do it.

This isn't like trying a new hair cream for a month

Actually, I believe in just Satan right now, AS God. Therefore, the Christian/Jewish concept of God is a false God if you are a Satanist.
And in any case, I'm only trying it out for 30 days to see if it works out. If it does, I'll post here.

EDIT: It sort of is like trying haircream for a month. You're trying something new, a different way of doing things, a different way of approaching a problem and solving things.
I'm not asking YOU to be a Satanist. I'm just broadening my horizons.

[[Cameron]]

I read the satanic bible, was quite interesting. A lot of my friends read it as well, not really with the intent to pursue it with any kind of interest, but just as an interesting read. And to me that's all it was as well. Much more enjoyable than the Christian bible in my opinion. Some interesting points, but the same can be said for any religion really. I think I'll just stick with Athiesm.

[makri]

Alliance:  The fact that you accept Satan's existence means you also must accept God's existence.   In such a case, would you really want to be on the losing team?

To say that someone's religion - any religion - is a "losing team" is extremely arrogant and intolerant. To believe in existence of God and Satan doesn't mean you have to believe what the bible tells about them - theistic satanists can consider bible to be worthless christian propaganda, and have every reason to believe their side is the "winning team".

None of the satanists I personally know represent theistic satanism, ie. believe in existence of God or Satan as such. As far as I know, those who do are a minority of people who would classify themselves as satanists - most of them are atheists or agnostics. They see Satanism as a personal philosophy rather than a religion. Atheistic Satanists generally see "rituals" by Satan's worshippers as childish and useless as they see other religious rites.

[Sam.]

If Christianity acknowledges Satan, why does satanism discount God?

Sure Satanism is the antithesis of Christianity?

Alliance, I don't think you can just TRY a religion, a religion is a belief, how can you try a belief? You either believe it or you don't.

[makri]

If Christianity acknowledges Satan, why does satanism discount God?

Sure Satanism is the antithesis of Christianity?

Depending on the type of Satanism you subscribe to, some discount and some don't. Some forms of Satanism could certainly be called variations of Christianity, while many are purely atheistic philosophies.

In any sense Satanism is not just flipside of all aspects of Christian faith, it just focuses on different priorities and sees things from a different angle. There's certainly Good and Evil aspects in both of them (depending on how you define good and evil, I suppose).

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Zooty, it sounds odd, but he certainly can try out a religion. He can see whether it speaks to him, whether it means something to him. I can decide to go to Tibet for a month and catch a glimpse of Budhism in its truest form, and if it moves me I can delve deeper, and stay there for a month more, try to understand what it's all about. AFter that, I can go away unchanged, still the same atheist, or I can definitely convert. I don't even have to attend rituals - I don't really believe a religion is *about* rituals, they're just something for you to focus your belief on.

Interestingly, these Satanists religions do what the Catholic church has always been afraid to do - it moves the focus. In a Satanic religion, from what I read in this thread (so if anything I say is wrong go ahead and correct me), what matters is what *you* want to do. You, the person, the individual, the Man, are the focus of everything - ultimately, it's up to you, as opposed to some distant God who is simultaneously Father, Guide and Judge. It's not really surprising, is it, that it should have come up in such times as these, when individualism is getting stronger and stronger as a notion? Heck, in effect it's pretty much a religious version of Anarchy - each individual does what he wants, with his own drives, and if there are consequences he'll take them.

EDIT - Oh, and Alliance, by believing in Satan you believe in God, as the history of Satan begins when Morningstar becomes the Adversary. Even if you didn't, you can't believe that a coin has only the "heads" side, not if you know that it has two sides. The "tails" side is also there. However false you may claim it to be, God and Satan are, in the Catholic pantheon (and why did I distinguish between Satanistic and Catholic? Surely I meant Christian, since Satan is part of the Catholic pantheon, as much as Lucifer, Gabriel, and other various saints, angels and demons and whatnot), two sides of the same coin. Deny that he's your God, but don't deny that he's a God. For that matter, Christians should also admit Satan is a God. Simply not their God.

[radiowaves]

In my school, there are some satanists too. I have never understood them. What they actually believe? They believe that Satan created the Earth or is satanism just a moral codec? Then whats whit the symbols?
I really want to know if those satanist take it seriously or is it just an ironic protest against chatolic church. If the last one, then most people are satanists... Only difference is that most of the people don't dress in black or something to show everybody what moral code they are following, they are just who they are.

True satanists burn churches and make sacrifices, like in Sweden!

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Yeah! And true catholics burn witches! Come on, people, let's find us some heretics to burn! I'll buy the beers!

[Andail]

True satanists burn churches and make sacrifices, like in Sweden!

That's just prejudice. I haven't burnt any churches for years.
Not intentionally, anyway.

[WHAM]

Satanic Church = Atheism that has been given a funny name to piss off christians and to stand out of the crowd. They do not worship any god or such, but only nature and human itself. Therefore its not really a religion, its atheism. I've read the book. A few of my friends claim to be members of the Satanic Church.

I am not.

[ALPHATT]

Well I dont like any relegion but I kinda like the Satan in South Park his gay I kinda like 'im

SOUTH PARK RULEZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Steel Drummer]

2) Points out possibilties that the Bible "lifted" a lot from other religions, by comparing them.

I think other religions 'lifted' stuff from Christianity. If you compare even just the 'creation story' from each religion, you'll see that most other religion's 'legends' are very similar to the Adam and Eve tale. And Islam borrows heavily from Judaism. I heard some story once about a 'black stone'- if I recall correctly, the stone was originally white, but had turned black because Adam and Eve had sinned. I've heard a few other stories that point to Judaism/Christianity as well.   

If Christianity acknowledges Satan, why does satanism discount God?

Sure Satanism is the antithesis of Christianity?

Alliance, I don't think you can just TRY a religion, a religion is a belief, how can you try a belief? You either believe it or you don't.

I agree. For example: MrColossal is an atheist. He can't just say ''Oh, why don't I become a Christian for a week? If I hate it, I'll go back to my old beliefs." 

Another thing: I remember you saying that you were a christian before, does that mean your family members are christians too? What do they think about this 'temporary conversion'?

Satanic Church = Atheism that has been given a funny name to piss off christians and to stand out of the crowd. They do not worship any god or such, but only nature and human itself. Therefore its not really a religion, its atheism. I've read the book. A few of my friends claim to be members of the Satanic Church.

I am not.

On a side note: WHAM has a point; I was checking out the website, and I don't see anywhere where it acknowledges Satan as a deity. The religion sounds more like extreme humanism with some satanic elements thrown in for good measure. It almost reminds of of the Sith- with all that talk about power, and inner nature, etc. 

Actually, I believe in just Satan right now, AS God. Therefore, the Christian/Jewish concept of God is a false God if you are a Satanist.

Satanism teaches that Jesus/God is a lie, but they don't accept Satan as a god. They say that each person is their own god. Very atheistic and/or humanistic, and if you want to be a 'good' Satanist, you should know these things. Unless you're twisting the religion to suit what you want... 

EDIT: I just realized that I said something false- Satanists believe that Jesus/God is a 'god', however they don't think He's not powerful enough to suit their needs/overcome Satan. I guess they're tired of having to ask God for help, and they want to do everything on their own.

[Hammerite]

yeah but to be fair, christianity did lift A LOT from early pagan religions too.
easter is a christianized version of a pagan celebration called eostre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eostre

the way i see it, its better if you can just have your own individual beliefs, maybe based on a number of religions (also a way of worming out the crap in some religions like no masturbation -  :o)

[deadsuperhero]

Steel Drummer, I can see where you're going with this, but I have to disagree.
Everyone's entitled to their own beliefs, yes?
Therefore, I can believe in Satan as my deity (seeing as I believe in the Joy of Satan stuff, which does exactly that, rather than LeVaye's theories)
Yes, I can try it for a month. The thing is, it's my life, my body. If I want to try something new, why not? You only get to live once, and maybe, just maybe, you'll pick a path that's right for you.
Also, it kind of makes me a little sick that Christians push their religious beliefs on everyone else. I used to do that all the time without realizing it, but Satanism has opened my eyes a little bit to that. It's really annoying.