Hollywood sure has helped the myth about Satanism along and so have the ignorant and narrow minded amongst us. When you visit Kalahari.net and search for the Satanic Bible written by Anton La Vey, you will find it for sale, to be expected in today’s day and age.
I have often found it amazing that people are extremely surprised when you say to them that Satanists do not worship Satan, I have even presented fact on occasion and not even that could make them believe this to be true, but it is.
The 1st question that usually creates confusion would be the word, Satanist or Satanism.
To understand this you have to look at the meaning of the word Satan. Satan in Hebrew means “adversary” or “opposer”; one who questions, the Christian deity Lucifer or the devil are therefore also known as Satan and because these people question all religions their philosophy and believes can not be better describe as Satanism.
La Vey believed that Lucifer merely represents man's true carnal nature and can not be worshipped as a real entity, he believed in individualism instead of blindly following the masses.
I quote la Vey
"It is the individual's responsibility (and not that of a God, or the fault of any devil) to both justify and accept the consequences of their actions.”
In his most important essay, "Satanism: The Feared Religion", the Church of Satan's current leader Peter H. Gilmore states:
“Satanists do not believe in the supernatural, in neither God nor the Devil. To the Satanist, he is his own God. Satan is a symbol of Man living as his prideful, carnal nature dictates. The reality behind Satan is simply the dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things. Satan is not a conscious entity to be worshipped, rather a reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will. Thus any concept of sacrifice is rejected as a Christian aberration—in Satanism there’s no deity to which one can sacrifice”
Anton la Vey founded this church
Yes, they are therefore atheists, they do not agree with any religion, and all atheists are not Satanists either.
There is a group that apparently worship Lucifer, Peter H Gilmore in an interview had these answers about them.
They are known as theistic “Satanists”
“Peter H. Gilmore: We don’t think they are Satanists. They are devil worshipers, as far as I’m concerned. My real feeling is that anybody who believes in supernatural entities on some level is insane. Whether they believe in The Devil or God. I consider it lunatic and it’s Christian. If you want to believe in an existing devil then you probably believe in an existing God and you’re really just a Christian heretic, you’re not a Satanist
The satanic Church is very clear on the facts that people who do worship Satan are not Satanists and is actually worshipping their own ignorance.
Should you want to understand what real Satanism is actually about, the link to the interview with the high priest of the Satanic Church Peter H Gilmore.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Satanism:_An_interview_with_Church_of_Satan_High_Priest_Peter_Gilmore
Just as Christianity has many diversities, so does Satanism it seems. Both have shown this world horrors committed under the flag of religions and perhaps because it is our nature we tend to generalize things, it is not wise to do this, and wars have started this way.
I have been following religious articles on news24 and boy oh boy there are some very ignorant people still out there, amazing, but unfortunately true.
Knowledge is wisdom and assumption truly is the mother of all duckups.
PS! No, I am not a Satanist, simply hungry for truth. ;-) Perhaps this will clear up some confusion often seen in comments and articles, we can only hope.
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