Originally Posted by apostate87

well, i agree in part with stygian (you could have worded this better). secondly, do not assume we are all satanists. finally, you have a fundamentally flawed idea of what satanism is. in the interest of answering your question, let me tell you what i believe as a satanist.

i believe many of the messages of the bible. i don't take anything in it literally. i don't necessarily believe in the christian god (i will return to this) and i certainly don't believe in angels, lucifer, heaven or hell, etc. i like to think of myself as a misotheistic satanism: misotheism being the actual religion, and satanism being closer to what you might think of as philosophy. why am i a satanist then if i don't worship satan?

satanists worship no living deity. this is intentionally a generalization. satan represents the pre-christian force of nature which leads us to act selfishly. ignore the negative connotation of the word. satanism, if it must be viewed as a religion, is the religion where you worship yourself. life, and in particularly one's own life, is the ultimate reason for existence, one's own intelligence omniscience, one's own power omnipotence. satanism stresses self reliance and faith. faith in one's self.

associating this with satan is the natural consequence of our living in a judeo-christian society. the figure in the judeo-christian mythology who best exemplifies unlimited self-condifdence is satan, who defies god almighty in his courage. what he does have is courage, or perhaps audacity. still, satanists consider lucifer's fall a symbol of their own commitment to standing against all odds.

christianity offers bliss in the next life if this one is squandered, and satanism offers satisfaction in the here and now for those of us who are willing to risk our immortal souls. now let me return to misotheism.

i have lots of difficulty in describing my 'religious' beliefs because i don't know exactly what to think. i believe satanism, but as i've said, satanism is not strictly a religion. as far as god is concerned, i hope that god coincides with existence, ie, existence has always been and will always be and no intelligence created it. that would be optimal. however, i can't be sure it's like that. but if an intelligent god exists, and what the bible says about him is true, i hate him. i hate the idea of the christian god. i can explain my reasoning further if you are interested but i believe i've exhausted your original question.