I have grown sick and tired of people who confuse LaVey Satanism with devil worship. People spout off on things they know nothing about, and assume that LaVey Satanism is worship of the devil in Christian religions. LaVey Satanism is not worship of the devil as an entity. Though LaVey could not have chosen a worse name for his "religion", I am still fed up with people trying to judge without knowing. His "religion" is actually a moral basis for life, he teaches about his feelings on things, and a theories. He teaches about etiquette, revenge, and a basis to structure your life. I used to follow his judgements and rules, but I grew tired of it. I think he was an incredibly intelligent,yet misunderstood man, but he "Satanism" is definately not religion, for there is nothing Spiritual about it. There is not enitity, nothing you are worshipping, he just teaches you to worship yourself, "becoming a god through your own self idolization". And that's something great to live by.

ill have to get a friend of mine to come on and debate this with you, he's a sort of authority on LaVey and Crowely and all the counter culture spiritualists and philosphpers...

Bad name??? That's the best name that exists!!!

if it was calle "Klapauzius", do you think he'd be as famous? do you think there'd be so many members in the First CoS???
THINK!!!
That name made his philosophy famous!!! Christians now hate LaVey, because of the name, but through that, more people get to know him, thus reading his books and eventually become satanists...

so again: SUPER NAME!!!

Any publicity is good publicity, and bad publicity is the best.

I've yet to read the entirety of LaVey's work, but it seems to me to be the response of a man to everything bad in the realm of Christian religion, named so as to inspire the disgust of those who worship God, and attract like-minded individuals.

What I have seen of his writing seems to be a matter of simply turning Christian ethics a complete 180 degrees...with liberal doses of pseudo-Nietzsche philosophy thrown in.

Shadowborn

Dude, how many people do you think would have stopped to find out about LaVey's ideas if he had called his school of thought the church of Lavey or somthing else along those lines?(would you have?).

LaVey writes a book called The Complete Witch, it bombs re-issues it a couple of years later as The Satanic Witch and he makes shitloads from diseffected little teenagers with scary "Christian" parents.

Its only the name which gives his ideas any power, so are you sick of people who think the CoS worship Satan? I doubt LaVey would have agreed with you that confusion made him a mint and saved him from a law suit from the estate of Fredrick Nietzsche no doubt.


And remember: "Never complain about anything you need not subject yourself to" - Anton LaVey

Isn't that close to what a religion is? I mean Taoists don't actually praise the Tao. Sure Taoism is also classifies as eastern philosophy, but it all depends how you view what a religion is. and funny enough your decription of LaVey's teaching hits my definition right on the head. Not trying to put you down, just something to consider.

well using tao is a bad example...

tao isnt a demon in another religion (though catholics used to claim it as heresy) soooo...

It's the same concept. Maybe it was a bad example? but the exaple itsself wasn't the point. =)

yeah, but ur point has less impact because of ur bad example...

dont be a lawyer...

So you say.. Actually if you look at the thread your point on it being a bad example kind of overlooks the whole point of the thread.. I think you would make a great lawyer..

i saw the movie "the devil's rain" with william shatner, and ernest borgnine.
it was co-written by anton le vay.
i know satan exists.

i've seen it.

I agree with a lot of what is said here, my being sick of the people who confuse Devil Worship and Satanism, is the people who spout off about it, don't educate themselves about it, and refuse to listen to the truth. Therefore, what I am really sick off is people who are ignorant and uneducated, but just wish to talk crap about something.

The Satanic Bible

I think it says everything it needs to on its own.

If this "religion" (I know you prefer not to call it a religion, but fuck it) is based upon revenge, but he's trying to do a 180 on the Christians, then has he ever though about the Old Testament? Wasn't that based on: "An eye for an eye"? Revenge based? Look at the Puritans, they basically gave the First Testament a new name and went along with that idea.

I don't consider it a bad example. If you've studied any theology, faith is a key component in all religions. By practical definintion, even humanism can be considered a religion.

Shadowborn

Question: "What is Satanism?"

Response: "Satanism has been referred to as an "unreligion" in the sense that it does not subscribe to the notion of an anthropomorphic deity and, by extension, some being who must be worshiped, its most common misconception. Others say that Satanism is redefining religion to some extent, not content with the dictates of Judeo-Xtian strictures. Both are valid opinions.

"Satanism is often described as being a de facto personality type as, in the words of Anton LaVey, 'Satanists are born, not made.' To try is to lie. It takes a certain set of predispositions to accurately label oneself a Satanist, to naturally feel at home with all that Satanism entails. Satanism, as a philosophy, can be potentially taken and learned from by a large percentage of the population, but this does not make one a Satanist, but perchance Satanic. Qualities such as cowardice, insecurity, self-loathing, drug addiction, stupidity, constant life failures, unconditional niceness, and lack of direction (and, believe me, there are MANY more) are clear indicators that the person in question and the title of Satanist are NOT compatible. For such a person, Satanism isn't a direct reflection of one's core (as it is with Satanists), it can only be a human improvement program at best, which is valid. This is one distinction that many, be they Satanic hopeful or earnest researcher, would be better off to recognize.

"It must be stressed that critically reading The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey is tantamount to understanding at least the basics of Satanism. It says far more, especially in its subtlety, than I could in this informational page. Perusing some of the Satanic magazines published by Church of Satan members and officials will lend some insight into Satanism in motion, as a working model. And of course, websites published by these same folks (including myself) are also useful."


Question: "What is the difference between Satanism and devil worship?"

Response: "Satanism and devil worship are two distinctly different animals. Devil worship is what it is: the worship of an external deity, much as it could be labeled inverse Xtianity. The Satan in Satanism is an archetype, one many know by name and is relative to the culture. Some Satanists choose different aspects of this archetype, depending on geography or just plain aesthetics, but the same characteristics still hold true. It would make little sense for us to claim to embody the archetypal qualities of Satan (rebellion, rational self-interest, carnality, etc.) on one hand, and then attempt to worship an anthropomorphic Satan on the other. In laymen's terms, it's hardly rebellious to worship a figure that represents rebellion. Devil worshipers need to be subjugated, ask for it by their own actions. The Satanist finds such unproductive and one-sided activities to be draining and useless (not to mention hypocritical).


stolen from: (Satanism 101) http://www.satanism101.com/index2.htm

-jo
Hail Satan!

(btw, I personally am not a member of the CoS, nor the FCoS. I don't really agree with all of the CoS, howeve they do have nice resources. )

Great to live by? If you like being surrounded constantly by pretentious ass holes. If you've ever been to America, you'd know there's quite enough of that going around without LaVey adding to it.

Glitter---I strongly suggerst your read Lucifer Rising it is basically a time line and history of Satanism and Crowely and Levay. It a very long book but a extremely factual and well thought out. It might just change what you think you know about "Satanism" the "Church of Satan" and the Great Divide that began in the 1980"s.
No it was NOT written by Christians.
It should be in the Occult or New-Age section at any Border's or Barnes and Nobel.
If not then I suggest just hitting the Occult New Age section so you can get your facts straight and know exactly what is the truth before you start spewing religious inconsistences Good or Bad.

Not entirely true, I'd rather have pretentious assholes, than depressed, self loathing, suicidal kids. At least they aren't constantly whining ab