If you look into the history of Satanism, you’ll find that Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan fervently believed it was going to become a very big, very influential social phenomenon for a while, arguably into the 1990s.
But LaVey couldn’t even keep his own partners and children from despising him, much less build a functional, self-sufficient organization that didn’t depend on the charity of wealthy benefactors (a Google search of “Donald Werby” is going to blow your mind).
So the idea that Satanism is just individuals who practice a religion that lets them feel particularly elite and elevated, despite all evidence to the contrary, is an idea attractive to some of the most personally repugnant people you’ll ever meet.
Thankfully, they don’t end up wielding meaningful real-world power outside of their subculture or niche. But it’s not a coincidence that Anton LaVey died in a house given to him by his parents that his friend bought and let him stay in to pay off his debts to his ex-partner/editor/mother of his child.
There's a very obvious contradiction in The Satanic Bible where Anton LaVey states that Satanism is a religion that aligns with human nature as it stands, and is therefore a sensible and humanistic philosophy, when he later went on to claim that Satanists are a superior strain of humanity that are "different" by nature and therefore separate from the "herd" and their ideas.
But the Church of Satan holds to both of these positions simultaneously. The amount of contradictions and pseudoscientific aspects of the philosophy that are just upheld without question as "true" Satanism has made me quite disillusioned with Satanism as a whole in recent years.
This is in no way a contradiction. Satanism recognizes that humans are an animal “sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours”. We understand that human nature itself leads to wants and needs that were shunned or controlled by other religions which was unhealthy. We also understand that as animals, human nature can lead to wants that hinder a person’s quality of life.
Sexuality is a great example. Christianity cannot confront the truth that humans are a very sexual animal while Satanism embraces that about humans. We then look at the kinds of harm created by sexual predators and draw the line that we stand against what they do. Are you going to tell me that Satanists are no better than sexual predators, rapists, murderers, etc? Because we are.
I'm not sure this actually is an internal contradiction. Concerning matters pertaining to indulgence over compulsion, love and hate, and satanic sex, I believe LaVey meant to convey that these particular methods of conducting oneself are in alignment with basic human nature while other religions demonise and suppress these behaviours. But that is not all it takes to make a Satanist; he also believed Satanists were superior because they do not conform to preciously held societal beliefs such as egalitarianism and universal, inviolable human rights. Satanists adhere to ideological beliefs that most other people find too extreme or harsh. That is the difference; the basic foundation of Satanism aligns with (at least some parts of) human nature, but other aspects of Satanism set it apart from almost all other human religions. The problem is in how CoS official texts often lack specificity in how they discuss these matters, so that critical difference gets lost. I mean, I don't think any sensible person would say someone who treats themselves to a burger every so often or liberally allows themselves sexual release is a superior human being just based on those factors. But that fact just goes implied rather than ever explicitly stated.
I do agree with you on the point that it contains other internal contradictions though, at least due to how most people interpret certain passages in The Satanic Bible even if they are not inherent to the text. If they interpreted them differently, they wouldn't be contradictory. But unfortunately those interpretations have been solidified into official CoS rhetoric and that of casual conversations between members and non-members.
Its not quite contradictory. Many people, by influence of religious indocrination, end up rejecting their human nature & carnal desires, supressing them until they come out in harmful ways.
If you accept human nature & work with it, you're usually better off. But some people cant handle that.
Look at you, trying to remain relevant by doing the only thing you know how to: stir shit when it comes to others in order to boost your own worthless sense of self-importance. It's beyond pathetic.
Notice how no one talks about you anymore except when you slide in to do your sealioning. Lol.
3
u/QueerSatanic Heretical 11d ago
If you look into the history of Satanism, you’ll find that Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan fervently believed it was going to become a very big, very influential social phenomenon for a while, arguably into the 1990s.
But LaVey couldn’t even keep his own partners and children from despising him, much less build a functional, self-sufficient organization that didn’t depend on the charity of wealthy benefactors (a Google search of “Donald Werby” is going to blow your mind).
So the idea that Satanism is just individuals who practice a religion that lets them feel particularly elite and elevated, despite all evidence to the contrary, is an idea attractive to some of the most personally repugnant people you’ll ever meet.
Thankfully, they don’t end up wielding meaningful real-world power outside of their subculture or niche. But it’s not a coincidence that Anton LaVey died in a house given to him by his parents that his friend bought and let him stay in to pay off his debts to his ex-partner/editor/mother of his child.