The Book of Satan

I am doing the unthinkable – talking about religion. Here goes nothing…

Recently I read the Book of Satan (thank you Marbro, for the link), written by Anton Szandor LaVey. He is called the “Black Pope” by his followers and is the high priest of the Church of Satan. Curious as I am about other religions and beliefs, I read through this book with an open mind, and was surprised to find myself actually agreeing with a lot of his ideals and notions.

Most of us have a misconception about Satanists that is way off from what is real and true. I always thought that they walked around in black robes, sacrificed babies and virgins to the devil and practiced other obscenities like drinking blood, killing, looting and extreme variations of black magic and voodoo. In other words, welcome to the dark side, baby!

Then came Anton LaVey and threw all these crazy ideas that we had about Satanists out the window and founded his “Church of Satan”. The fact that he calls it a church seems rather hypocritical as a church is associated with Christianity. But it’s through the criticism and apparent hypocrisy of Christianity that he bases Satanism.

One notion of his is that instead of denying ourselves the sins of the flesh, we should give in to our carnal desires and celebrate them. He spoke of how men would lust after girls, indulge in their desires of the flesh, and then go to church on Sunday to repent for their sins. Sunday after Sunday, repent for the same sins. What is the point of that? Why ask for forgiveness, if you are going to repeat your actions over and over again? I agree with this, it seems we have grown so used to asking God for forgiveness, and expecting to be forgiven automatically, that we don’t think twice about committing the same transgression again and again, because we know we will be forgiven if we ask God to do so. That is hypocritical behaviour through and through.

What the Church of Satan stands for is spelled out in the following,
The Nine Satanic Statements:
1. Satan represents indulgences, instead of abstinence!
2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
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 the psychic vampires!
7. Satan represents man just as another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development”, has become the most vicious animal of all!
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!

I have questioned my religion a lot recently (I am a Lutheran), and even though I agree with some of the Satanic Statements, it does not mean I now intend to become a full-blown Satanist. It has just opened my mind to a whole more possibilities, and more nagging questions about the beliefs I grew up with. Which is enough to give my mother a full head of grey hair!