Satanism as philosophy

[Cronos Impera]

WARNING: THIS ISN'T A MIND CONTROL THREAD, IF ANYONE EXPECTS TO SEE PICTURES OF ELVIS OR GAIN WORLD DOMINATION THIS IS THE WRONG THREAD. I HOPE I'M NOT BANNED.

So, ( despite the magic bullcrap) satanism as Anton Szandor LaVey imagined would promote selfishness as a religion with the belief that " Man is just another animal ".
Nothing could be farther from the true, all our so-called superior civilization is driven by two basic needs : Survival and Sexual\Natural Selection.

Survival: People form comunities for survival's sake. A comunity has more chances to survive a catastrophy than a single, lonely individual. Comunities provide security and food easier, so a lot of spare time can be used for social interaction and further deveolpment. This development is than used to benefit the entire group. And thus the social structure gets larger and more complex.
Teritory: Comunities need teritories to quench their needs and provide them with space for development. When two comunites clash, boundries are settled and states ( as we know them) are formed.
Culture: Culture appeared for courtship rituals or as a means to pass on knowledge, you know how appealing is poetry for ladies. Art started for the sole pourpose of seduction.

Civilization is a response to the natural enviroment, it's just a better way to survive. Natural selection guides the develpoment of technology and mankind alike. Religious doctrines which try to prove otherwise have failed in the past.

[Sjakihata]

It sounds like you've just read Plato's Republic (Politeia) - human is basically a zoon politikon (a social animal, anima sociales).

What has that to do with satanism?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Satan is the imbodyment of evil. If you start a religion and call it Satanism then its evil. If its not evil it should be called something else.#

Devil worship is wrong on basic moral grounds because a devil is, by definition, the embodyment of evil. Satanism is devil worship, not philosophy.

'nuff said.

Oh, and there are plenty of very carring and selfless Christians in the world, thankyou.

[Byzantine Prince]

Actually Satanism is not very strong philosophically, as clever as its main concept might be.

Worshipping an archetype of nature still means you have conform to some standards and that means you cannot be yourself, which automatically contradicts its main promise.

I do like its 'masturbate 5 times a day' policy however. Ok it isn't true that you ahve to do that but they do have a ritual where they masturbate and they call it 'magik'.

[rory_20_uk]

For those that might like slightly more information, http://www.religioustolerance.org/satanis2.htm is probably worth looking at.

Of course, viewing it through the extremely biased setting of Christianity doesn't really help. After all, they had a fine time calling basically everything that wasn't Christianity Evil - and then slaghtering the followers in the name of peace...

[TB666]

Devil worship is wrong on basic moral grounds because a devil is, by definition, the embodyment of evil. Satanism is devil worship, not philosophy.

Actually no.
Devil worshipping and Satanism are different.
Devil worshippers worship well the devil but Satanists don't, they worship themselves.
Of course they don't build altars and stuff dedicated to themselves but they simply put themself in front of all others.
Satanism is pretty much just egoism that has gotten a religious touch on it.
They do have Satan as a rolemodel since he put himself first as well.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

My point is why call it Satanism, if they're using Satan as a role model they're basically worshipping him. What do Christians do but use Jesus as a role model. Its like this.

Satan = Devil = Lucifer = Ashrael

They're all the same. Saying Satanism isn't devil worship is splitting hairs. There are plenty of much better mythological characters, such as Bachus, to use as role models.

Satanism is following Satan, therefore it is a form of Devil worship.

Why else would it be Satanism?

[rory_20_uk]

And why do you say he's evil? Because Christianity says he is? Surely you can see that is asking an extremely bias source for an opinion?

If you read the posts, let alone my link you'd see that they are NOT all following satan, merely view him as a role model.

Saying that there are better characters is like saying "Jesus - hmmm bit of a wimp. Why don't you all follow Zeus - there's a better god"

[TB666]

My point is why call it Satanism, if they're using Satan as a role model they're basically worshipping him. What do Christians do but use Jesus as a role model. Its like this.

Satan = Devil = Lucifer = Ashrael

They're all the same. Saying Satanism isn't devil worship is splitting hairs. There are plenty of much better mythological characters, such as Bachus, to use as role models.

Satanism is following Satan, therefore it is a form of Devil worship.

Why else would it be Satanism?

No, they are not worshipping him.

Worship usually refers to specific acts of religious praise, honour, or devotion, typically directed to a supernatural being such as a god or goddess.

Satanists don't do these things, devil worshippers do.
And they don't follow Satan other then the fact that they think that one action Satan did was great and it shows the true spirit of satanism.
Why is it is called Satanism is probably because it contains alot of anti-christian ideas hence it got labelled as Satanism by the church.
Christianity has "love your fellow man", Satanism has "If the fellow man doesn't show you respect then you can kill him".
Of course Satanists can't do these things since it is against the law and they respect that but still.
The satanists I know gets offended if someone calls them devil worshippers because the simple fact that they don't worship him.
People are just too lazy to find out what satanism really is so they just throw them together like they are the same thing.

[Byzantine Prince]

My point is why call it Satanism, if they're using Satan as a role model they're basically worshipping him. What do Christians do but use Jesus as a role model. Its like this.

Satan = Devil = Lucifer = Ashrael

They're all the same. Saying Satanism isn't devil worship is splitting hairs. There are plenty of much better mythological characters, such as Bachus, to use as role models.

Satanism is following Satan, therefore it is a form of Devil worship.

Why else would it be Satanism?

Devil = Pan.

Pan used to be worshipped.

Satanists don't worship Satan, they admire him. Buddhists don't worship Buddha etc.

The Satanist view of Satan is not the same as the Christian one, just like the Judaic form of Satan is different from the Christian. In Judaism Satan is considered a tester from God, not an evil figure, but one that tempts people to commit sin, as a test.

Plus any religion with ritual masturbation, individuality and openmindedness in it is fine with me, despite it being very weak philosophically.