If someone is a Satanist, do they have to consider what Christian denomination their Satan would be related with?

I cannot fathom how anyone would decide to worship Satan. The only reason one might even believe he exists is if they believe that certain Christian denominations have the truth in hand, and if they accept that, then they would have to believe that Satan is in no way worthy of worship. So splitting hairs about which Satan makes as much sense to me as worrying about whether to believe in the Fat Santa of American fame or the Skinny Santa of yore, modeled after the original Saint Nicholas and still sometimes depicted in Northern Europe. But then, Christians once banned Christmas too, and now they claim there is a war on it because some people say Happy Holidays, and that a war on Christmas (saying Happy Holidays) is a war on Christ himself. So this whole realm is one ruled by anything but logic.

The only reason one might even believe he exists is if they believe that certain Christian denominations have the truth in hand, and if they accept that, then they would have to believe that Satan is in no way worthy of worship.

Aye, an excellent point. Satanism seems to be, as far as I can guess, quite a lot of nothing but shock value. However, those JW guys today seemed to really believe what they were telling me. I was actually a little frightened of grown, educated men telling me all this weird stuff. I’m not wanting to make fun of people’s beliefs, but what they were saying sounded so silly. They seem to really believe what they were saying.
So in that regard, I don’t really doubt some people would seriously and genuinely worship the Devil in similar ways.

”I cannot fathom how anyone would decide to worship Satan.”
Easy. My rationale for being a Satanist (after the unlikely event that I came to believe in the existence of the christian god) would be that the Bible is transparent pro god propaganda trying to paint the actions of the genocidal tyrant god as “just” and “good”, while smearing the generosity of Satan who offered a starving and thirsty man food in the desert.

You can find Satan within yourself. You don’t have to wait for him to tap on your door. You can then ask him in person to which Christian denomination he belongs.

I see Satanists and people who believe in God as one and the same. They believe in mysterious, amorphous, unproveable, and invented fairy tale characters that are self-defined and irrational.

So just as there are thousands of religions that believe in some form of God, there are just as many – or more – varieties of satanist belief. There isn’t a “consumer guide to satanist belief”—you believe in whatever you want.

The bottom line: it doesn’t matter. Choose whatever strain of satanism feels right for you, just like people choose their godly religion. It’s all irrational.

Does a Satanist go to heaven if they screw up?

@thorninmud Interesting angle. If a Satanist goes to heaven is that their Hell?

“What’re ya in for?”

“Helped an old lady cross the street”

I’ve known a few people who were into Satan, and it seems to mostly be about wreaking havoc and confusion. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Christianity or churches or anything like that at all, except they treat Christians with contempt like some atheists do.

Sadly, as far as I know I’ve never known a Satanist so this is really just semi-informed speculation on my part. I read the Satanic Bible a few years back, mostly because I was intrigued by LaVey as a figure. I sorta got the impression that The Church of Satan (ie LaVeyan Satanism) wasn’t a sincere religion but, I’m not really sure how to put this, a dark parody of Christian religiousity. In my eyes LaVey was directly parodying religion and it’s institutions by founding his own celebrating what was condemned in Christianity.

I could be completely wrong, but I suspect that LaVey was a Stephen Colbert, albeit one so good people didn’t realize he was punking them. It’s not exactly implausible considering how little Christians actually know about the Church of Satan and just how much they loved getting freaked out about it. As @Symbeline said, LaVeyan Satanists don’t actually believe in Satan much less worship him. Instead Satan is a symbol for certain personal freedoms, indulgences and unapologetic self interest. Honestly it seemed a bit too Ayn Rand to me. But Where Ayn Rand is creepy and twitchy LaVey is affable and wonderfully dorky.

Obviously that says nothing about the sort of Satanist that actually believes in and worships Satan. Frankly, there is no Satanism without Christianity. Our expectations of Satan, regardless of where they end up begin with Christianity. In embracing the demonic figure or re-imagining him in your own way, ultimately you are both rejecting Christianity and re-afirming its social power.

No @Symbeline I didn’t answer your question at all. There’s sort of a reason for that though. Despite the existence of The Satanic Bible, Satanism is not a doctrinal religion. LaVeyan Satanists especially (ha I wrote Stanists the first time) don’t really regard their founder’s Satanic Bible as anything even remotely as important as Christians regard the Bible. It’s no secret that they can take what they want and leave the rest. This is because the Satanic Bible is really just an outline of the LaVeyan Satanic philosophy and suggestions on how to execute your own pseudo-religious psychodrama. As such Satanists aren’t really tied to any particular religious structure.

Honestly, what they derive from Christianity is probably the most rigidly defined aspect of their religion. And we all know people find an aweful lot of wiggle room when it comes to defining Christianity. As such I expect you could have a brand of Satanism paired to pretty much any subset of Christianity. I imagine it gets more and more interesting the more liberal the Christian denomination becomes. What sort of Satanism would be paired with the Christians that don’t believe in hell? Or those that see Satan as a servant of God performing a dirty job but one ultimately essential to God’s plan. That I would love to hear about.

Sadly, as far as I know I’ve never known a Satanist so this is really just semi-informed speculation on my part. I read the Satanic Bible a few years back, mostly because I was intrigued by LaVey as a figure. I sorta got the impression that The Church of Satan (ie LaVeyan Satanism) wasn’t a sincere religion but, I’m not really sure how to put this, a dark parody of Christian religiousity. In my eyes LaVey was directly parodying religion and it’s institutions by founding his own celebrating what was condemned in Christianity.

Whether that’s true or he really believed that you should destroy the first person who looks at you the wrong way, I think he’s the only who took it seriously, that is, if anyone DID. Sure he had followers and everything, but I’m not sure how much some people understood what he was suggesting. I mean it all sounded great until it got out of hand, and until he mentioned willing human sacrifices…for a ’‘religion’’ that pretty much acted like an atheist, I thought that seemed kind of weird. Last I heard, Marilyn Manson owns his church now, and we all know that dude just puts on a show.
I got disinterested in this when I got older and found out that, actually, LaVey really was no better than all the Christians he so vehemently chastised. :/ Nobody seems to have really taken him seriously, except himself, and if I believe that, then he must have been even more of a genius than I thought. and it probably made for bitchin’ parties, at the very least :D If I compare this to my JW dudes, sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone is serious or not, and what motive is behind what they’re really tyring to do. kinda glad Anton got to me when I was a teen, and not Jehovah.

No @Symbeline I didn’t answer your question at all. There’s sort of a reason for that though. Despite the existence of The Satanic Bible, Satanism is not a doctrinal religion. LaVeyan Satanists especially (ha I wrote Stanists the first time) don’t really regard their founder’s Satanic Bible as anything even remotely as important as Christians regard the Bible. It’s no secret that they can take what they want and leave the rest.

So far, that’s kind of what I’m figuring based on what’s going in this question. Besides LaVey’s Stanism lol , I can’t actually think of ANY book about the Devil that is anywhere near as official as The Bible is. I mean there are a bunch of books about Satan, and Satanic websites with stuff that is similar to the OVC’s Black Veil, but…that proves your point. As it’s not an official belief, so to speak, I guess one can do what they will with it, instead of choosing something concrete. But that DOES still make me wonder why no adaptation of some specific Satan would have been made according to some Christian doctrine or another. But then perhaps there are…Luciferiansim (sp?) really is something.

“I got disinterested in this when I got older and found out that, actually, LaVey really was no better than all the Christians he so vehemently chastised. :/ Nobody seems to have really taken him seriously, except himself, and if I believe that, then he must have been even more of a genius than I thought. and it probably made for bitchin’ parties, at the very least :D If I compare this to my JW dudes, sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone is serious or not, and what motive is behind what they’re really tyring to do. kinda glad Anton got to me when I was a teen, and not Jehovah.”

It’s impossible to imagine a world where the JoHos got you.

I’ve really just read the Satanic Bible at this point and seen a handful of videos so I’m not sure what assholery you’re referring to. But it makes sense. Much of The Satanic Bible is purely strike back at the Christian religion, LaVey took the piss out of it for the sexual repression and other similarly extreme and unhealthy elements in Christianity. That’s actually a big part of what I got from the book: being able to pin down exactly what someone else is doing wrong doesn’t mean you’re right.

At some point I’d really like to read LaVey’s biography. Maybe then I’ll get a better idea of if LaVey was as sincere as he acted or just a consummate showman. Honestly, I want it to be a joke. If it was it was spectacular, though I guess it came to soon for people to appreciate it. Marilyn Manson’s involvement gives me hope.

As far as your interest in more developed Satanic mythology it might be worthwhile to look into pagan gods that were transformed into devils as Christianity conquered various pagan people. I’m thinking about the various Nordic ones as there seems to be a bit of a patriotic (albeit antisocially so) streak to the devilry celebrated in the pagan/death/black metal scene. In that case the invocation of Perkele or whomever does coincide with a fleshed out mythology, one that was forcibly squashed by Christianity hundreds of years ago. If there are any Satanists that truly have a well-established mythology I bet it’s the ones that are trying to get back their cultural roots by taking up the banner of their culture’s old gods.

And also, vikings. Hail Berserker.

I’ve really just read the Satanic Bible at this point and seen a handful of videos so I’m not sure what assholery you’re referring to. But it makes sense. Much of The Satanic Bible is purely strike back at the Christian religion, LaVey took the piss out of it for the sexual repression and other similarly extreme and unhealthy elements in Christianity. That’s actually a big part of what I got from the book: being able to pin down exactly what someone else is doing wrong doesn’t mean you’re right.

Yeah, same for me. Three quarters of the book is about this, and it really got to me. I thought it was awesome. But for example, here’s one of the Satanic commandments; You will not voice your opinion unless it is asked of you.

Now this is just my opinion, lol see wut ah did thAR but people having opinions is our nature. Anton fought against the Christians because of their attempt to destroy human nature through regression. I admire this, but I don’t see how never saying what I think is any different from what he says he’s fighting against. Plus I’m supposed to literally destroy everyone who fails to respect me. hence though, why it makes perfect sense for all this to be a parody Granted, he made a lot more sense then he did being a hypocrite, and when you’re all dazzled by shock value as I was, it’s hard to notice how absurd some of what he says is.

It WAS a big part of the book, which really got you thinking. But then you get to the end of the book, and he starts talking about rituals, sacrifice and praising the Devil as a superior being, when he clearly stated in the book that Satan isn’t some red guy sitting around on a throne.

At some point I’d really like to read LaVey’s biography. Maybe then I’ll get a better idea of if LaVey was as sincere as he acted or just a consummate showman. Honestly, I want it to be a joke. If it was it was spectacular, though I guess it came to soon for people to appreciate it. Marilyn Manson’s involvement gives me hope.

I’d love to know that too. But I just looked, and I don’t think Marilyn Manson has anything to do with it anymore. The church of Satan seems to be well alive and active as of now. And people still seem to uphold and ’‘practice’’ the philosophy offered by LaVey, initially. I guess it could be a joke too, but at this point, seems kinda serious. I’m actually kinda curious haha.

_ If there are any Satanists that truly have a well-established mythology I bet it’s the ones that are trying to get back their cultural roots by taking up the banner of their culture’s old gods._

Ha yeah. I remember reading this thing about how, despite Christian spread, a lot of people would not give up their beliefs, so instead of destroying them, Christianity transformed them into vile beings, out for our destruction. A lot of Irish folklore concerning fairies seems to have fallen prey to this, beliefs about nature and its bounties reduced to demented beings trying to trap you into limbo. For example, if you see little goblins and trolls and shit in the woods, they might lead you to a buffet of sparkling fruit, hearty nuts and milk flowing from flowers; but once you eat just one of those things, it all turns to mold and decay, and you’re trapped there, spending eternity luring other fuckers to share your demise. kinda like how humanity got fucked over because Adam and Eve decided to eat an apple

I really wouldn’t doubt it if some people DID attempt to conserve their cultural roots and using pagan gods in some way to achieve this. But what I’m even more curious about, I wonder if there are people who really do believe in Odin and his buddies.

Also, Vikings invented Christmas.