What do you think about Anton LaVeys' opinion that his religion (Satanism) is "just Ayn Rand's philosophy, with ceremony and ritual added."?

Makes sense since both things are adored by high school students who think they understand Nietzsche.

I would agree with LaVey here. Anton was an atheist, and his churches satanic paraphernalia and customs were for style/identity/symbolism rather than for ‘mystical’ reasons. LeVay was not a theistic satanist, and his religion was really a philosophy. LeVay didn’t even believe in the concept of a devil.

I have a copy of the Satanic Bible. It’s mostly self-indulgent ego trip stuff. Which is actually pretty cool. “Take care of yourself first because you’re the only one who will”. It’s not a bad philosophy at the front.

Anton LaVey was a pop charlatan using the most outrageous statement he could come up with to bring attention on himself. He had no real philosophy outside of making outre statements to stroke his own ego.

To ascribe it even as opinion is to overstate it. He did not have opinion, he had statements to try to push buttons so he could get more attention.

That sort of thing makes me skeptical towards all forms of organized religion, but at least LaVey acknowledges the parody inherent in his “religion”.

@zenvelo The same argument could be made about Ayn Rand.

I hadn’t heard that LaVey had said that, but it’s exactly what I thought when I read the Satanic Bible. I do cut the Church of Satan a bit more slack than Rand’s acolytes, just because it takes itself a lot less seriously than Rand’s bunch

Honestly, I don’t think it’s fair to compare LaVey with Rand. One was an intellectual fraud and cultist who was hypocritical to the point of self-parody; the other pretended to worship Satan.

In all seriousness, though, the comparison is mostly accurate as far as I can tell. The only real difference is that there’s slightly more room for thinking about others in LaVey’s version of Satanism than there is in Rand’s pseudo-Aristotelian approach to life. Also, LaVey was far less enthusiastic about rape. Otherwise, the egoism is more or less the same for each.

@SavoirFaire wins the Internet today with that first line. Ha ha ha haha….

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Raise your hand if you have a copy of The Satanic Bible on your bookshelf.
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Sounds about right to me.

@SavoirFaire Hilarious. Thanks for the chuckles.

@Jeruba ||//_

Meh, I swapped mine. Not motivated enough to keep it around just to make people uncomfortable. I’m still sorta amazed that I could have the Satanic Bible and Story of O side by side and the average person would have no idea which one they actually ought to be disturbed by.

Oh, mine’s on the Lovecraft/Poe/The Witches’ Compleat/other random gothic/occult books shelf.

@fundevogel, I keep mine on the same shelf with the Book of Mormon, Cavendish on witchcraft, Huson on witchcraft, Crowley on Magick, the Gnostic Gospels, several versions of the Bible, and George Vetter’s Magic and Religion. To me they all belong to the same category; or nearly so—Vetter’s is more of a scholarly work like Frazer’s.

My books are totally not Dewey Decimal organized… it’s all my own animal.

@Seek_Kolinahr mine are arranged by size and weight with almost no regard to subject matter. The taller and heavier ones on the end of the shelves near the supports, smaller and lighter ones in the middle of the shelves.

Being somewhat CDO I try to sort by height so that each shelfsworth of books is concave on top. Occasionally I will have a tall one in the very center but only to support the shelf above it.

It is fun to have too look through the shelves for a specific title or subject matter and “re-find” other ones while searching.

@Jeruba I do have my copy of the Oxford Annoted Bible next to the Golden Bough. Haven’t managed to finish either! One day…

The bunch of you are making me want to assemble more nuanced book arrangements. Ugh, I’m kinda horrified at the though of putting The Ethical Slut along side of The Uses of Enchantment. It’s just…ugh. On the the other hand it would have gone perfectly beside Othello if I actually thought that play was worth keeping.