Anton is a brave man for going against the grain of whatever society thought of him.

It's widely misunderstood because a personal devil is neither believed in nor worshiped, yet it chooses for some reason to call itself "Satanism". It has always had that sort of contrarian ethos to it, to garner attention and effect change through provocation rather than any form of entreaty or argument.

While it's not my cup of tea, I have to admire their cheeky, in-your-face provocateur methodology. They are best known for petitioning for a Baphomet statue everywhere Christians want a statue of Jesus or the Ten Commandments. In one case, specifically stating that the statue should be next to Jesus or, in the alternative, nose-to-nose with him.

But they have done a lot of other creative things. For example, in many communities, fundamentalists are allowed to conduct what are called "release-time classes". It's illegal to teach religion at school, while school is in session. But they figured out a loophole where students can be released from classes weekly, and if their parents sign a permission slip, they have the choice to sit in study hall or go off-campus to a church or someone's house for what amounts to Vacation Bible School lessons.

The satanists saw this and created a "Satanist Club" complete with lesson materials (imagine illustrations of Satan leading some happy children through a meadow) and started applying for release time classes in some of those same communities, on an equal-time, equal-rights basis. They didn't get to teach the clubs of course, but then the Christians didn't get to teach their clubs, either.

You have to admire the sheer symmetry of this fight-fire-with-fire concept.

So I salute 'em, and doffs me hat to 'em, so I do.

My reading of the Bible tells me that Lucifer/Devil/Satan are much better characters than Yahweh.

Sounds metal.

Very fascinating! I was prompted to read all about this version of satanism on Wikipedia and was relieved to learn that you do not worship satan as a supernatural being.

Wikipedia describes satanism as “egotheism”, which was a new word to me. Reading further, I learned that the Hindu identification of self with Brahman is classified as egotheism.

Perhaps I am an egotheist. I can not, however, bring myself to say that I am a Satanist. That is a rather alarming label.

Im down with the tenents of satanism in general. Im more aligned with the satanic temple than the church of, though. Lavey was an interesting cat but Im not as big a fan of his theatrics, or his ideas of using nude women for the table in his black mass, etc. I think he was going out of his way to shock people unnecessarily and by all appearances he plagiarized most of the satanic bible. Non theistic satanism as youve described it sounds compatible with the satanic temple though. I like TST's left leaning activism approach and they generally seem like a very chill group not taking anything including themselves too seriously.