Entry 635, on 2007-11-05 at 21:10:30 (Rating 3, Religion)
I listened to a Point of Inquiry podcast today where the high priest of the Church of Satan, Peter Gilmore, was interviewed. I didn't really know much about this church and expected some sort of "raving lunatic" who took the idea of Satan seriously. But he wasn't like that at all, because the Church of Satan doesn't actually believe Satan exists.
They are really an atheist group which uses Satan as a central point for ritual. Gilmore admits the rituals are really about theatricality and not genuine worship. In some ways this might make them worse to many believers because they don't even take the Christian dogma seriously enough to treat it as real. Traditional Satanists (who really worship Satan) are in many ways more acceptable because at least they accept the same world view (that god, the devil, etc are real) but choose to take a different side.
The Church of Satan sounds like a satire of religion but Gilmore claims it is more than that so it doesn't really fit in the same category as the parodies such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Invisible Pink Unicorn (blessed be her holy hooves).
So why have a ritual based around Christian mythology at all? They chose Satan because the original Hebrew meaning of the name was something like "the adversary". So he symbolises their adversarial attitude to organised religion. They also think that humans need a symbol or metaphor to organise their beliefs around, so why not use Satan for that purpose.
Another interesting aspect of the church is the way they encourage freedom of choice. There is no morality enforced by the group and its up to individuals to do what they think is right. I have often thought that someone who does the "right thing" just because their church tells them to isn't demonstrating a truly moral attitude. Morality enforced through the fear of eternal damnation doesn't count as real morality in my view.
So this podcast turned out to be very enlightening to me. I don't think I will join their church though because I cannot be swayed from my belief in the IPU (peace be unto her) no matter how much the Purple Oyster of Doom tempts me!
Comment 1 by BF on 2007-11-09 at 09:45:52:
These people are strange. What are they trying to prove by pretending to use religious rituals but then saying they don't believe in god or the devil. I can't see the point.
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