DISCLAIMER: This reply is full of personal opinions, splattered left, right and center, and joined by my own interpretations of text.
And we find ourselves in the Spirituality thread, sigh.
Quote from: Zumbagirl on February 17, 2015, 07:16:58 AM
I can't say that I have read through the whole satanic bible, but I have read parts of it. If you get past the whole satan part of it, there are some good messages in there. But, to me, I consider it as just common sense. The same as the 10 commandments. If you really want to read an interesting book read Jefferson's bible. He basically cut out all of the spooky mumbo jumbo and you are left with the good words with no magic. If you look at it that way it also makes common sense. Another good writer on this subject is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who seemed to unify science and religion in his view of the world. But I would rather read the writings of the great philosophers, Kant, Locke, Wittgenstein to educate myself. If you take the time to educate yourself, then maybe you will come to the place where I am and realize that although religion is filled with good things, it's still just common sense. To quote from Kant's categorical imperative, "Do unto others as you would have everyone do unto everybody". That doesn't require belief in the supernatural, just an attempt to be the best person you can be and hope that everyone else follows suit.
From my understanding, the Satanic Philosophy as per Anton LaVey eliminates the idea of the supernatural, of a god like entity, and that of spirituality in itself to bring us back down to our raw carnal selves. The magic mentioned, I believe is not actual magic, but more the placebo affect a ritual gives on us towards reaching a goal, or getting something we want. I myself have never actually laid a hand on the satanic bible, but I am quite interested in what it contains in comparison to the website of the official Church of Satan and the texts you will find there. I'm intrigued by this Pierre fellow you speak of, however. To me, science and religion are two things that should never be placed anywhere near each other.
Quote from: DriftingCrow on February 17, 2015, 05:35:18 PM
I extensively studied Satanism as taught by LaVey years ago and was a follower of quite a bit of his philosphy. I enjoyed it much during my younger years when I thought religions were too rule-based, demanding, and out-of-sync with the needs of the people.
My viewpoint has changed though once I realized that the "restrictive" rules of religions aren't meant to make you feel constricted in what you can/can't do, but are there to actually liberate you. While the carnal aspects of humans are natural and aren't necessarily "bad", they are sometimes things that should be overcome by mental and spiritual discipline if you want a connection with the divine (yes, my view of what "God" is has changed drastically).
I don't follow Christianity or any of the Abrahamic traditions, but my views on the Abrahamic traditions also changed drastically once I had to take a religion course to graduate college. After learning more of the in-depth, academic version of Christianity (as opposed to the watered-down version taught to me as a child in church school) the religions suddenly started making much more sense, and I couldn't look at it as something ridiculous and fanciful anymore. I've since read a lot of books on my own about the beginning of the Christian church and Islam, and its all so much clearer now, even if I don't agree with it all.
I do like many Satanists, and I enjoy seeing their activism here in the USA. I like how the philosophy is basically, "do whatever you want without hurting others (who don't want to be hurt)", however given my views on spirituality as they've now evolved, I don't see that as being the path to nirvana/merging or other positive spiritual outcome. (From what I recall, LaVey wasn't specific on what the afterlife is -- while he didn't believe in God(s) he did seem to promote a belief in some supernatural forces. Today, many Satanists promote a form of Atheism.)
I also never fully followed the beliefs or claimed to be a Satanist (I was Pagan) because while there was certainly a lot of thought about philosophy and religion in it, overall from what I read and videos/interviews I saw of LaVey speaking, it had a large element of just being a joke and something to scare the Christians. He could've created a religious sect without having to use the dramatics of heaven & hell, good & evil, God and Satan when he didn't even belief that stuff even existed.
Unfortunately for myself, I was raised in a religious area with a religious family, friends, school, the works. I was the first of our grade to step outside of the god-fearing box, and also the first to protest the Christian Studies (we didn't do religious education) teacher. I found within that community that gods rules trumped common sense, and thus things such as gay-shaming and victim-blaming are extravagantly prominent in my area. On the other hand, I did study the Islamic religion and culture in Indonesian, and I must say, it is much preferred to me.
From my understanding of LaVey's texts, the Good and Evil mock up was to allow Satanic philosophy to be understood by the entire general society, and to show that it is the opposite of what religious groups claim to be (the good). Where we are all surrounded by different religious cultures, a lot of people still find the world easier to cope with and travel through having a larger entity 'guiding' and 'protecting' them. I believe Satan was chosen as a symbol and name due to the way that other scriptures had used similar language when referencing our 'animal side' or our id, if you will. The idea of Satanism being a religion, or even remotely spiritual, would counteract the point of the philosophy, as the Satanic philosophy follosw (roughly,) the idea that we are the deciders of our own fate, our own 'gods', and (such as atheism) there are no god's.
I would never call myself a Satanist, purely because they are against drugs and law breaking, both of which I am a part of (they go hand in hand). However the philosophy that you live for yourself, and do what benefits you, as long as you are not harming others, but harm others if they harm you, fits me perfectly. I believe in fairness, and fairness is if you dog me, I dog you. That being said, fairness is that I love and support everyone until I am given reason not to. The 'magic' side of it, I believe comes down to human manipulation. My father once said that there are people in the world who can create their own luck, and I am one of those people. I'm still not 100% sure if the latter is true, however good friends of mine believe it is. In any case, that is what I see as the 'magic' that Satanists encompass.
Quote from: Devlyn Marie on February 17, 2015, 05:42:08 PM
What this world needs is moe Devyl worshippers! 
I volunteer to be the first Devyl-ist ! Pick me !
