What Is Satanism?

and nonconformity. While in the past the label of Satanist was used to demonize opponents, since the nineteen sixties, Satanism has been adopted by a few small movements, none of which are actually devil worshippers as Bjorn Durandall. James R. Lewis and Jasper A. Peterson are experts on this subject, and they argue that Satanism was actually invented. It's simply a philosophical position statement that borrows from other traditions. It's

also considered a contemporary religious movement. But why would you call yourself a Satanist? Well, let's review the history of the term so we can better understand why someone might appropriate it to shock people into thinking differently. We'll start with accusations of Satanism. Throughout history. Individuals have been charged with worshiping Satan for centuries, usually when they were deemed

heretical or undesirable by officials within the Christian Church. Even the famous Knights Templar of the Catholic Church were expelled as Satanists in the thirteenth century. But in the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties we experienced a resurgence of quote Satanic panic linked to reports of animal sacrifice and ritualistic killing. It was claimed that these Satanists were sacrificing humans and

forcing their victims to consume urine feces and blood. The media sensationalized this panic, reaching its height when Heraldo Rivera claimed he exposed it as a secret religion in Night on a television special called Devil Worship, exposing Satan's underground. This special blamed heavy metal, sex, drugs, and angry teenagers for supposed Satanism and hysteria involving accusations of abuse at

daycares and nurseries became rampant. One of the most publicized incidents in the early nineteen nineties involved the murder conviction of three teenagers known as the West Memphis Three. Though found guilty, they were released in twenty eleven with the revelation of DNA evidence from the scene of the crime. You might be wondering right now about captured murderers like say Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, or David Berkowitz, who were

all connected to devil worship. This may be true, but other than a few individuals over the centuries, there's no evidence of significant organized efforts to establish a Satanic church until the late twenty century. Even then, the Pure Research Center estimates that Satanism is so tiny even together with followers of non traditional religions like Native American spirituality or scientology, it accounts for only one point five percent of the

population now. Modern Satanism began with the founding of the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in nineteen sixties six, and this eventually led to three different groups. The focus of this movement was basically self improvement. Leaves himself once characterized it as iron rand with trappings, so there's a little bit of libertarianism in there too. Leaves saw Christian churches as hypocritical, so he formed his own. In his teachings, LaVey argue is that life was a struggle for the

individual that wanted to develop their potential. Their rituals are aimed at helping followers shed their character flaws. Typically, people joined Lavay because they felt his movement had similar beliefs and ideas to their own, but they see Satan as a symbol that represents free will. They don't actually believe

in a red skinned, horned force of evil. Now. Anton LaVey led the movement for a little over thirty years, but he died in The church still exists today and it just celebrated its forty anniversary in two thousand and six. This leads us to the second group. One of Leaves Pre split from the Church of Satan in nineteen seventy five and started his own group called the Temple of Set,

which is named for the Egyptian deity. They accused Leave of going astray from his own teachings, and the Temple of Set says its mission is to help individuals realize their purpose through self awareness. And there's lots of other small offshoot groups, but the last major Satanist institution is called the Temple of Satan. This group was formed in and they don't worship Satan either. Mainly, it's just an activist group that exists to challenge inappropriate incursions of mainstream

churches in everyday public life. Its rituals are media stunt events designed to mock this and make people think critically about religion. For example, they sought to build a monument to Satan at the Oklahoma state capital after the state accepted a Christian monument there. The Temple of Satan saw this as a breach of the barrier between church and state. They've also had events celebrating pop culture that supports their mission,

like the recent movie The Witch. When it came out, they took over a deconsecrated church in Hollywood to give it their seal of approval. Now we know that Satanism is really just several small countercultural movements for people who value individualism, and it's not, and never really has been, organized devil worship that results in merger. Check out the Brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.