Satanists?

[mVitus]

I was reading the newspaper recently when I spotted an article about the aforementioned group (see title) winning a legal case to allow them to make afterschool clubs. Just given the name I’m a bit leery about doing a Google search and what content it would bring up, hence why I’m asking the question here.

From the article I got the sense that they were more of ‘evangelizing’ atheists with some rituals to mock actual religion, but is that a correct take on what they are or are they something else?

 

[LiamQ]

There are groups of satanists who’ve been influenced by a San Francisco thinker named Howard Levey/Anton LaVey. They can very loosely be described as being atheists who consider satan to be a sort of Jungian archetype of certain qualities they consider to be admirable, and their rituals are a sort of psychotherapy.

Many satanists making the news appear to be in that sort of mold, although they could also be a different sort of satanist using LaVeyan satanism as an “official” description of their beliefs. LaVey’s group splintered fairly quickly, and he himself seemingly used his ideas mainly as a form of self-promotion. Who knows what folks like the ones you describe are aligned with.

 

[edwest2]

There is a Church of Satan. There are people who worship Satan. And there are splinter groups who have their own take on Satan worship. It can be complicated. But these groups are, logically, going to promote their idea of Satan, of whatever variety they follow.

Ed