What Is Satanism?

Just the term "satanism" is controversial. But what's actually going on with this counter-culture religion that values individualism and nonconformity?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff works a brain stuff,
this is Christian Sager. The very word Satanism conjures up
titillating images of orgies, cults, and violence, and popular culture
from Rosemary's Baby to some metal bands have convoluted the

(00:23):
truth about it even further. Satanism in the real world
is not about the Christian version of satan though. In
fact you might be surprised that it's associated with ideas
a lot of us value in the modern day, individualism
and nonconformity. While in the past the label of Satanist
was used to demonize opponents, since the nineteen sixties, Satanism

(00:48):
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

(01:11):
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

(01:31):
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

(01:51):
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

(02:14):
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

(02:35):
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

(02:59):
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

(03:20):
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

(03:42):
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

(04:06):
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,

(04:28):
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

(04:51):
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

(05:12):
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

(05:33):
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

(05:55):
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

(06:17):
Brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and
thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.