Hail Satan
Too much of human history has been dictated by the will of religions. So often life and liberty have been sacrificed in order to click the metaphorical, “I have read and agree with the terms and conditions,” when they have not been read, and we do not agree.
For me, modern Satanism is to say, “I have read, I disagree, and I am not obligated to obey.” It should make you uncomfortable to hear; I do not want you to be comfortable with the status quo. Satanism exists in that discomfort. While we are often seen as shocking and provocative, that is not really the goal so much as the vessel to carry the message that we should all stop living with quiet contradictions. After all, what is a Satanist black mass besides fifty metalheads watching a burlesque performance inside and having a good time while the hundreds of self-righteous protestors outside are the ones showing their asses.
The fact that Satanists face an uphill battle against lies and slander is no coincidence. Our ways make clear the contradictions of Christian moralists who have long enjoyed a moral monopoly, at least in the United States. We are a threat, not because we promote harm, but because we demonstrate that morality can exist without divine command. To illustrate this point, I am sure a lot of us have heard many religious men express a fear for their daughters’ safety if we go away from God’s teachings. In their mind, a world without God has no prohibitions and everyone would rape and kill everyone they desired. I personally do not know any secular people who want to rape and murder indiscriminately and cannot help but notice that this is an admission, not a warning. Their moral system is dependent on a fear of punishment, not empathy for other human beings. The worry that they are being constantly surveilled keeps them in line and they acknowledge that without it they would act on unscrupulous desires.
My favorite example of empathetic morality is thanks to the humble shopping cart. There is no rule or law that tells us to return our carts to the corral. There is no threat of punishment to keep us from leaving the cart in an adjacent space. Still, most people will return the shopping cart because of empathy and respect. You respect the worker who should not have to chase down carts from the far reaches of the lot when a convenient place is provided for their storage. You have empathy for the stranger who needs a place to park without risking damage to theirs or other’s vehicle or to other strangers. It gets even more detailed, with large carts in the left corral and small carts in the right corral we can place our cart where it will be easily stacked, or we can disrupt the order out of laziness or inattention. One thing I often do when I see a person with an infant or young child is that I offer to return the cart for them so that they do not need to leave their child alone to do so. The morality of shopping carts is intense, layered, and nearly universally understood.
Many view morality as distinctly a behavior of Homo sapiens. We do not own a monopoly on the topic even as humans given that we have found lots of examples of Neanderthals caring for their sick, injured, lame, and elderly. The instinct to consider others is not uniquely human in nature either, social animals of all kinds exhibit cooperation, care, and even punishment for harmful behavior like social exclusion, refusal to cooperate, and corrective behavior, all without laws or deities. One famous example was observed in capuchin monkeys in fairness experiments conducted by primatologist Frans de Waal, where two monkeys were given the same simple task and unequal rewards that resulted in the monkey who was not being rewarded as generously rejecting what would be an otherwise acceptable treat. Likewise, elephants are known to mourn their dead, showing particular interest in the carcass or even bones of an elephant they knew. They also guard injured or dying members of their herds and help lift and support the sick or weak, even slowing the pace of the herd so that the weakest among them do not fall behind.
When we strip away all the noise, modern Satanism is not an argument against morality, but a rejection of the idea that morality requires permission, surveillance, or fear to exist. We see ethical behavior emerge anywhere that social bonds matter. We see it in how we treat strangers, how we care for the vulnerable, and even in other species entirely. No divinity or law enforces these behaviors, they rise from empathy, responsibility, and understanding of how our actions affect others. Satanism refuses to pretend that goodness must be dictated from above or coerced through threat. It acknowledges what has always been true, that morality is something we practice because we choose to, not because we are being watched.
