INDEPENDENCE DAY Today we mark the anniversary of The Declaration of Independence, when we traitorous colonials told the monarch of Britain that the 13 states were united and free of foreign rule. Our founders intended this new union to be a secular republic—a very rare thing! Americans now popularly use this day, or the nearby weekend, as a means to enjoy a summer holiday with convivial gatherings, barbecues, and evening fireworks displays. Commercial enterprises lure folks toward capitalist excess with varied discounts for their wares and services. While we Satanists partake, or refrain, from all of this as we please, […]
secularism
48 posts
In 1992, the US Congress deemed January 16th as Religious Freedom Day in celebration of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom passed on January 16 of 1786. This act is a significant precursor of the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Please follow this link to enjoy pieces done by our members in celebration of this unique holiday.
Tomorrow begins year LIV, Anno Satanas. As we’ve noted for several years, human society is in a raging turmoil of rabid tribalism, with barbarity on a perpetual rise. Individual liberty is threatened by many antagonists. We Satanists advocate for wider use of reason and forward thinking as tools to resist the trending rush towards authoritarianism, but that momentum is difficult to halt. Yet we fight our own battles in varied arenas to attain the goals our values have brought into focus. In time, society will move according to that will. Whether circumstances might curtail the ends we seek, every moment […]
We’ve noted that some secularists in Nebraska have decided to combat their local Adams County Board of Supervisors’ decision to post a sign with the vapid slogan “In God We Trust” in the county courthouse by offering an alternative sign which would list our founder Anton LaVey’s text for “The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth.” Now, that initial slogan was pasted on to U.S. paper currency in 1957 and was intended as a rebuttal to what was perceived as the threat of “godless communism.” As Satanists who understand that all deities are myths, to us it is an empty […]
The Church of Satan has existed as a form of intentional blasphemy from its very inception on April 30th, 1966. Our founder, Magus Anton Szandor LaVey, delineated his thinking thusly: “Calling it a church enabled me to follow the magic formula of one part outrage to nine parts social respectability that is needed for success.” Satan was chosen as the most apt primary symbol as the name means adversary and opposer in the original Hebrew. With his atheist, skeptical and pragmatic philosophy, LaVey was thumbing his nose at two thousand years of Christian domination of the globe with his avowedly […]
As the years pass, we have grown accustomed to the annual ghost shafts that gleam skywards from the grounds upon which the World Trade Center towers once stood. Do they summon forth fury aroused by the injustice of that atrocity, or are many people just wistfully recollecting the times before that day shattered their perceptions? I consider it worthwhile on this anniversary to recall the violence, sparked by a toxic theism, that murdered so many innocent folk who had a myriad of beliefs supporting them that as they sought to live and prosper. Sadly, the forms of religion which thrive […]
INDEPENDENCE DAY Today in the USA we mark the “birthday” of what our founders intended to be a secular republic. Americans popularly use this day, or the nearby weekend, as a means to enjoy a summer holiday with convivial gatherings, barbecues, and evening fireworks displays while commercial enterprises lure folks towards capitalist excess with varied sales for their wares and services. While we partake or refrain from all of this as we please, Satanists also make time to reflect on the significance of the manifestation of this nation whose expressed values have favored self-determination for its citizens. Satanism champions freedom, […]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTON SZANDOR LAVEY! On the anniversary of his birth, we enjoy celebrating the wisdom and bravery of the man who founded the Church of Satan. At a time when mysticism and irrationalism were rampant, he codified a rational, atheist philosophy taking Satan as its inspirational icon. His deep insights into the human animal lead him to weave together many threads from earlier iconoclasts into that dark tapestry of ideas he called Satanism, launching a movement that continues to thrive. We are proud upholders and exemplars of this empowering perspective, and our lives are richer for it. Considering the […]