"The Satanic Bible" by Anton Szandor LaVey is a beautifully organized and written book, although redundant, very redundant. it is the mark and start of the philosophy of LaVey, a man who turned his cheek on christianism for he recognized the hypocrisy that came with it.

the book starts with anti-christianity chapters to then evolve to the doctrines of satanism itself and explains how and why this hitherto called philosophy became a valid religion. it later talks about the symbolic entities of hell, rituals, rules, etc. this satanism is atheistic. the satanist does not believe in the devil or satan or whomever comes from the christian bible because they are merely characters who kept that religion in business for centuries! the satanist adopts these "entities" as symbols, which are meant to give you all the power you need to become the most powerful and authentic version of yourself - a person with dignity, self-centered and honest (no hypocrisy).

i could talk for ages about satanism, i've been studying it since i'm 15 basically, but i preferred to make a quick review and recommend you this book, for it will change your life if you allow it to. it is meant to be looked at objectively and critically. do it as you please! live the way you want. i recommend it definitely, but your actions carry the weight of your sole responsibility.

DNF at 20%. A lot of what this guy had to say made a whole lot of sense to me. Things along the lines of living your life for yourself and to the fullest but also not hurting others. Owning up to mistakes. All that I can get on board with! A big portion was just a criticism of Christianity also, and don’t get me wrong, I can get on board with calling out the hypocrisies in Christianity but after a while it just got kind of...exhausting? It felt like a lot of the same. It could be that these criticisms were groundbreaking back when this book was first released but reading it now I’m just like...yep, we know! I also found the writing style difficult to read. Wasn’t worth finishing for me, but I can definitely see why it’s famous. Just not my cup of tea. ☕️

DNF at about half way.

There is one thing to have different views from others, but this plays into the same field as the religious propaganda you get from everyday life. A holy than thou and being looked down upon for "superior views". I can imagine LaVey sitting in a speakeasy giggling manically to himself writing a book after someone following the Church was rude to him and he "proves" their moral fallacy like a Discord mod tipping a fedora to m'lady.

2 stars for kicking off this ideology but not worth much more than that.

Den första delen med mer filosofisk syn på ateistisk satanism är oerhört intressant. Den andra delen med magiska ritualer ger jag inte mycket för, då jag inte tror på magi som inte bygger på naturvetenskap och som ju är orsaken till att jag inte är religiös.

Väl värd att läsa dock.

Hail Satan! 🤘 😎

I found this to be a pretty thought provoking book.

This... Book... Was... AWFUL... From a writing perspective alone, it was absolutely a terrible read and felt more like the rantings and ravings of a lunatic than a well thought out manifesto to become the basis of a religion.

That being said, some of the core concepts of the book are interesting and I can see why people are drawn to the hedonistic and carnal nature that LaVeyan Satanism presents. It's easy to be drawn into the scenario of giving into your own desires and to do everything you can to ensure those desires are achieved.

That being said, I think Murder face of Metalocalypse said it best when he said it's all the same. (https://youtu.be/2J6nU600HDU) This book talks consistently about hypocrisy and how much it aims to be the manifesto of the Satanist, but at the end of the day, if you substitute Shemhamforash and Hail Satan for In Jesus name we pray and Amen, you'll find that it's nothing more than just a giant piece of hypocritical text substituting one diety for another in an attempt to glorify them to the authors own end.