While reading A Short Introduction to the Baha’i Faith, I came across a passage that seemed to perfectly summarize the philosophy of Satanism:

Thus human beings can either be turned towards the material world and have their hearts set on the appeasement of their animal nature–the state of being in sin as it is called in Christian terminology–or they can turn their hearts towards God and try to develop their spiritual nature. According to the Bahá’í scriptures, Satan or the Devil is a symbol for the animal side of human nature. It is this animal side that constantly tempts us and keeps us from fulfilling our spiritual potential.

Satanism rejects this dichotomy between the spiritual and the material. All we are, and all that exists, are our desires and animal nature. We have no spiritual potential, only potential has human beings, and we block off part of that potential by wasting time on backwards spiritual hogwash and lost prophets.

Satan is a symbol for the animal side of human nature, because that is what hundreds of years of religion has labeled our natural desires and impulses. We are told that our spiritual well being is more important than that of our carnal impulses, and that we should hedge this part of our beings for a better fulfillment of the self. For as long as there has been religion, man has been denying these needs and the fulfillment of his or her ego.

This is similar to the Discordian approach to life- that somehow, somewhere, we got it into our heads that it was more important to be orderly and predictable than unconstrained. In this religion though, it was not a stuck up Grey Face that got us in this mess, but prudish geezers who promised salvation or enlightenment if we just followed their rules. Any desire or impulse that may take you away from their control, or from emptying your pockets into their coffers, were denied and vilified. Therefore Satan was, and is, the adversary of religious doctrine and dogma, that which you are taught to ignore and surpass for the good of your soul.

Satanism stands as a rejection of “spiritual pipe-dreams” and old biases, a denial of external controls and authority. The Satanist is a man or woman that stands alone, with no need for anyone to tell them who they are or what they need to do. This is a religion that is not afraid to tell you to go out and explore your sexuality, to find all those things that tempt you and partake in them fully. This is the Church that says, “Do not spend your time in preparation for the hereafter, or to dutifully serve a deity that may as well be a reflection of yourself for all of it’s fallibility and human characteristics.”

We are but shadows and dust, no matter what the man on the pulpit tells you. This does not mean that therefore anything goes, but perhaps something more frightening- that you are the author of your own life. You are the force and the will that shape your life and your ultimate fate, and you are the one that should be served in order to make you feel complete and happy.

Thus, Satanists are Gods. We are all our own pieces of ritual and our own focus of worship. We deny any other God, Heaven, Hell, and all the rest- the complete blasphemer’s set. By embracing all that which is denied to other religions, we earn their title of contempt.

And that is why we are Satanists.