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David Shankbone: What is your relationship to Theistic Satanists?

Peter H. Gilmore: We don’t think they are Satanists. They are devil worshipers, as far as I’m concerned.

David Shankbone: There is one in New York who does a lot of websites.

Peter H. Gilmore: We don’t think they are Satanists. They are devil worshipers, as far as I’m concerned.
Diane Vera? She’s a kook.

David Shankbone: She’s also an editor on Wikipedia. I contacted her, but I never received a response.

Peter H. Gilmore: We don’t think they are Satanists. They are devil worshipers, as far as I’m concerned.
My real feeling is that anybody who believes in supernatural entities on some level is insane. Whether they believe in The Devil or God, they are abdicating reason. If they really believe they are in communication with some sort of interventionist deity…you know, somebody can be a deist and think that maybe there was some sort of force that launched everything and now has nothing to do with it. That’s not anything you can prove. It’s also not a matter of faith. It’s a matter of making a choice between whether there was something or there wasn’t. I think maybe that is the most rational decision. I think science makes it look otherwise, but I don’t think somebody like that is mad. But anybody who believes in some kind of existence in deity or spirits or anything that intervenes in their life is not somebody I hold in any kind of esteem.

David Shankbone: Have you had much interaction with the theistic Satanists?

Peter H. Gilmore: No, I just have complete contempt for them and have no contact with them at all. If anybody does contact me and say they are a theistic Satanist we tell them to take a hike. [Laughs].

David Shankbone: Do you know what they think of you?

Peter H. Gilmore: I have no idea and I could not care. I consider it lunatic and it’s Christian. If you want to believe in an existing devil then you probably believe in an existing God and you’re really just a Christian heretic, you’re not a Satanist.

David Shankbone: What do you think is their motivation to worship a Christian Satan?

Peter H. Gilmore: I really wouldn’t know, I’d have to talk to them, but my supposition would be that they want to feel they are naughty on some level. If they really believe in these existing deities, then they have to decide what the values of them are. The Gnostics used to think that Jehovah was bad; the demiurge, and that the real God was something more in touch with what they thought humanity should be like. So, maybe these people think that Jehovah is evil and Satan is good. I just think it’s equally silly whether you believe in an Easter Bunny or Zeus…it’s just…irrational.

Szandora‘s shirt says F*ck Fashion in this hot Blue Blood set, which must be why she strips everything except the boots off — F*ck Fashion indeed. My favorite part is actually her lacing up her boots; there’s something wickedly filthy about lacing your boots up just to take off your clothes.

Satanism comprises a number of related beliefs and social phenomena. They share the feature of symbolism, veneration or admiration of Satan (or similar figures). Satan first appeared in the Hebrew Bible and was an Angel who challenged the religious faith of humans. In the Book of Job he is called “the Satan” (meaning “the accuser”) and acted as the prosecutor in God’s court. A character named “Satan” was described as the cosmic enemy of the Lord and temptor of Jesus within many of the Gospels of early Christians. It was further developed in scope and power as the bringer of Armageddon and Apocalypse as featured within the Book of Revelation. Religions inspired by these texts (Jews, Christians and Muslims) typically regarded Satan as an adversary or enemy, but extensive popular redactions and recompositions of biblical tales inserted its presence and influence into every aspect of adversarial role back to the Creation and Fall. By Christians and Muslims especially, the figure of Satan was treated variously as a rebellious or jealous competitor to human beings, to Jesus, or to the Lord, and characterized as a fallen angel or demon ruling the penitential Underworld, chained in a deep pit, wandering the planet vying for souls or providing the impetus for all worldly travesty. At points during the development of the Christian religion, Satan became its outspoken enemy, and this served the interests of all those who would use this to their advantage, inclusive of those who fashioned or recomposed the mythos of Satanism. Additionally, particularly after the European Enlightenment, some works, such as Paradise Lost, were taken up by Romantics and described as presenting the Biblical Satan as an allegory representing a crisis of faith, individualism, free will, wisdom and enlightenment. Those works actually featuring Satan as a heroic character are fewer in number but do exist: George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain being two authors whose works include this prior to the pen being taken up by religious Satanists.

Anti-witchcraft laws such as the British Witchcraft Act 1735 (not repealed until 1951), reflected strong public sentiment against witchcraft and Satanism. Religious Satanism began in 1966 with the founding of the Church of Satan.

Modern Satanist groups (those which appeared after the 1960s) are widely diverse, but two major trends which can be seen are Theistic Satanism and Atheistic Satanism. Theistic Satanists venerate Satan as a supernatural deity. In contrast, Atheistic Satanists consider themselves atheists and regard Satan as merely symbolic of certain human traits. This categorization of Satanism (which could be categorized in other ways, for example “Traditional” versus “Modern”), is not necessarily adopted by Satanists themselves, who usually would not specify which type of Satanism they adhere to. Some Satanists believe in God in the sense of a Prime Mover but, like Atheistic Satanists, still worship themselves, due to the Deist belief that God plays no part in mortal lives.

Each “type” of Satanist will usually refer to themselves only as a “Satanist”.

Szandora looks extra flirty and cute and little less intimidating than usual, with pink hair, in this BlueBlood update, lensed by Amelia G and Forrest Black. Of course, Szandora is rocking the black and white stripey stockings and those always make me weak at the knees.