Symbolic Satanism (sometimes called Modern Satanism) is the observance and practice of Satanic religious beliefs, philosophies and customs. In this interpretation of Satanism, the Satanist does not worship Satan in the theistic sense, but is an adversary to all spiritual creeds, espousing hedonism, materialism, Ayn Rand Objectivism, antinomianism, rational egoism, individualism, suitheism, Nietzsche and some Aleister Crowley philosophy and anti-theism.
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.
