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The Church of Satan is a humanist, hedonist, egoist, and rationalist religion and the leader of the modern Satanist spiritual movement. The distinct religious body known as the Church of Satan was inaugurated by Anton Szandor LaVey in San Francisco, California on Walpurgisnacht (April 30), 1966. Other Satanic organizations of note have included the Hellfire Club of the 1700's, and the present day Temple of Set, which follows Satanic philosophy and invokes the Egyptian god Set as a personification of the Universal Life Force; however, the Church of Satan is the most prominent Satanic organization and has done the most to advance the cause of Satanic belief.

First, it is important to distinguish modern Satanism and the philosophy and practices of the Church, known sometimes as 'High Church' or 'High Temple' Satanism, from the propaganda and lies which are spread by the Christian Church regarding supposed criminal cults of 'Devil-worshipers' who engage in blood sacrifice and ritual sexual abuse, and attempt to spread evil in the world. This is a scare story which serves to reinforce the Christian Church's social control mechanisms and has no basis in fact. There is no evidence for the existence of such a cult, either at the present or during recorded history. It must also be separated from pseudo-satanic mythologies based on Christian beliefs in the Devil and Hell which are promulgated by ignorant youths or mentally disturbed people. These are not followers of the creed of Satanism, they are Christians who have chosen to reject the Christian Creator and instead worship the Christian God of Evil who is referred to as Satan. If ever a group of people have indeed come together to engage in blood sacrifices to worship the Christian Devil, they should not properly be called Satanists; they would in fact be a sub-sect of Christianity, much like the Yezidi sect of Islam which worship the Islamic God of Evil, Shaitan.

You may then ask, why take a name practically guaranteed to generate such controversy, misinformation, and confusion? The primary reason is to signal the irrevocable opposition of Satanists to essentially every core tenet of the Christian religion and institution. Satanists don't much care what Christians think of them; in fact, they invite the attention, as it only helps them to 'sell' their philosophical beliefs. Lies about Devil Worship are just one more force which drives reasonable people away from social control institutions like the Christian Church

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