Some good quotes:

“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 interventionalist 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.”

“The Satanist, we look at our existence and say, “We’re not going to look for something outside of ourselves. We’re going to be proactive. We’ll go out there and try to make a change, and we’ll deal pragmatically with whatever life situations we have. So the Satanist, regardless of where he is living and under what kind of conditions, he is going to try to find a way to make his life as good as it can be based upon his own abilities and the world around him. We don’t expect everybody in Satanism to be a genius, we expect people to take whatever they have by nature, and do the best with it. So in that sense, we challenge people who are our members; the only idealism we have is directed at ourselves. We try to look at ourselves and try to realize what our potential possibly could be, what talents do we have. And then we try to take those, through whatever works is needed, to take those as far as we can.”

“…any fundamentalist fanaticism is a vast threat (to humanity). I’m looking for humanity to have a secular, pluralistic culture. People should be able to follow whatever fantasies or religions they want, as long as they don’t impose them on other people and force other people into doing things based upon whatever kind of holy writ they have. So the biggest threat to that are these fundamentalist who want to force people into their belief systems. They want to destroy people who have sexual activity they don’t think is appropriate according to their texts. It will be interesting to see in the future if people will wake up to this threat and decide to somehow corral that kind of behavior, defang people like that who are basically on a jihad, whether they be Christians or Muslims or any other religion, because we’ve seen in the past the Catholics were torturing people to death in the Inquisition, then the Reformation happened and different denominations and sects were killing each other. Heretics are being slaughtered. So this is not something just one religion is guilty of.”

This week’s Point of Inquiry podcast from the Center For Inquiry features an interview with Peter H. Gilmore on “Science and Satanism”

http://www.pointofinquiry.org/

Point of Inquiry is the premiere podcast of the Center for Inquiry, drawing on CFI’s relationship with the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers, and renowned entertainers. Each episode combines incisive interviews, features and commentary focusing on CFI’s issues: religion, human values and the borderlands of science.

Download audio file (POI_2007_08_10_Peter_Gilmore.mp3)

01. Let’s start out with your new book. What is it called and what is the subject matter?

“The Satanic Scriptures” (www.thesatanicscriptures.com) is a collection of essays and rituals which I’ve written over the past 20 years. Most of the essays were published in “The Black Flame” (the official magazine of the Church of Satan) and some are newly released. All have been polished for this edition. They range from social commentary of a distinctly misanthropic bent to characterizations of human types, as well as details about the inner workings and perspectives of the Church of Satan. The rituals include the Satanic Wedding and Funeral Rites, which have heretofore only been given to members of our Priesthood. Finally the Rite of Ragnarok, a militant exercise in norse-flavored exoticism, had been previously printed in the Swedish publication “The Fenris Wolf.”

When can we buy it, where can we get it? Personally, I’m looking forward to reading it.

The hardcover is now available from Scapegoat Publishing (www.ScapegoatPublishing.com) and select specialty booksellers while the paperback will be broadly released in October (Amazon.com) and should appear in major book selling chains.

02. Explain to us what you represent. What are the basic tenets of Satanism?

I represent Satanism as codified by Anton Szandor LaVey and embodied in the Church of Satan. Most succinctly, we are atheistic, skeptical epicureans who embrace Satan as a symbol of liberty, pride, and individualism. The details are in our literature.

03. How exactly did you find yourself to be a Satanist? What exactly convinced you that
Satanism was the right path for you?

I read “The Satanic Bible” at age 13, at the time considering myself to be an atheist. I saw deeper aspects of myself reflected in LaVey’s words so I knew “Satanist” was a more accurate label for my nature. I’ve never come across a reason to alter that decision. I am a Satanist by Dr. LaVey’s definition, and the philosophy works quite well as a tool to get the most out of my life.

The first few questions and answers are here – to get the while thing visit the site.