The official Church of Satan was founded in 1966 by Anton LaVey. The church is dedicated to “the acceptance of Man’s true nature—that of a carnal beast, living in a cosmos that is indifferent to our existence.” The organization doesn’t believe in God or Satan so its members are essentially atheists. They do not perform sacrifices and reject the abuse of any individual or group. Their official website works hard to stress that they differ greatly from “devil worshippers.”

Contrary to popular belief, Satanists are not allowed to sacrifice anything. Their rules strictly forbid harming any living creature except in two cases: killing an animal for nutritional purposes or killing someone (animal or human) in self-defense. The Church of Satan doesn’t take responsibility for any violent act that takes place during satanic rituals.

However, in 2011 an eighteen-year-old boy in Los Angeles strangled his mother and then dismembered her with a circular saw and skinned her as part of a satanic ritual. The boy claimed he scarified his mom on a certain date (February 2) found in an unofficial satanic bible.

It appears that the vast majority of Satanists who claim they used to be Christians before turning to Satan were Christians in name only; in other words, you would never see them attending church or any Christian celebration.

The Encyclopedia Satanica lists sixteen distinct satanic groups. Their ideologies run the gamut from gnostic esotericism to the Cult of Cthulhu.

According to a 2001 FBI report a typical American Satanist is usually around twenty-five, a white male, and has been a Satanist for about eight years. In other words, most Satanists usually discover Satanism in their teens.

Ricky Kasso was a teenager from New York who shocked the world in the mid-‘80s when he lured his friend Gary Lauwers into the woods and murdered him in the name of Satan. He claimed Satan spoke to him through a black crow; he was also addicted to drugs such as LSD. He committed suicide by hanging himself in his jail cell.

One of the most well-known pacts with the Devil involves blues guitarist Robert Johnson, who supposedly walked to a crossroads where the Devil tuned his guitar and gave him his wicked music skills. Johnson died a few years later under unclear circumstances.

In the Middle Ages mortality rates were so high for newborns that midwives were sometimes accused of sacrificing babies to the Devil.

Satanism forbids pretentiousness and counterproductive pride among other things, but the greatest sin is to be stupid. Yes, those lacking intelligence are the most sinful people in the eyes of Satanism.

Richard Ramirez, arguably one of the most notorious Satanists/serial killers ever, terrorized LA and San Francisco during the mid-‘80s. He killed fourteen people using a variety of grotesque and brutal methods and when he was finally arrested, he told the police he was “a minion of Satan sent to Earth to carry out atrocities for the devil.”

It once cost about $2 to become a member of the Church of Satan. Nowadays the membership fee has risen to $200.

Anton LaVey, as we already mentioned, is the founder of the Church of Satan and a new religious movement founded in 1966 that he called LaVeyan Satanism. Among the many books he has written is The Satanic Bible, which was published in 1969.

The Satanic Bible is made up of four books: The Book of Satan, The Book of Lucifer, The Book of Belial, and The Book of Leviathan. The Book of Satan challenges the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, while promoting Epicureanism.

Back in the mid-2000s the Church of Satan attempted to supply books and other reading material to schoolchildren in Florida. However, the reading material was perceived to include some propaganda and so was not allowed into schools.

The official position of the Church of Satan is totally against black magic or, for that matter, any kind of “evil” magic.

Satanists claim to have their own kinds of magic, which they separate into Lesser and Greater Magic, and which has a lot of logical and psychological aspects. Greater Magic is about control and Lesser Magic deals more with intellect and psychology.

Some of the most “peaceful” and well-known Satanists and followers of the Church of Satan include Sammy Davis Jr., Marilyn Manson, and Jayne Mansfield. Due to its ties to Hollywood and the music industry, the Church of Satan has become more accessible to mainstream society.

Satanists are big believers in nature and its power, so they tend to celebrate equinoxes, solar and lunar eclipses, and the summer and winter solstices. Any traditions or practices performed on these “holidays” are not for anyone or anything other than the individual.

Τhe Church of Satan states that only humans are responsible for their own lives, and that no deity can control our fate. This also explains why the Church of Satan has always attracted so many atheists.

The Beasts of Satan was a group of Italian friends who worshiped two things in life: Satan and black metal music. In 1998, however, they went a little too far when they murdered two of their friends. Amazingly, they got away with it since there was not enough evidence, but the cult killed someone else six years later. This time the authorities arrested them.

During the early 1990s in Norway a groups of Satanists and vandals—most of them musicians in black metal bands—burned many churches from 1992 to 1996, including an eleventh-century national landmark, the Fantoft Stave Church.

In 2008 a group of Russian teens, led by former choirboy Nikolai Ogolobyak, murdered three teenage girls and a boy after they lured them into the woods. The Satanists stabbed each victim an incredible 666 times and then partially ate them. When they were arrested they claimed Satan would help them avoid responsibility and punishment for their crimes but clearly they were mistaken.

It was estimated that there were 50,000 Satanists in 1990. There may now be as many as 100,000 Satanists in the world, which means they have doubled their numbers within just twenty-five years.

From the mid-1980s until the early 1990s there was a true mania across North America in which satanic cults were believed to be responsible for the rape, sexual abuse, and murder of more than 60,000 people (including children) a year in ritualistic sacrifice. The statistics were found to be false since the numbers were exaggerated by people who usually lied or suffered from mental illness. The 2015 film Regression (starring Ethan Hawke) focuses on this topic.