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Well now we're quibbling goddammit.
Junkenstein, please cite your sources for saying he's rejected the Church of Satan. As far as any form of belief being basically bullshit... well no fucking one any fucking where has no beliefs. King Diamond has said that he's given up on believing anything religious. Which is, in no way, in contradiction with being a member of the CoS. Church of Satan members are atheists, first and foremost.
Which brings me to Cretaceous Bob. I respectfully disagree with your characterization of "true, real Satanism" being theistic. 'True' and 'real' have very specific meanings, and Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan are real and true in that they exist and don't sell lies. That is the domain of Christians. -
Words change meaning through their usage. Satan is a symbol for members of the Church of Satan, based of course on the idea of the biblical Satan, but in no way do they mean it in any corporeal sense. Satan is not the Church of Satan's mascot the way that poor nailed-up bastard Jesus is for Christians. CoS members do not believe in Satan.
"He exploited Satanism for commercial purposes, even if he doesn't admit it and even if he is a member of LaVey's church." Nothing is more Satanic than this.
"The LaVey stuff" as you call it, most certainly chose Satan for its sensational and adversarial connotations, and so what? Satanism is not just 'let's be everything that Christians aren't cuz fuck them." It's a rather sophisticated philosophical position. It should go without saying that it has nothing to do with animal sacrifice and nothing to do with ritual abuse, in case the 90s satanic panic propaganda worked too well on you (and here, I don't mean you, Bob, I mean you as in anyone else reading this. I have a feeling Bob knows all this already.) Satanism is probably not what you think it is, and that's fine. It's not a religion in the traditional sense, and it certainly has nothing to do with the Devil, save in symbolism.
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