My Master has lost count of the number of followers who were originally raised as Christians and are quick to assert what Christians believe and how Christians behave. It would make sense to believe these followers based on their first hand operative experience, of course, were it not for the one important facet that they are wrong.
My Master’s new converts will readily teach you that Christians work against either the very order of Nature or at least their own best self-interest by practicing humility, altruism, unconditional love, etcetera, but it never occurs to these once-Christian followers that there is no such thing as humble or charitable Christians—firstly because Christians are no better on these virtues (or vices, as we demons tend to think of them) than anyone else, and secondly because being mindful about one’s fellow man, showing restraint, being humble, and what other virtues Christians believe to distinguish themselves with are in fact equally present both in many other religions and outside of religion; several so-called Christian virtues are so universal that they have been proposed as the very foundation of human morals and may transcend religion into the very core of human biology. There is nothing specifically Christian about such goals. Satan thinks it should be obvious to anyone with an intact cognitive apparatus that Christians are every bit as capricious, malicious, insolent, hateful, stingy, rambunctious, traitorous, and immodest as everyone else, and like all religious groups believe that only they, by virtue of their religion, may avoid or resist such traits.
The aforementioned Satanists describe Christians that do not exist, and yet they speak from earnest experience. This would seem self-contradictory but according to the wisdom of my Master of Occult Insight, it is quite simple: they repeat what they were once taught about Christian beliefs and practices, because they still believe what they were once taught.
All religions, including Christianity, maintain a mythical universe that in varying degrees involves supernatural beings, transcendental experiences, metaphysical entities, and—and that is key here—narratives describing themselves and their followers in a rather idealized glow. It is this myth that the aforementioned Christian-raised followers still believe in. They may have abandoned the most far-fetched myth of all of a literal god which cares whether they masturbate but ignores millions of starving, praying children, but in spite of popular belief, the choice of gods is one of the least defining elements of religion. Other elements of religion prescribe truths and falsehoods, human values, and social norms, but even more importantly they govern how followers view the World. Satan thinks it is easy to deny your gods. It is much harder to recast your standards of knowledge, your view of humans including yourself, your place in Society, and your very values, all of which Satan demands that you reevaluate to be a true follower of the Devil.
Satan thinks many of His followers merely deny their god while they keep practicing every ounce of ingrained attitudes they held since they were barely potty trained. Satan thinks that when these ex-Christians accuse mythical enemies of mythical behaviors, they are reacting according to the beliefs of a religion that they still belong to and are still preaching. Or, to put it more simply: Satan thinks that if you truly believe that Christians are meek, humble, and what else they think about themselves, and then criticize them for being such, then you are a fully-fledged Christian for believing this about Christians to begin with, because this is a much deeper-held religious belief than to believe in the Christian gods, saints, and spirits. Gods are easily killed, but the comprehension of other people and social norms it not; you will never join us in Hell with that attitude.
Satan thinks that these people have not moved or changed one iota from Christianity; they still believe in the Christian myths that they were brought up with. They have become religious Uncle Toms who internalize their self-hate and side with their perceived enemy, preaching how bad Christianity is but practicing it all the while, unable to let it go. The Devil is prejudice enough to posit that even if for a while they manage to think according to an original interpretation of pre-Christian concepts such as prudence or temperance, then like salmon they may momentarily venture down a stream of reason but will eventually return to the point whence they were spawned.
The Devil is mostly concerned with followers of His own, of course, but He thinks it is a general issue. He could easily discuss how to observe distinctive differences between atheists of specific religious backgrounds whose behaviors as atheists reveal their childhood upbringing, for example (yes, former Christian atheists and former Muslim atheists tend to promote atheism so according to their “abandoned” religions that it is barely indistinguishable from their missionaries). Shared among them all is their tendency to describe their former religions according to the narratives of those very religions, and their tendency to behave as they always did. Ex-Christians will soon be sharing “Bible verses” of their religious scripture, quoting Anton LaVey and other perceived authorities in The Church of Satan, accusing others of sinful behavior, as it were, for exhibiting un-Satanic behavior, will sustain the conservative values of their past religion, desire to flaunt their religion (safely behind their browsers), and otherwise in all but their surface appearances stay the Christians they always were. Much in contrast to the Hollywood portrayal of the Great Beast as a servant who may always be summoned onto a crudely drawn pentagram on the floor by anyone, my Master is not fooled by someone who merely wears a five-pointed star necklace.
Lacking the ability to live out the sins of their former religion, they turn to the Devil and His sins instead where they learn a new vocabulary, new rules of engagement, new symbols, and other new ostensibilities, but their convictions and beliefs remain intact; they will never change. Satan thinks that once a person has been raised within a particular religion, no angel in Heaven or demon in Hell can turn that person truly atheist or toward some other religion. That person will keep behaving according to the tradition he was raised in. Satan thinks there is no such thing as a born Satanist, and a person that was raised into a religion cannot be made a one either.