Anton LaVey wrote in The Satanic Bible that Satanism is the only religion that recognizes man as he is, with no requirements that he better himself, only that he pursue his indulgences without shame (or “guilt,” as LaVey generally uses as a synonym). As a Satanist, one must no longer prove oneself worthy of salvation or fear damnation for being a sinner. No god can reward you when you die.
Satan likes the attitude but thinks LaVey forgot his audience. The majority of his readers were brought up with a mindset urging them to “better” themselves according to Christian regulations, such as feeling shame when they masturbated or feeling obligated to express love for people far outside their social circles. True, it is only a scant minority of Christians who really delude themselves into thinking they love their enemies—-most Christians in the world interpret the Christian tenet of loving one’s enemies to mean respecting others and generally trying not to be too much of a dick—but The Prince of Darkness finds that many who seek His kingdom were this particularly brainwashed kind. With a mindset bent on bettering oneself only because God mandates it, it is predictable what happens when God is removed from the equation: all work on personal improvement ceases in this nihilist, godless world.
This starkly contrasts healthy people with natural drives compelled toward self-actualization, a continuing phase in Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs. One naturally works toward reaching one’s potential, continuously seeking to repair what is broken, improve what is already good, and remove obstacles within oneself. Such individuals will naturally seek to identify and eliminate the harmful influence of Christianity within themselves to move beyond its stifling grip.
Anton LaVey’s Satanism is part of the Human Potential Movement of the 1950s and 1960s that cast humans as fundamentally “good” creatures whose nature has been perverted by society, turning mankind into an inferior and destructive version of itself. The human animal was thought to have a potential waiting to be unleashed if it could somehow return to its true self and cast off the shackles imposed by a society that works against the best interest of its own species. When Satan represents man as the human animal he is, it is this healthy animal, not an animal broken by a toxic society and put on a leash with religion. As obvious as it hopefully sounds, Satan does not represent man as he is if that man is a Christian, whether by culture or by faith.
Satan thinks The Satanic Bible‘s reassurance that people are good enough is a free pass to avoid confronting one’s most meticulously inculcated values and discourses. If one was raised as a Christian early on or otherwise fell into the cauldron of Christianity as a child, its teachings are thoroughly instilled in one’s mind and virtually impossible to ignore. Confronted with disagreements, stressful situations, or conflicts that involve core values, people generally sink to their levels rather than rise to the occasion. Most “open-minded” individuals raised to believe that unfaithfulness, unforgiveness, or selfishness are bad behavior will be shocked and react emotionally when they become the target of such behavior; many intercultural marriages have suffered conflicts caused by ingrained cultural values that the couple thought they had transcended. A former Christian will consider the offender a bad person for not exhibiting Christian behavior.
These people are, at the bottom of their hearts and minds, the Christians they were raised. Upon reading The Satanic Bible, such people arrogantly declare that because they were always Satanists (even if they were once the proselytizing, argumentative, Bible-thumping kind of Christians), they neither changed upon converting to Satanism nor through being Satanists because they presume that no change was needed. Satan thinks that they generally have not changed one iota, indeed: if they were once Christians and have done nothing to change, that is what they remain. Like salmon, they return to the spot whence they were spawned.
Satan demands that His followers make an honest effort to escape their indoctrination. They are sorely mistaken if they believe themselves free of religious persuasions and to have managed to escape their past impressions. Even dyed-in-the-wool atheists receive the mark of their societies, some of which will be Christian branding. The educational challenge is to learn about human psychology, sociology, cultural specifics, history, and how religions function and evolve (not according to self-help books or popular psychology, politically biased commentators, or religious or counter-religious interest groups but on terms congruent with science) and to self-reflect and compare it all with how they have shaped oneself, and how oneself acts and responds.
This implies a complete rejection of most of Anton LaVey’s beliefs about the human animal and the entire array of pseudoscience he relied on. It requires the Devil’s followers to identify which social and behavioral traits arise from your biological imperatives or are programmed by society and which of society’s programming is religious or secular, with religion often taking credit for the latter. It necessitates constant meditation on personal motivation, reactions, and morals. Satan thinks that none of His followers deserve His magnificent name until they have put in years of hard and dedicated work on understanding human nature and how their own life agrees with Nature and on remedying what deviates.
Anyone can delude themselves into thinking that they have sufficiently perfected themselves, with only others to blame for their failings in life, and now all that remains is to convince others. Satan thinks it takes no small amount of self-confidence and self-esteem to admit to oneself that one is never released from ongoing self-improvement—but when someone possesses these qualities, the Will to develop usually comes naturally.
It is impossible to be a “perfect” Satanist in any current human society. However, Satan thinks that his followers may come a long way by revering Him as an infernal sage whom one may never become but should always seek to emulate. As the undisputed Ruler of the Earth, Satan permits entry to Hell only to those of His followers who make an honest effort to escape their former religion.