Through the glory of the internet, while trying to find more information about Dr. Lavey's teachings, I've discovered quite a few organizations that bill themselves as "Churches" of Satan, whether the name removed or the name removed. I was wondering what the official viewpoint of the CoS is on these psuedo-CoS organizations.

The official viewpoint.
And again.

Speaking as a non-official Myself, I would say that it should be obvious even without reading the above. There is the Church of Satan, and then there are wannabe whiney disorganized groups of potheads who are trying to feed their impoverished egos by empty self-aggrandizement, usually by little webrings and no real-world achievers amongst their members. All talk (and a few dodgy animated GIFs), and nothing to back it up.

I see them all, and just see them as a waste of good bandwidth.

In addition to Linguascelesta's post I would encourage that all dates on such organizations be checked. The Church of Satan was founded in 1966, all of these pseudo-satanic groups were formed after the Church of Satan. This should be one huge hint that they are riding on the coat tails of the first and only Satanic organization in the world.

I would encourage you to not just read the Satanic Bunco Sheet but the entire official Church of Satan website as well. Doing this will make clear the shallowness of these other pseudo-satanic organizations.

Just my 2 sense, now I will have to charge you 20 dollars for the reply, half of course will go to Linguascelesta.

Don't worry, I've read it all. I just finished the Satanic Bible and "Satan Speaks!". I'm working on getting the rest of the books.

I looked at a lot of other Satanist websites as well because I believe in "shopping around". Well, CoS wins out as far as I'm concerned. I have been able to find answers to questions that were unanswered by browsing around the site, CoS books, and links.

The other Satanic sites lacked that thing that pulls you in and makes you stay. Also, it seemed like the other sites weren't very original.

If you loved those I assure you you'll love the other 3 he wrote. I'm going through all 5 books again myself plus the 2 by Magistra Barton. Happy indulgence!

So you're aligning with the CoS because of the presentation of the website?

Go through the website; it's all there. But to shorten the labour you seemingly want to avoid, there is a simple answer:

There is only one Church of Satan.

Quote:

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Don't worry, I've read it all.

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I have to ask, then why did you need to post your question?

Now that you have read The Satanic Bible as well as Satan Speaks, what of it? I recall at the time when you wrote your introduction you were questioning yourself about your capacity of being a Church of Satan member. Do you feel more certain now that you have read the core text of Satanism?

A handfull of internet-nerds isn`t a organisation, even if they call themself a "church".

Well it is a very nice website! Very professional, no stupid graphics or cheesy music as well as nicely written essays on relevant topics. I visited pseudo-Satanic websites on the recommendation of someone I knew before I knew too much about Satanism and frankly the Church of Satan leaves them in the dust. I understand the desire to ignore these other groups completely on the part of most Satanists but any examination of these them always makes the Church of Satan look good (I haven't checked up on a certain obese "satanist"'s website or other pseudo-Satanic groups in a while, though am certain they haven't changed much if they haven't folded yet).

I saw that there was a plane crash yesterday. Hope it didn't shake you up too much.