{Occasionally I've had a few people mention that LaVey's motives were to dupe the rubes into giving him money.}

Its interesting how people say this.
Those same rubes who mock The Satanic bible purchase it for a laugh, read it. and realise they were Satanists all along!.., and viola the Doktors magic is done!!!

Hail the great Satan!

As Karla lavey says 39 secs in on Satanis how people are transformed !

Satanis pt1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiuzpTaHHpE

Self-interest.

Let's see what my $100 got me:

1. A symbolic means of identifying myself with a philosophy I hold dear.

2. Some of the very best, dearest friends I've ever had.

3. A chance to be absolutely blown away by the end results of other members' application of the Satanic philosophy. And THEN having someone with certain talents I'll never possess say to me, "Wow, I'm amazed by what YOU do!"

4. Experiences that inspired me to write a book about it all.

5. Best of all, the woman of my dreams.

You get out of CoS membership what you put into it.

Seems like a damn fine investment to me.

If he was being a good Satanist, then yes it was probably for his own motives of making money, but probably also a lot more than that. His own pride, creating a community of like individuals who he can relate to and be more of himself around etc. Creating a better society for himself to live in.

People often throw out the cliche term that someone did x for money only, which is silly... Its an over simplification of a person, usually just for the intention of making them look bad in the projected image to others.

I agree, selfishness is inescapable, but then one can be selfish when spreading ones own ideas.

I think, yes its irrelevent that it was based on money for the religion and philosophy is still very valid (but origins and motive can have an impact on its credibility)
I must admire that the church is more upfront about its payment of 100 to join rather than christian churches beating round for donations and as I think i heard, they dont pay taxes.

I must admire that the church is more upfront about its payment of 100 to join rather than christian churches beating round for donations and as I think i heard, they dont pay taxes.

Correction. If you have read the COS website you should know it is now $200.00

A better mind than mine came up with this:
- He was guilty of nothing, except that he earned his own fortune and never forgot that it was his.
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged

Although I have absolutely no problem with the idea of making money (in fact, I think it's a wonderful thing and I get very annoyed when people suggest that it’s somehow an ignoble pursuit compared to other goals), I seriously doubt that it was LaVey’s only motivation.

The reason for this is the simple fact that if making money was his only motivation, he would have chosen a topic with larger or “friendlier” public appeal.

From what I know of LaVey, I doubt that he would have had the stomach to immerse himself in a topic that would have appealed to the kind of mass audiences that would be necessary to generate a great deal of wealth.

The fact that he chose to write about something called “Satanism”, is proof that he cared about the subject matter and content, at least as much as the monetary value.

However, I’ll also say that I'd be a little bit appalled if he didn't want to make some money off of the deal!

Why is it that nobody questions the motives of their favorite musician? They'll proclaim his genius and have never a thought that he did it all for money.

Everyone wants to make money. Be more suspicious of those who don't.

Aside fromt his, I'd say it's readily apparent that making money wasn't his only motive. If he'd just wanted to make a quick buck, there are far simpler and more effective methods than founding a religion with such a hard selling name as Satanism, especially back in the 1960s when he started the whole thing - a time when coming up with some new agey bullshit was a lot more profitable.

The way I see it is that Doctor LaVey made money doing something he enjoyed, at the same time as offering something truly worthwhile to the world.

He not only benefited financially. He is now living the Satanic afterlife in the hearts and minds of those whose lives have been enriched by what he offered; many of whom never even met the man.

That's a lot more than most could achieve.

Hat's off to him, I say.

And so he is gone I really wish I could find somebody who would take odds on when somebody gets banned. Even though I'm not a CoS member I can usually predict the demise of certain posters long before they are gone.

When I joined this board I remember being a bit puzzled when a member posted something along the lines of "Most often you CAN judge a book by its cover", because it did go against one of the things I wanted to believe at the time. But since then I've been amazed how often this is actually true - most of the time there are no deeper layers to be discovered, people simply are what they broadcast.

Getting back to the good doctor and his motives - given the knowledge I've gained here, his motives aren't that important, his effect on my life and what I do by applying what he wrote is. As an IT person I've used Windows, Mac OS, Linus and other things - I don't need to know the motives of the person who wrote the operating system to know if it enables me to get my own job done. The proof, as always, is in the results.

Very nicely put.
Its kind of like: "What were Lavey's motives?". ...
Reply: "Who cares?" xD

You can tell books by their covers, if you know what certain covers signify, so to speak, and you need to know which pieces of information are the most important or useful.

For most people, "don't judge a book by its cover" is excellent advice to live by, because they'd be miserable at judging anyway.

Anyway, this post was just an excuse to share my all-time-favorite LaVey-related conspiracy (so far):

"Ten years ago, ANTON LAVEY lived in NEDERLAND [Colorado], in a CAVE, as part of (unintelligible)."

Overheard at the fair. Spoken by a Christian guy who had stopped by the atheist booth to argue, while I was chatting with a fellow at the other end of the tent.

I regret not having understood the last part of the sentence--and all involved looked to be on a roll, or in the zone, so I didn't want to interrupt them .

I remember when I was a kid one of the most backward phrases I heard was "Money is the root of all evil"

The more I thought about it the more I realized that money is nothing more that a representation of good ideas or physical effort.

It turns out that the phrase was correct, that is if Satanism is evil(live) then Life "is" good ideas and physical effort

So regardless of how any one wants to paint the path of ones life, the fact that they got there shows their value and credibility through those who traded their good ideas or physical effort for anothers more often then not at a higher ratio than thier own

I see it like this, In this shitty world we live in everything is about money. Whats wrong with earning money? Is that not looking after yourself and caring for the one person who is the most important!?!
LaVey was a very intelligent man who got to not only earn a living by being an author, but he also lived the life of Satanist to the upmost and had fun whilst doing it. How many of us can really say they do that!?!
you are right, he killed two birds with one stone.