"Anton Szandor LaVey - The Satanic Bible" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaVey Anton Szandor)

definition which suits him best. Man has always created his gods, rather than
his gods creating him. God is, to some, benign - to others, terrifying. To the
Satanist "God" - by whatever name he is called, or by no name at all - is seen
as the balancing factor in nature, and not as being concerned with suffering.
This powerful force which permeates and balances the universe is far too
impersonal to care about the happiness or misery of flesh-and-blood creatures on
this ball of dirt upon which we live.

Anyone who thinks of Satan as evil should consider all the men, women, children,
and animals who have died because it was "God's will". Certainly a person
grieving the untimely loss of a loved one whould much rather have their loved
one with them than in God's hands! Instead, they are unctuously consoled by
their clergyman who says, "It was God's will, my dear"; or "He is in God's hands
now, my son." Such phrases have been a convenient way for religionists to
condone or excuse the mercilessness of God. But if God is in complete control
and as benign as he is supposed to be, why does He allow these things to happen?
Too long have religionists been falling back on their bibles and rulebooks to
prove or disprove, justify, condemn, or interpret.

The Satanist realizes that man, and the action and reaction of the universe, is
responsible for everything, and doesn't mislead himself into thinking that
someone cares. No longer will we sit back and accept "fate" without doing
anything about it, just because it says so in Chapter such and such, Psalm so
and so - and that's that! The Satanist knows that praying does absolutely no
good - in fact, it actually lessens the chance of success, for the devoutly
religious too often sit back complacently and pray for a situation which, if
they were to do something about it on their own, could be accomplished much
quicker!

The Satanist shuns terms such as "hope" and "prayer" as they are indicative of
apprehension. If we hope and pray for something to come about, we will not act
in a positive way which will make it happen. The Satanist, realizing that
anything he gets is of his own doing, takes command of the situation instead of
praying to God for it to happen. Positive thinking and positive action add up to
results.

Just as the Satanist does not pray to God for assistance, he does not pray for
forgiveness for his wrong doings. In other religions, when one commits a wrong
he either prays to God for forgiveness, or confesses to an intermediary and asks
him to pray to God for forgiveness for his sins. The Satanist knows that praying
does no good, confessing to another human being, like himself, accomplishes even
less - and is, furthermore, degrading.

When a Satanist commits a wrong, he realizes that it is natural to make a
mistake - and if he is truly sorry about what he has done, he will learn from it
and take care not to do the same thing again. If he is not honestly sorry about
what he has done, and knows he will do the same thing over and over, he has no
business confessing and asking forgiveness in the first place. But this is
exactly what happens. People confess their sins so that they can clear their
consciences - and be free to go out and sin again, usually the same sin.