The Devil’s Advocate
~Is there a soul?~

Satanists must always be open minded and objective in all things. While we may hold our beliefs dear, they must never cloud our judgment or overlap our logic. In this we have the edge over other would be spiritual paths, we are not afraid to change and alter our beliefs as need-be. Satanism is by no means static and restricted by entrenched dogma as many other religious paths are. Any look to the past thirty years (1966 to 1996) would prove this to be true. Satanism molds itself to its times and environment, whatever makes the most sense for whatever given opportunity is our given path…never shall we practice the satanic sin of self deceit willingly.

So spake the good Doktor LaVey (or Levey, depending on your level of respect for the man) –

He that is slow to believe anything and everything is of great understanding,
for belief in one false principle is the beginning of all unwisdom.

The Book of Satan 2:8, The Satanic Bible*

I believe this to be iron law, we must always be skeptical of all things. I never immediately embraced the concept of magic when I was first awoken to my Satanic self. Only when I had success in my first spell did I accept that magic is probably real (yet I still at times doubt - luckily I see this as healthy). Now, onto my first chosen topic – the soul.

The idea of the soul is incredibly ancient, and like the concept of the deity, it also suffers from insufficient definition. What exactly is the soul? Some would say that it is the manifestation of ourselves, everything that is us realized in a central force - the deepest part of which that is us. Others would have us believe that it is simply our consciences. But there are a couple of deep rooted problems in this…most modern skeptics and atheists believe that our being is merely biological, nothing special about it. This is something I’m still pretty open about, for one I don’t know what to think – could there be a soul?

Evidence that our being is largely biological, if not completely, is that an individual can experience a complete and drastic change of personality via head injury. My father is a classic example. When I was young, four years old or so, he had a motorcycle accident that left him in a coma. Before the accident he was much as I am now, incredibly laid back and calm, not one who was quick to anger, and even a bit shy. Yet afterwards he was quick to anger, domineering, and quite a different man. Why?

We’re not sure, and neither are scientists…but it does strongly point out that what makes us us, the most special part of which is our being, our personality and memories – are deeply rooted in the gray matter that is our brains.

Another area of concern is mental illness. Until fairly recently, mental illness was largely thought to be the consequence of our environments. Bad parents make bad kids right? If little Johnny hangs around bad influences, chances are he’ll turn out to be just like them, correct? As my grandmother was fond of saying, birds of a feather flock together. Consider the Columbine shootings…

The deranged little fucks that committed such heinous acts of stupidity were the product of caring parents, in a “perfect” home. They had all the chances to come out okay, yet this happens. Why? Okay, so the home environment seemed to be okay, what about their music? Na, heavy music might make me want to mosh in a concert, but never murder. Okay, then it’s the school kids – they were bullied harshly. Now that may have had a lot to do with it (god knows I know, I like many Satanists were probably never accepted in school) but why murder on such a large scale? And those whom tormented them most harshly weren’t really their targets, it was just murderous anarchy – anyone and everything deserved to die, even those who never acted against them. Here enters genetics, gods gift of odds, the great roll of the dice – who we are is largely pre-designed (for lack of a better word). The leader of the pack apparently suffered from anti-social behavior. It is genetic and largely cannot be helped. Anti-social individuals never learn their lessons, and punishment largely fails – they continue to act out against society. Little Johnny psycho never had a chance, he was a ticking time-bomb and his chance to blow just came. Was there any other possible outcome but murder? I’m not so certain, whether it was in high school or at his job years later, I feel he still would have just popped. Nature is more often stronger then nurture.

Another fascinating area to consider is the area of twins. Identical twins share so much in common beyond just appearance that its often spooky. How many identical twins do you know have vastly different personalities? Few to none I would bet. While commonly one is more dominate then the other, their likes, personality, dress, even how they walk is remarkable the same. Even when separated. Consider separated identical twins. When brought back together, more often then not they dress the same, walk the same, with remarkably similar personalities, and even sometimes prefer the same type of partner. Yet they never had contact with each other until then. Why? Does this mean that even who we are is encoded in our genes? No, but enough of it is that some parts of you simply cannot be changed. Geneticists largely believe that roughly 45 – 50% of our personalities is in our genes, we cannot largely change who we are.

Okay, so who we are, the most intimate parts of our being is predestined in our DNA – geez, then what about our souls? Could there even be such thing as a part of us outside of our flesh? I’m not going to decide for you, that’s your call. But my feelings are largely undecided. If there is no soul, then there is no afterlife – then that means this is it pal. Yet, there remains a large part of me that wants to believe, probably for emotional reasons – no one wants to die, and the idea that we never really do is incredibly comforting. I remain skeptical on the idea of an afterlife and the soul, and probably always will. What do you believe?

Christopher Henderson
The Temple of Truth

* The origin of the Book of Satan is the product of a New Zealand author Ragnar Redbeard. The original title of the document was called “Might is Right” and while it is clear that LaVey plagiarized a great deal from it, there remains a few significant changes under LaVey’s pen. Still, credit needs to be given – the original document can be read here.

copyright 1996 fcos http://churchofsatan.tv