"Instead I will say it's because most people have no idea what Satanism really is. They only know what the Christian based religions have told them it is. It has become an all-encompassing evil religion where Satanists sacrifice babies, have orgies, and bow down before Satan." (Originally posted by Sinduction)
I strongly agree with you, this view is especially common in my country and in those former Yugoslav countries where majority of population is Christian Ortodox...
When something is against Serbian Ortodox Church (whose politics i despice cause it basically supported the regime of dictator Slobodan Milosevis who started all the wars here) - they claim it Satanist and that's the end of the story. It's from Satan - so , be carefull, just stay away... You know, i study Kabbalah and we basically believe that the Satan is coded word for Ego, that's it inside us, not some force outside of us, that we choose this "challenge" or the opponent by our free will... I don't wont to get too "Kabbalistic" here, but there is such a concept "bread of shame", when you get something without having earned it, it's not good, it doesn't last; so to avoid this, we choose the opponent because by "fighting" him we merit our spiritual correction aka "redemption".
But... what i don't get is the oxymoron that the church uses: if G-d is almighty, how can there possibly be place for something that is not in concordance with his will? There are too many questions in the"official interpretation" of Ortodox Christianity that i simply don't seem to find the answers... Than, particularly this stream is not for the people who make too many questions, so that's probably why i got to spirituality.
Concerning Crowley, i haven't studied his teachings in depth, i red few books and i did couple of readings by his "method" (i am not sure this is the correct expression), i remeber they were amazingly accurate.
The first woman whom i considered my spiritual teacher told me, when i asked about him, "don't go there"... whatever it ment. Since i was qite young and sort of blindly beleived her, i didn't, but, at some point of time i'll definitely study Thot, i looked at the images of the cards, they are very powerfull, but they are not "scary" to me at all.
Just my 0.02 usd