The Church of Satan has existed as a form of intentional blasphemy from its very inception on April 30th, 1966. Our founder, Magus Anton Szandor LaVey, delineated his thinking thusly: “Calling it a church enabled me to follow the magic formula of one part outrage to nine parts social respectability that is needed for success.” Satan was chosen as the most apt primary symbol as the name means adversary and opposer in the original Hebrew. With his atheist, skeptical and pragmatic philosophy, LaVey was thumbing his nose at two thousand years of Christian domination of the globe with his avowedly carnal religion. But countering Christianity was not his sole goal.