How many Satanists do you think there are?

[jasonwill2]

I made this topic so that we can try and estimate how many people there are in the world that identify as Satanists. Preferably a conservative and liberal guess.

My estimates:

Satanic International Network, that Modern Satanist from youtube, guessed in a video about 100,000. I will be optimistic and say that is my conservative guess and that 200,000 is my liberal guess.

If Facebook is any indication by who "liked" the different labels...

"Satanism" listed as a religion has 46,284 likes...

LaVeyan Satanism seems to have 7,858

Theistic Satanism seems to have 2,348

Spiritual Satanism has like 198

And LaVeyan is listed again with 94...

Devil Worship is listed twice for a total of 1,117

also we apparently have 13,401 Spanish Satanists...

listed as "Traditional is 222 likes

and lastly modern Satanists: 14 lol

though apparently a page called "*Satan*" has 64,466 likes... that will be out of my figure.

wow I really don't understand facebook's user interfaces... had to at one point go to edit my religion to filter out irrevelent pages with "Satan" in it that were not listed as a religion to see the likes... seems the most I could narrow it down to otherwise was non-person pages with the key word "Satanism". I tried to sort this out, but for Satanic terms listed as a religion that is what i found.

So according to facebook likes, there is approximately, on a conservative side, probably about 71,536 Satanists on facebook.


Hmm.. so let's say 6,000 about liked more than one kind, or were goof-balls and just liked whatever. That means conservatively about 65,000 Satanists are on Facebook out of 900 million active users as of the beginning of this month... wow.

So 7 billion people in the world, I can make a gander and say that at this rate there are about half a million Satanists in the world... but that may be too high of a figure since a lot of that population is in Asia where Satan as a figure really isn't known that well...

I'm not sure how this may or may not affect your guy's estimates, but there is a tiny bit of untrustworthy research (Facebook likes) I thought I might provide.

Oddly enough my estimates I made before looking this up. I still stick to 100,000 to 200,000.

 

[flame93]

Does Roman Catholics count? They patented Satan

 

[Father Heathen]

I don't think counting "likes" from random facebook pages is a very good indicator.

 

[jasonwill2]

Does Roman Catholics count? They patented Satan

Nope.

I don't think counting "likes" from random facebook pages is a very good indicator.

Erm, I didn't say it was but it might give a hint. I kinda said it wasn't very good research if I recall.

Though as I said my estimate is 100,000-200,000 world-wide.

 

[Satans_Serrated_Edge]

I guess it depends how you define the word 'Satanist'

If you define 'Satanist' as one who engages in LHP praxis, then the total number would be far smaller than the amount that claim the title. If just laying claim to the title is enough, then it's hard to say, but what isn't hard to say is that the massive diversity in how the word 'satanism' is defined leaves little room for the universal common ground requisite for meaningful categorization.

 

[Road Warrior]

Too many.

 

[jasonwill2]

Too many.

I disagree. If we had a bit' more we might be more respected. Dare I say, we could have a backbone for once lobby to get more protections against gettign fired or whatever... but to do that we would need to grow a bit' more to be noticed as a religious minority.

I'm not saying that we should act like victims, but that we should stand up for our rights and not get stepped on... being upset about losing a job isnt being a victim it's an appropriate response to injustice. but that that is kinda hard when there isn't enough of us for anyone to really care, so if we grew just a tiny' bit we might be able to make a moderate presence.

 

[Road Warrior]

I'm not saying that we should act like victims, but that we should stand up for our rights and not get stepped on.

What rights are you being denied? The right to vote? Freedom of Speech? If you are going around the office trying to convert people to Satanism, are told to stop, but you tell your boss "I HAVE MY RIGHTS! *#@$!!", is it any surprise you'd be fired for insubordination and harassment? Even Christians have been fired for this type of conduct.

 

[jasonwill2]

What rights are you being denied? The right to vote? Freedom of Speech? If you are going around the office trying to convert people to Satanism, are told to stop, but you tell your boss "I HAVE MY RIGHTS! *#@$!!", is it any surprise you'd be fired for insubordination and harassment? Even Christians have been fired for this type of conduct.

No, i mean if people know at all you face losing your job and stuff like that... believe it or not, people do not like satanists. there was a whole topic where I went on about not wanting to hide it (I wasnt going to flaunt it either) and eventually everyone in the directory warned me against even letting really anyone know, since it could lead to many problems since people are idiots and don't understand.

 

[Road Warrior]

No, i mean if people know at all you face losing your job and stuff like that... believe it or not, people do not like satanists. there was a whole topic where I went on about not wanting to hide it (I wasnt going to flaunt it either)

Not flaunt it? Dude, your signature line says different:

"I am a Satanist! Bow down, for I am the highest embodiment of human life!"

 

[Orias]

There are few Satanists, but there are many Satans.

 

[jasonwill2]

Not flaunt it? Dude, your signature line says different:

"I am a Satanist! Bow down, for I am the highest embodiment of human life!"

Yes but I don't go doing this in real life obviously! I would get lynched and it would be annoying anyways! Also that's there to annoy other unnamed-but-you-can-guess-who religions

 

[Orias]

There are few Satanists, but there are many Satans.

I like this.

 

[Road Warrior]

Yes but I don't go doing this in real life obviously! I would get lynched and it would be annoying anyways! Also that's there to annoy other unnamed-but-you-can-guess-who religions

Dude, you are free to do as you please, but you must also be man enough to answer up to the consequences of your actions. If you say you act one way online and another way in real life, okay, fine. Your choice. My choice is to act the same way in both realms.

 

[jasonwill2]

Dude, you are free to do as you please, but you must also be man enough to answer up to the consequences of your actions. If you say you act one way online and another way in real life, okay, fine. Your choice. My choice is to act the same way in both realms.

Oh no I annoy other religions in real life too but I just am very subtle about it and don't bring Satan into the equation. Just keep asking questions and assert that evolution is fact and that can take you REALLY far. Though I would never do it in a work place for obvious reasons.

Also the environment on this site is different, it's deigned for debates... I don't act like this on other sites, or at least anymore.

 

[Orias]

I think the key here is that we type instead of speak, meaning that we have more time to think of a response.

As well as how much reactions are limited, since it is a religious forum and it would make sense to bring up and talk about things here that one might not be able to do in "real life".

 

[jasonwill2]

I think the key here is that we type instead of speak, meaning that we have more time to think of a response.

As well as how much reactions are limited, since it is a religious forum and it would make sense to bring up and talk about things here that one might not be able to do in "real life".

Yes, this was exactly one of my points. We have more freedom to talk openly here. Frubals.

 

[Mindmaster]

Pretty hard to get a real feel for Satanists in numbers. LaVeyan Satanists are public because they are the least objectionable to the public not because there are more of them. Most of us are underground and solitary, but if we're not it's small coven-like < 20 groups. Estimates are impossible because a lot of people (especially the Demon-oriented crowd) simply lie to everyone outside the family about their religion; something I've done when I know I am getting into a discussion with evangelicals -- it's better to tell them you're Catholic and then they have no incentive to pester you anymore. Some of the really old guys and gals at this never even get on the Internet and still believe in the oral method of communication (originally traditional Satanists passed practices only verbally). They aren't posting on forums or e-mailing anything... if they mail it has postage.

 

[jasonwill2]

Pretty hard to get a real feel for Satanists in numbers. LaVeyan Satanists are public because they are the least objectionable to the public not because there are more of them. Most of us are underground and solitary, but if we're not it's small coven-like < 20 groups. Estimates are impossible because a lot of people (especially the Demon-oriented crowd) simply lie to everyone outside the family about their religion; something I've done when I know I am getting into a discussion with evangelicals -- it's better to tell them you're Catholic and then they have no incentive to pester you anymore. Some of the really old guys and gals at this never even get on the Internet and still believe in the oral method of communication (originally traditional Satanists passed practices only verbally). They aren't posting on forums or e-mailing anything... if they mail it has postage.

Seriously? You would think Satanic people would be adaptive to the changing times and for the opportunity to talk about their ideas openly without revealing their identities.

 

[Road Warrior]

Seriously? You would think Satanic people would be adaptive to the changing times and for the opportunity to talk about their ideas openly without revealing their identities.

It's called evolution. Adaptive people survive, non-adaptive people do not.