By Jacques Breytenbach
The senseless school murder of 16-year-old Jacques Pretorius on August 18 has triggered a nationwide debate on Satanism.
Various experts on the subject disagree on whether or not the actions of former Grade 12 pupil at Nic Diederichs Technical High School in Krugersdorp, Morne Harmse, were motivated by a devotion to the Devil.
In a country like South Africa where Christianity is the overriding religion, anything Satanic is regarded as "evil".
'The person snaps' But there are many different forms of Satanism. On the one extreme, there are those that commit murder in the name of Satan. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who say Satanism is a religion that advocates the realisation of one's full potential in a worldly realm.
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Satanism itself is not a crime, but some practices are illegal.
The current leader of the Church of Satan, Peter H Gilmore, writes in one of his essays entitled Satanism - The Feared Religion: "Satanists do not believe in the supernatural, neither in God nor in the Devil. The Satanist is his own god. Satan is a symbol of Man living as his prideful, carnal nature dictates.
"The reality behind Satan is simply the dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things.
"Satan is not a conscious entity to be worshipped, rather a reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will.
'Satanism in South Africa is characteristically against Jesus Christ' "Thus any concept of sacrifice is rejected as a Christian aberration - in Satanism there's no deity to which one can sacrifice," Gilmore writes.
Dr Attie Lamprecht, senior superintendent at the SAPS detectives' head office, who specialises in harmful religious practices, said the access young people have to information in the modern world has increased in the number of people who become involved in Satanism.
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