Free Absence of Faith by Anthony S. Policastro

other.
    "I am," Chantress
replied.
    "I still don't know the difference
between good devil worshippers and bad ones," Kyle said. "It just
doesn't make sense."
    "The good ones embrace only the New
Age philosophies, while the bad ones have black masses, animal
sacrifices, blood rituals and other disgusting things like smearing
blood on each other," she said. "The good ones break no laws and
believe in a non-conventional religion."
    "Well, then it's pretty dumb to
associate with the devil worshippers," Kyle said.
    "That's because New Age has no
formal organization and no money to promote its beliefs. The devil
worshippers have power and money. I suspect in time the New Ageists
will split and form a separate group," she explained. "The New
Ageists are mainly people who feel that their church, their
religion, and their god have let them down - they can no longer
find what they need spiritually from their religion so they put
more belief in themselves and the human potential."
    "They're going have a hard time
shaking the devil worshipping image. I don't foresee it as a
mainstream religion with a lot of followers," Kyle said.
    "I think you're wrong. Look at all
the books on the bestseller list that have to do with human
potential and new age beliefs, personal success. I think it's going
to be the next big wave," she said. "Every decade has something -
in the fifties it was alcohol and sex; in the sixties and seventies
it was sex and drugs; in the eighties and nineties it was the
Internet and now it has been and will continue to be spiritualism
and the human potential."
    "Discontent..." Kyle
said.
    "What?"
    "It's because people are restless.
It seems that all of these things are fueled by discontent. You may
have something here," he said. "I think there are a lot of people
out there who are not happy, not happy about their jobs, their
marriages, how their children turned out, how they are going to pay
their bills, not happy about their lives in general."
    Kyle sipped his beer
again.
    "You look spaced out. Are you ok?"
Chantress asked.
    "Yeah, I'm just thinking. What's
the purpose of worshipping the devil? Worshipping evil and hoping
for bad things to happen - doing bad things?" Kyle asked. "What are
the benefits?"
    "Power," she answered. "The leaders
are usually losers with big egos who can't get what they want out
of life, so they turn to Satan and begin worshipping him. They find
they can manipulate people in the process."
    "Do they get what they want?" Kyle
asked.
    "Yes, at first."
    "What do you mean?"
    "The leaders get their followers
and their power, and they begin to believe that they are truly
Satan's messenger, but the followers are different. They begin to
see the leader as another manipulator. Eventually they begin to
realize that Satanism is just like any other religion, but with a
different god and a different viewpoint," Chantress explained. "New
Age is different - it's the worship of human potential - a full and
genuine belief in one's self and self worth. There are no false
promises because you promise yourself that you will achieve your
potential, and if you don't, you have only yourself to blame for
not making it happen."
    "So who are these devil
worshippers?"
    "Many are soul searching types with
strong religious backgrounds, fundamentalists, who feel frustrated
by the restraints of their religions like the taboos on sex,
cursing or whatever. They also feel that they won't go to heaven if
they do anything bad. They have a hard time accepting a God who
does not forgive, does not accept mistakes, and does not accept the
human condition."
    "So you're saying that most of
these people have given up on God?"
    "Yeah, some can't understand why we
live in an unjust world, why God lets the good people die and the
bad ones live. Why so much tragedy and suffering befall good
people," she explained. "These are usually doctors, nurses and
others in service professions. Medical people see a lot of
injustice in life and death, and