Thanks so much for reading this, Kyle, and I love your comments!

I question their marketing approach, too, but yep, LaVey was something of a showman and loved attention and the spotlight. He also had a flair for the dramatic.

However, there were specific reasons for choosing "Church of Satan" and using that figure as its foundation.

In this paragraph, Wikipedia sums it up better than I can:

The religion's doctrines differ from the popular image of Satanism as the worship of an evil supernatural entity. Adherents do not consider Satan to be a literal being or entity, but a positive archetype representing pride, carnality, and enlightenment. They embrace him as a symbol of defiance against Abrahamic religions, which adherents criticize for suppressing humanity's natural instincts and encouraging irrationality. Church doctrines are based on materialism and philosophical naturalism, rejecting the existence of the supernatural (including Satan and God), body-soul dualism, life after death, and the view that mankind are above animals and exist in an moral universe. It promotes a philosophy based on individualism and egoism, coupled with Social Darwinism and anti-egalitarianism. LaVey valued success, "not evil for its own sake"

In this context, I can understand why he went down that road.

The Satanic Bible is actually quite an interesting read. I'm re-reading it now after about 20 years. I don't necessarily agree with every single idea the man had, but there's a lot of common sense and good, solid beliefs that make far more sense to me than organised religions ever offered.

The Church of Humanism is a great name, though! Gotta love that!