It seems to me that The Book of Eli, with its underlying religious themes, makes a good example of various Satanic perspectives.  It shows the strengths of an egotistical and survivalist philosophy, and highlights various criticisms of the Christian religion that are exhibited in Satanism.  While the movie obviously isn’t written with the Church of Satan in mind, and could be interpreted as an example of other religious philosophies, I think that it still shows the strengths of Satanism, as well as the pitfalls that it finds in other faiths.

Warning, hither be spoilers.

The world in The Book of Eli is a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  Everything is burnt and lifeless, and existence is predictably nasty, brutish, and short.  Water and food are scarce, and over thirty years after the end of the war that devastated humanity, literacy is a rarity.

In the midst of this is a man called Eli (Denzel Washington) who carries what is purportedly the last surviving copy of the Holy Bible.  The vast majority of scripture was burnt up during a war, and were actually targeted for destruction at some point before or after the initial conflict, and it is hinted that this may have been the cause of the war.  None of this is made explicit, since it really isn’t important to the overall story, but we will touch more on this later.  Eli is driven by an unseen voice to take the Bible into the west, to find a place that will help to preserve it and its teachings, which Eli condenses into, “Do to others as you would do for yourself.”

His foil in this narrative is a man named Carnegie (Gary Oldman, of course) who is one of the few survivors of the war to have lasted so long and be literate.  He is also the head of a small, ramshackle town, and his leadership is secured via tight control of some natural water springs, which he rations out to the people.  His knowledge of where to get water and the large amount of immoral, burly men he keeps in his employ are some of the few things keeping Carnegie in power.  But he thinks that he can expand his meager fiefdom, he thinks that he can win the hearts and minds of the people without resorting to force, and he believes that he could do this if he had a copy of the Bible.  “It’s a weapon,” he claims.  Within it are the words and ideas necessary to unite people, to give them a reason to live rather than just survival, to give them morals, to make life better.  To this end he sends out his murderous and illiterate minions to find any remaining books in the wasteland, paying them in alcohol and women.

This is where I came to my first issue when reflecting on the movie- how could there be nothing left of the largest religion in the world (assuming Christianity hadn’t been beaten at this point by Islam) only thirty years after this cataclysmic war?  And even if we assume that Christianity and it’s ethic have been wiped out, could Carnegie really utilize the Bible in such a way?  Could it be as precious and important as he says it is?  These are the two challenges that will help us get to the heart of why I see Satanic themes in this movie.

Let us first begin with the decline and death of the Christian religion.  It is implied that at some point during the time of the war, an impressive number of Bibles are burned.  Such things tend not to occur without a fair bit of anti-religious fervor, so I think we can safely assume that along with these book burnings there was a period of intensive anti-Christian sentiment, such that perhaps a few Christians may have been burning along with those Bibles.  At the very least they would be assaulted, driven out, or ostracized.  From the time of the war onwards, it would be difficult to call oneself a Christian.  Add to this the war itself, which inevitably goes nuclear, and you start to get the idea.  After the nukes go off some kind of giant hole is opened in the ozone layer or something (again, the movie is vague) and anyone unlucky enough to be a fan of the great outdoors cooks, or goes blind.

After all of this, life really starts to get difficult.  We are left with whoever remains after religious persecution, a massive war, nuclear destruction, and a hostile climate.  We can assume that after all of this, those left are not outwardly religious, still fearing persecution.

From here many more will die because they cannot find proper resources or become resources for others.  Food, water, and shelter become precious.  People will start to become territorial, and fierce fighting will ensue, greater than the looting and conflict that we see in the aftermath of natural disasters.  The population will continue to decrease, and only those who are able to find enough food, and are able to defend themselves, will survive to continue the species.  These very necessary survival traits will therefore be taken up by the next generation, who are the primary inhabitants of The Book of Eli.

At this point it seems doubtful that a Christian religion or ethic could survive in practice.  We have already seen a drastic decrease in the number of the pious simply because there has been a general decrease in population, but from here I suspect it gets even harder.  Let us assume that some outwardly Christian people have survived into this aftermath, and can fight off everyone else looking to survive, and those who still hate them and their book.  They would have to be well supplied, since they would be morally opposed to taking anything from anyone by force.  They would have to be in a large group, since they would constantly be trying to fend off attackers, or would have to have some method of self-defense, like a unique tactical position or heavy arms.

How could such a group survive for more than a generation in such an environment?  What resources they had they would be sharing with the less fortunate, which would be everyone, and they would only be resupplied by what they could find or barter.  They would have to survive repeated raids, which will only increase as more and more survivors learned about these generous and well-stocked suckers.  It seems unlikely that anyone with a real Christian, “Do unto others as you would be done by,” attitude would survive at all.  The rule of the land would be ’survival of the fittest,’ and would favour those who would not be afraid to take what they needed in order to survive.  It doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that when we meet our protagonist Eli, all traces of this compassionate religion are gone.  Well, almost.

So we are in overtly interesting times, where life is fast and short, or long and cruel, and compassion is in short supply.  In the midst of this Carnegie thinks he can make everything better, that he can begin to remake civilization, if only he had the good book.  Is this a well-thought out approach, or a spiritual pipe-dream?  Personally I think he’s on to something.  If he has the charisma and leadership skills to sell these things to the people, then I think the Bible would do nicely.

Carnegie is a slight, patient, and aging man.  He has not secured his position through strength, he does not intimidate physically, but through his guile, his leadership, the ways in which he punishes and rewards.  He is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants.  I think he would have no trouble pounding the dusty pulpit.

But let us look at the Bible itself, does it have what it takes to unite people, to draw people, to make them moral?  Of course it does.  The Bible can readily give people something else other than this terrible life to think about.  There is the hereafter, God, Jesus,  and numerous angelic and hellish hosts. It gives manifold excuses for man’s suffering, be it man’s fall from Eden, God’s malevolence, or one’s own personal sins coming under the judgment of God and Christ.  It offers a moral path that feeds from and into both the hereafter and man’s lot on earth.  There are stories and parable beyond mention, each with its own lesson and moral.  There are entreatments to love thy neighbour as thyself, guidelines for living for a simple and primitive time, the promise of rewards to come, especially for the downtrodden, the meek, the poor, and the vanquished.

This kind of good news would be an overwhelming relief to people living such a hellish existence- that life doesn’t have to be this way.  Think of how eager such people would be to spread the word, to draw people in from other settlements.  It could give hope, standing in the wasteland like a candle in the dark.

And it would be absolutely abhorrent.

All of this shows exactly why Satanists comes down so hard on the Christian faith.  It is all myth and fairytale to keep people under control, or at the very least, can easily be leveraged against the desperate and gullible.  It can force people to look beyond the here and now, and to think of a place that doesn’t exist, to wait until they are dead to be able to enjoy themselves, or to await judgment.  It alleviates the responsibilities people have to themselves to not live like dogs, to fight tooth and nail for every bit of existence in a world that gives no quarter.  All of the Bible’s stirring rhetoric can be channeled into manipulating people, to make them fall into line on bended knee.

Carnegie wouldn’t even have to believe a word of it, in fact it would probably be best if he didn’t, all the more easier to twist what was in the book for his own ends.  All he would have to do is sell it, and his position would be made all the more secure by his new title of ‘Prophet.’  He wouldn’t even have to worry about people taking issue with his message, since he would be one of the few people left in the world who could read it.  He could just use it to keep himself in power, and to ensure the division between those who know, and those who do not.  It might as well be in Latin.

In insinuating that the Bible is this kind of weapon, The Book of Eli shows one of the central practices and principles in Satanism- criticism of religions that demean man’s ego and fill his head with nonsense in order to cloud what is really going on.  It also shows that Satanism is more than just the pursuit of earthly delights, that it is about survival of the fittest, social Darwinism, and acquiring what is necessary in order to survive and prosper.  In other words- those who were willing to fight for their survival in The Book of Eli would be exhibiting signs of a Satanic philosophy.  Now I’m not trying to suggest that the murdering and raping bandits that seem to make up the majority of Eli’s fellow wanderers are Satanists.  What I wish to do here is show how the Satanic philosophy could survive this kind of scenario where Christianity could not, and show how Satanism is about self-preservation, about celebrating man as an animal, an animal with very real needs and desires.  We can be prone to violence when provoked, and should be willing to defend what is ours.  A Satanist would not be surprised to see society fall apart as it does in The Book of Eli, as they don’t have any illusions as to how thin the barriers are that hold back our real nature.

I’m not going to say that this movie should be interpreted this way necessarily, I’m sure there is a Christian argument out there that wholly endorses The Book of Eli as an example of everything Christianity does right.  In fact I will admit that I was downright stirred, spiritually, at the end of the film- when Eli begins reciting Genesis.  It’s… beautiful.  It may have been the twist ending, the music, I’m not sure, but Denzel gives real weight to those opening lines.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Hard to argue with that when everything seems dark and hopeless.  Regardless, the point of this esay is to show that in The Book of Eli are examples and demonstrations of Satanism that I have learned thus far.

One could say that it is a Satanic parable.

Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all!

-The seventh Satanic statement