>>508841220modern satanism is derived from ayn rand's objectivism, which itself is just another iteration of gnosticism, this time with God crossed out and government written in. lavey says flat out that he based the satanic bible on her works.
in some of the gnostic books jesus is the serpent in the garden, who frees mankind from the evil demiurge's garden/prison. if you know how to really look at it, laveyan satanism is just edgy libertarianism based on gnostic christianity.
even wicca is based in gnosticism, and was formed by members of the golden dawn. read the link i posted to the 5=6 ritual, it gets into tons of the symbolism.
christians tend to get very hung up on the satanism, mostly because it just "fits" for them. i imagine the thought process is something akin to "i am christian, and a good guy. the enemy of christ is satan, so the bad guys must be satanists/worship satan".
in fact, in their worldview, as well as early christians, the old testament God is the devil, and jesus is the good guy. read the pic i am posting here, it's from jung and he does a great job of explaining the relationship