What do you think of the Satanic Temple?
I am still not entirely sure what to make of them, but this article shows they are a force to be reckoned with.
Theists argue that atheism is really a type of religion, since you can’t prove that there is no God. What the Satanic Temple has done is to agree with these people. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Instead of trying to argue that logic and reason should trump religion, they say that logic and reason is just one way of looking at the world, but it should be protected in the same way that religious views are.
I am awed by the simple beauty of this approach. All the arguments of theists are turned against them. Look in particular at the Missouri case in the article. Instead of arguing that a woman has an inviolable right to how she should treat her body and that she should follow what science has taught us, she argues that this is her religious belief.
I see this as a kind of judo approach to arguing. Just take all your opponents’ arguments and turn them against them. It might seem that a religion must include the supernatural, but what religion is willing to describe themselves as supernatural? They all claim to have a hold on the Truth.
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9 Answers
Good for them.
No one group (christians) have a monopoly on religion and belief. So if the Satanists, who clearly have their own beliefs, and pre-date Christ, have religious beliefs, why shouldn’t they press that?
It really doesn’t matter what they believe. The US supposedly gives freedom to ALL religions.
I think they make a valid argument regarding the litmus test for public policy: “In regard to our atheism, if you have a society that grants religious privilege and exemption and you’re willing to give privilege and exemption to certain groups, then it’s unacceptable to give that only to people who believe in the supernatural. We are openly atheist but we have cultural identity and symbolic constructs that are deeply meaningful to our members. There are other atheistic religions in human history, from Jainism to Buddhism to Confucianism. . . . The litmus test should be: Is this something put forward for an individual’s personal convenience or does it speak to some communities’ deeply held beliefs such that if the government impinges on that in some way it affects their sense of cultural identity?”
Love love love those people.
How did unveiling a statue in a Detroit MI warehouse counter the 10 Commandments display in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma chose to illegally reject the statute. They threw the unveiling party anyway.
The religious right is correct in stating that “our traditional values” are under threat. Traditional values is always the disguise for MY values. There are plenty of “traditional” values that should be threatened. Weasel words are always handy when it comes to ladling out rules on morality.
First time I read what they were actually about I cracked up. Genius.
It depends.
I like the way the LaVeyan Satanists operate, but I have a real problem with the people who claim to be Satanists for the shock value and get into things like animal sacrifice or hurting people. And it saddens me that more people don’t at least get their facts right about Satanism (or any other religion, even one’s own). One thing that is true is that Satanists generally know the Bible better than most sects of Christianity, but then again, most Jews and Muslims also know more about the Bible than many who claim to follow it.
Also, that is more of an Aikido move than a Judo move.
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