(12-08-2023, 01:03 AM)Ninurta Wrote: Satanic Temple launching an abortion clinic? I'm surprised they haven't done that already! Just think of it - human sacrifice/ Moloch-level child sacrifice on an industrial scale! I'm just wondering why it took this long for them to think that one up - they wouldn't even have to hide in groves in the woods or dark caverns! They can just do it right here in front of god and everybody and get away with it!

Quote:The Mission Of The Satanic Temple Is To Encourage Benevolence And Empathy, Reject Tyrannical Authority, Advocate Practical Common Sense, Oppose Injustice, And Undertake Noble Pursuits.

Quote:In a candle-lit room set aside for Satanic ceremonies, a neon sign welcomes you to The Little Black Chapel. A raised altar stands at one end, a white pentagram on the floor in front of it.

The ritual being performed here is an "unbaptism", in which participants symbolically reject religious rites performed when they were children.


They wear a floor-length, hooded cloak and a black face mask. Their hands are bound with rope, which is then cast off to represent liberation. Pages are torn out of a Bible to symbolise overturning their Christian baptism.

They do use the symbols of Satan for rituals - for example when celebrating a wedding or adopting a new name. That might include having an upside-down neon cross on your altar while shouting: "Hail Satan!"

"We've got folks who wear inverted crosses. And our opening ceremony did have the ripping up of a Bible as a symbol of oppression, especially oppression of LGBTQ folk and women, and also the BIPOC community, and pretty much anybody who's grown up with religious trauma, which is a tremendous number of our members."

Presentations are given, including one called "Hellbillies: Visible Satanism in Rural America", and a seminar on Satanism and self-pleasure.

Another project drawing headlines is After School Satan Clubs - slogan: "Educatin' with Satan". 

They have a kids' song - My Pal Satan - with a bopping animated goat, and the lines: "Satan's not an evil guy, he wants you to learn and question why. He wants you to have fun and be yourself - and by the way there is no hell."

'Satan loves you!'

Dozens of artists and vendors have set up stalls to sell Satanically inspired crafts. They have everything from "Satan Loves You!" beanies, to crocheted toys modelled on the Baphomet - a goat-headed Satanist symbol with wings.



A newly launched children's book, titled Goodnight Baphomet, draws coos from bystanders.

(12-09-2023, 04:12 AM)Freija Wrote: Oh JFC! Calm the hell down.

As much as I try to avoid posting in threads by this particular OP, this is the Satanic Temple, not the Church of Satan. They do not worship the devil or sacrifice babies and their "beliefs" are non-theistic and non-supernaturalist.

Quote:Their mission statement:

Quote:The Mission Of The Satanic Temple Is To Encourage Benevolence And Empathy, Reject Tyrannical Authority, Advocate Practical Common Sense, Oppose Injustice, And Undertake Noble Pursuits.

These guys crack me up and I wholeheartedly support some of their antics and political activism especially when it triggers religious fundies, the holier than thou types and those crying for "religious freedom" but only when it pertains to their religion. The Satanic Temple exists mainly to poke the bear.

Remember that statue of Baphomet they commissioned a few years back? LOL ! here are a few of their other ongoing campaigns

And here are their seven fundamental tenets which i have posted before when I researched this organization:




I am happy to see their work is still pissing people off.

Quote:We have publicly confronted hate groups, fought for the abolition of corporal punishment in public schools, applied for equal representation when religious installations are placed on public property, provided religious exemption and legal protection against laws that unscientifically restrict people's reproductive autonomy, exposed harmful pseudo-scientific practitioners in mental health care, organized clubs alongside other religious after-school clubs in schools besieged by proselytizing organizations, and engaged in other advocacy in accordance with our tenets.

Quote:No, nor do we believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions. Satanists should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things. Our beliefs must be malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world — never the reverse.

Quote:With recent political attacks on reproductive healthcare, abortion access has been restricted or eliminated in many states. The Satanic Temple, on behalf of its members, objects to government interference with abortion access and contests that laws that impede our faith in bodily autonomy and our ability to perform our Religious Abortion Ritual violate the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

TST Health’s first telehealth clinic will provide medication for safe abortions through the mail for members and for those who wish to perform TST's Abortion Ritual. The goal of this first clinic is to allow our members to have access to safe and legal abortions, no matter where they live or what their financial situation may be.

(12-09-2023, 04:12 AM)Freija Wrote: this is the Satanic Temple, not the Church of Satan.

(12-09-2023, 05:06 PM)Freija Wrote: ...
The Satanic Temple (TST) doesn’t believe in the supernatural i.e. gods, demons, magic, Satan etc. Don’t confuse the Satanic Temple with Levayan Satanism (the Church of Satan) or other factions. TST is more aligned with groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF.org) and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (www.au.org)

...

(12-09-2023, 08:02 PM)Snarl Wrote: ...

Religion is made up by men. Therefore it is flawed. If God wanted us to have religion he'd have damn sure given it to us. I _know_ this. Still I don't go poking church-going folk in the eye with a sharp stick.

...

(12-09-2023, 09:34 PM)Ninurta Wrote: Matter of fact, I think folks seeking abortions are doing the rest of us a favor. Clearly they have some genetic defects that they are gracefully trying to prevent from tainting the gene pool. One would HAVE to have a basic defect to kill off one's own offspring - that files against everything else in nature. So let 'em do as they will. It's good for the human race to keep their tainted genes out of the pool the rest of us have to swim in.

(12-09-2023, 10:22 PM)Ninurta Wrote: I personally believe that ALL religions in the modern world, and probably all of them in the past, are/were just a made-up set of rituals, made up by Some Guy ™ , as a means of covering the fact that folks are just too lazy, and in some cases downright incapable, of making any actual meaningful connection with their god(s).

(12-09-2023, 10:22 PM)Ninurta Wrote: "Enoch walked with God, and then was not, for God took him" doesn't carry the same ritual force as 

(12-09-2023, 10:22 PM)Ninurta Wrote: As the Bible says, these modern religions "have the form of godliness but deny the power thereof". The only real power any of them have is what human-power they are able to generate. That amounts to how far they can stretch their arms and swing their sacrifice knives. They neither know their god(s) nor do their god(s) know them... and that applies to most Christians as well.