Are there any other members of The Satanic Temple here?

innerspaceboy · 01-31-2023, 05:31 PM

I've joined The Satanic Temple though The Center For Inquiry this week. It will be nice to engage some fellow rational skeptics.

To challenge the common misconception, TST does not worship nor believe in any kind of devil figure. Their mission "is to encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and undertake noble pursuits."

They're a non-theistic congregation who stand up for pluralistic religious freedom and challenge unjust laws and institutions.

One thing they're known for is challenging Christian institutions who attempt to erect 10 commandment or similar statues at town halls or schools. TST then wheels up a statue of a baphomet embracing two children and basically says, "if you can put your religious symbol here so can we."

TST has seven core Tenets:

The Seven Tenets

I
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.

II
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.

III
One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.

IV
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.

V
Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.

VI
People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.

VII
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

I'm looking forward to their events. I'd love to hear from other members in the community who embrace these ideals. Or even from those who think this is absolutely daft.

The Batlord · 01-31-2023, 07:49 PM

I'm aware of the difference between what dimwit Christian fanatics think Satanism and what actual modern Satanism is but honestly I don't see the point unless you're just having a bit of fun calling yourself a Satanist and thumbing your nose at religion. Christians obsessed with Satan are too lazy to even know you exist and the media, if they know you even exist, is going to deem you unserious weirdos and not even acknowledge your existence for fear of seeming unserious themselves by talking about you.

The whole project seems doomed to never get any attention for no gain for adding things onto secular humanist ideals. Also there's too many annoying, edgy libertarians who latch onto the more LaVeyan strain of Satanism, which as far as I remember sounds kind of like edgy Objectivism. The Satanic Temple at least sounds better than LaVeyan Satanism.

innerspaceboy · 02-01-2023, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

...honestly I don't see the point unless you're just having a bit of fun calling yourself a Satanist and thumbing your nose at religion....

The whole project seems doomed to never get any attention for no gain for adding things onto secular humanist ideals.

I absolutely respect your position and you make a fair point. I would say that TST does have merit as they take legal action filing lawsuits to advocate for abortion rights, contesting prayer at city council, and other important cases. Examples at https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/legal-action.

rubber soul · 02-01-2023, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I'm aware of the difference between what dimwit Christian fanatics think Satanism and what actual modern Satanism is but honestly I don't see the point unless you're just having a bit of fun calling yourself a Satanist and thumbing your nose at religion. Christians obsessed with Satan are too lazy to even know you exist and the media, if they know you even exist, is going to deem you unserious weirdos and not even acknowledge your existence for fear of seeming unserious themselves by talking about you.

The whole project seems doomed to never get any attention for no gain for adding things onto secular humanist ideals. Also there's too many annoying, edgy libertarians who latch onto the more LaVeyan strain of Satanism, which as far as I remember sounds kind of like edgy Objectivism. The Satanic Temple at least sounds better than LaVeyan Satanism.

Wasn't Anton Lavey a cartoon character in the flesh?

**Janszoon** · 02-01-2023, 12:29 PM

I'm not a member of TST, but I'm glad they're out there doing what they do.

Queen Boo · 02-01-2023, 12:35 PM

Anything that pisses off Christians as much as Satanism does gets my seal of approval.

innerspaceboy · 02-01-2023, 12:53 PM

While on the subject of parodic-themed religions, I proudly wear a Pastafarian enamel pin and have a copy of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I am also a member of The Missionary Church of Kopimism - a congregation of file sharers who believe that copying information is a sacred virtue.

A word from The Kopimist Gospel:

Quote:

In the beginning, the world was a stinking soup of ammonia, methane gas, and nasty toxic chemicals. The atmosphere was alight with flashes of pure energy. Something wanted to be born.

In ways and for reasons that remain to be explored, the ribosomes appeared, who could copy. This was the beginning of Life. We therefore see Copying as the first manifestation of the Divine Spirit.

Once the ribosomes were there, and could copy both themselves and the proteins necessary to build a cell, this led to cells actually appearing. Exactly why the proteins chose to voluntarily organize into something more complicated is, as we said, not yet fully explored, so we’ll have reason to return to this. But we leave that aside for the moment.

The important thing is that the cells appeared. Cells have two properties. First, they can copy themselves, just like the ribosomes before them. Second, they like to collaborate with others to build things that are larger than any of the constituent parts.

From these two properties, the living world that we see around us developed. The peacock and the parsley, the forest and the shoal of fish, all other living phenomena ever filmed by the BBC.

We Kopimists therefore see Copying as the First Fundamental Principle of the Creation.

We see the Desire to Build Something Larger Together as the Second Fundamental Principle, and call it Collaboration.

From this foundation, we want to learn to understand the Divine Spirit and the world we live in. And we want to do it together with others.

Copy and Share!

The Batlord · 02-01-2023, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by innerspaceboy

I absolutely respect your position and you make a fair point. I would say that TST does have merit as they take legal action filing lawsuits to advocate for abortion rights, contesting prayer at city council, and other important cases. Examples at https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/legal-action.

I mean that's great but if I knew about a chapter or whatever near me I'd go for the fun of it and to hopefully drink lots of beer out of goblets with my weird Satanist friends every third Saturday of the month.

SGR · 02-01-2023, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elphenor

atheist community organizations are goofy

trade one groupthink for another

This is pretty much how I view it.

I do think much of it is due to what is perhaps the innately human desire to organize and 'belong' to something.

innerspaceboy · 02-01-2023, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elphenor

atheist community organizations are goofy

trade one groupthink for another

Quote:

Originally Posted by SGR

This is pretty much how I view it.

I do think much of it is due to what is perhaps the innately human desire to organize and 'belong' to something.

To that, I would defend CFI, whose national headquarters is in my fair city.

All of their events are centered around the promotion of critical thinking, rational skepticism, awareness of the logical fallacies and cognitive biases like the Dunning–Kruger Effect, and other aspects of rational thought.

For one example, our monthly Drinking Skeptically event is hosted by a professor who earned his PhD in philosophy for his dissertation: Appeal to Conspiracy: An Analysis of the Philosophical Problem of Conspiracy Theories and Theorizing. He's written articles for the UK Skeptic society and the Skeptical Inquirer. For each meetup, he puts together a topical launching statement to get the discussion going. (And there's beer.)

And I mentioned in the Your Day thread recently that,

Quote:

I was tapped by the Outreach Coordinator who spoke about a new event series he's launching for roundtable in-depth discussions. He was impressed with my ideas and asked if I would like to create and host some of their first events.

My chosen topic would be the theme for four consecutive bi-weekly forums. He said he expects around 10-15 people per event. The four discussions would be followed by a book club event with a book I would select for everyone to read based on the central theme, and then a fifth and final event would be a lecture by a prominent national figure and subject expert that the organization would pay to fly to our city to give a talk and answer questions. That final event would hopefully have 40-50 persons in attendance.

I'm an introvert so this is a real challenge for me, but I love compiling research on subjects for which I am passionate. I'm putting together a survey of relevant news, media related to the subject to launch the discussions, literature, and potential experts to deliver a talk.

This project will give me something positive to do while I'm unemployed and battling ruminating thoughts. And it will be an opportunity for me to take on an important role in the organization I love and support. Perhaps it will opens doors for me down the line. I just have to overcome my anxieties about hosting and leading all of these events. They would take place this summer.

And one of our core volunteers who generously hosts all the local Cafe Inquiry and Secular Sunday events always endeavors to put us in check when a member of the group makes a statement which is unscientific, fallacious, or cognitively-biased.

So I'd say that CFI does a good job of steering clear of groupthink. We're not infallible, but we do our best. Just my two cents.

02-01-2023, 12:29 PM	#5 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	I'm not a member of TST, but I'm glad they're out there doing what they do. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die last.fm