Thanks to those who have generously chipped in to my Paypal account at Darksydothemoon-at-aol-com. If you can, please join in. It turns out protecting narrowly held religious beliefs can have a downside (Derp!?). Purported followers of the other primary Christian deity are among those hoping to benefit:
Raw Story — In a statement, the Satanic Temple said that it will use the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision to exempt its believers from state-mandated informed consent laws that require women considering abortions to read pro-life material.
Because the Satanic Temple bases its belief “regarding personal health…on the best scientific understanding of the world, regardless of the religious or political beliefs of others,” it claims that state-mandated information with no basis in scientific fact violates its “religious” beliefs.
Spokesperson Lucien Greaves said that the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision bolsters their case. “While we feel we have a strong case for an exemption regardless of the Hobby Lobby ruling,” he said, “the Supreme Court has decided that religious beliefs are so sacrosanct that they can even trump scientific fact. This was made clear when they allowed Hobby Lobby to claim certain contraceptives were abortifacients, which in fact they are not.”
The Satanic Temple set up a website where women seeking an abortion can print out a letter for her healthcare provider explaining why she is exempt from informed consent mandates.
Satanist fundies would probably be at least as oppressive as the normal kind, if perhaps funnier along the way. Although they might give some religions in some times and places a run for the money on all counts.
One thing I always wondered about Christian theology eve when I was a kid, how can we know if the god of the Bible is really the “good” god? Judging on the various atrocities commited with divine authority, not to mention horrible punishment for eternity for minor offenses or drinking ceremonial blood and eating ceremonial flesh, it sure seems as evil and bloodthirsty as any other. Maybe Satan’s greatest trick was convincing humanity he was really Yaweh.
I thought of this when I read the news:
http://www.jesusandmo.net/2014/07/23/used/
In Jerry Pournelle’s book West of Honor a soldier tells a story about how he got in trouble with a chaplain by suggesting that they didn’t need Christian chaplains but did need Satanist chaplains: “Jesus is supposed to be the good guy. We need to keep the bad guy happy.”
I often wonder where the Abrahamic religions got the idea that Yahweh was all goodness and love. It’s certainly not evident in the Big Book of Bronze Age Superstitions. None of the pagan religions surrounding Canaan thought their gods were all loving and just. The Greeks didn’t love Zeus or Poseidon. They made sacrifices to them because they didn’t want to be hit by lightning or have their cities destroyed by an earthquake.
Well even according to his believers Yahweh created Satan and Yahweh knew what would be the result (all that omniscience stuff)).
Its all part of the great divine plan.