marylandnaturegirl

Please let me know what you think about this? WIll it ruin the movement for separation of church and state? WIll it be counterproductive? Will it scare off the rest of us? Are some of us over reacting or will the Media be sure to glom on to the Devil Worshipping aspect and over shadow the purpose of the March??? Will politicians take us seriously if they see that the march is WELCOMING Satanic Cults?

For the full details on this debate go to:

<a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=47&t=000682" target="_blank">Satanism topic on Rants Raves & Preaching Forum</a>

One of the last sane

Satanists believe in, and worship, a mythological being, therefore they don't belong on the march and are hypocrites to support it.

bluefugue

Agree 100%. The mentality might be "if it's anti-Christian, we want to support it too," but it really doesn't make any sense for atheists/agnostics to get on the same page as people who worship a God of any kind, let alone one that is reputedly almost as nasty as Yahweh.

ksagnostic

Actually, Satanists (at least the Church of Satan types) don't believe in Satan (or God for that matter). It's a religous/philosophical movement really heavily into individualism and self determination (from what I can tell, I am no expert). I would hope that there are not a lot of people wearing black or carrying big Church of Satan banners at the march, primarily from a sound/video byte perspective.

[ July 08, 2002: Message edited by: ksagnostic ]

[ July 08, 2002: Message edited by: ksagnostic ]

[ July 08, 2002: Message edited by: ksagnostic ]</p>

Corwin

So.... as a Zen Buddhist, should I not be allowed to attend the march? Simply because there are also religious buddhists?

ksagnostic

Indeed, in general, the more diverse it is, the better it would be.

uhcord

The Satanic groups supporting the march are religious Satanic groups. Well appears so on their webpages anyways ... <a href="http://www.satan4u.8m.com/" target="_blank">http://www.satan4u.8m.com/</A>

bluefugue

If they don't believe in Satan then perhaps they should stop calling themselves "Satanists." Then again, I suppose you can pattern yourself after an imaginary character. Still, it leads to some terminological confusion...

The way I see it, if you want to march as a Godless American, it helps if you don't believe in a God or Gods. This is something everyone must determine for themselves... whether they are a nontheistic Buddhist, or a nonSatanistic Satanist, or whatever the heck. Absence of belief in a deity should be the litmus test IMO, though there is obviously no hard and fast demarcation point (do highly superstitious nontheistic supernaturalists count? do Deists who believe in a non-interventionist clockmaker God count?) There is of course something to be said for "solidarity against Christian hegemony" but I don't think that is the purpose of a Godless Americans march... if it's just a "march against Christian domination" you might as well let Hindus and Muslims and Jews etc. participate. That might be a great idea for a march, but is it what this particular one is about?

[ July 08, 2002: Message edited by: IesusDomini ]</p>

kingcrim99

As I understand it, the CoS types are non-believers. The religious trappings are a parody and an attack on religious belief. But I may be wrong.

DougI

Yeah, we shouldn't let the Satanists on board because that might tarnish the overwhelming positive image Atheists have right now. The typical fundy rhetoric is that if you aren't working for Christ then you are working for Satan and therefore a Satanist. But the big question is why should we consider the feelings of a fundamentalist?