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submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Community members in a Tennessee school district want to banish Satan from their children’s halls after the formation of a new club was announced.

The After School Satan Club (ASSC) wants to establish a branch in Chimneyrock elementary school in the Memphis-Shelby county schools (MSCS) district.

The ASSC is a federally recognized nonprofit organization and national after-school program with local chapters across the US. The club is associated with the Satanic Temple, though it claims it is secular and “promotes self-directed education by supporting the intellectual and creative interests of students”.

The Satanic Temple makes it clear its members do not actually worship the devil or believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. Instead Satan is used as a symbol of free will, humanism and anti-authoritarianism.

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[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 277 points 11 months ago

The outrage these assholes are feeling is what the rest of us feel every time we see them trying to force their dogma into every facet of society.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 95 points 11 months ago

Except ours is actually justified.

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[-] Alteon@lemmy.world 204 points 11 months ago

Me and my wife are both members of TST and we LOVE the work they do. The Tenets they promote are loving, self-respecting, and do justice towards an ideal world of Individualism, anti-authoritarianism, and critical thinking - i.e. everything that Christianity and modern conservatism in general are eager to suppress. We regularly donate to them, and we constantly purchase stuff through their store to help support them.

[-] CherenkovBlue@iusearchlinux.fyi 36 points 11 months ago

Same, also a member of TST and a practicing romantic Satanist. It's brought a lot of strength, clarity, and confidence to my life.

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[-] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 194 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The uproar is the point.

The Satanic Temple makes it clear its members do not actually worship the devil or believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural.

But somehow conservative Christians believe that there are huge swaths of people who agree that their religion is 100% correct but worship the weak bad guy character.

(Which is not to mention that there are actually multiple bad guys who got combined, Satan and Lucifer and The Snake were originally different people)

[-] flipht@kbin.social 148 points 11 months ago

This is a long standing joke - what do you call someone who believes in Satan?

A Christian.

[-] TigrisMorte@kbin.social 46 points 11 months ago

God is omniscient and thus knew exactly what Lucifer would do. Angels don't have free will. Lucifer did exactly what God intended. God wanted Man to have free will. Free will requires the choice between good and evil. Man is the "bad guy" as well as the "good guy".

[-] dewritoninja@pawb.social 62 points 11 months ago

If god is omniscient they would know exactly what everyone is going to choose, nullifying free will entirely

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[-] Facebones@reddthat.com 168 points 11 months ago

Reading the outrage comments always tickles me lol. Welcome to the point, bitches!

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[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 120 points 11 months ago

The Satanic Temple does a little trolling.

[-] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 41 points 11 months ago

As a treat.

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[-] Hoomod@lemmy.world 113 points 11 months ago

Satan accepts everyone

Not his fault that God is picky

[-] Patches@sh.itjust.works 55 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Satan doesn't whisper "Believe in me".

He shouts "Believe in yourself".

Satan is rad as hell.

[-] madcaesar@lemmy.world 45 points 11 months ago

God is the dickhead that puts a dangerous tree in the garden despite knowing exactly what's going to happen. God is the asshole that wipes out everyone (even the animals) except one drunkard and his family because God apparently fucked up again. God is the one who creates a place of infinite punishment for finite crimes.

God is the real villain of the Bible.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 34 points 11 months ago

And Satan is the hero that fought an omnipotent being knowing he would lose because he wanted freedom more than he wanted victory.

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[-] eran_morad@lemmy.world 105 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I’m cool with banning satan shit if we ban all other religious shit in politics and law. Fuck your imaginary friends.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 128 points 11 months ago

The Satanic Temple is an atheistic organization that uses Satan metaphorically, mostly to troll Christians.

DO YOU WORSHIP SATAN?

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.

https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/faq

As you can see from this uproar, it works quite well too.

[-] eran_morad@lemmy.world 31 points 11 months ago

Yeah, I know. Good.

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[-] LifeOfChance@lemmy.world 104 points 11 months ago

As someone planning to move to this area soon I want my kiddo involved!

[-] JakenVeina@lemm.ee 45 points 11 months ago

Be careful you don't encourage it, or else they won't want to. :P

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[-] kromem@lemmy.world 96 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The number of adults in the US that think Satan is a literal being is way too fucking high.

It started as an editor using 'adversary' in the place of what was probably the goddess Anat appealing the head of the pantheon to kill the son of the protagonist like in the earlier Canaanite A Tale of Aqhat as an intro into what was an adaptation of the also earlier Babylonian Theodicy in Job.

But we couldn't have a polytheistic holdover, so suddenly there was a supernatural 'adversary' ('Satan') in a story.

Which in turn spawned fanfiction during the prophet ages where they referred to the supernatural adversary of Job.

Then Hellenistic ideas around Hades (both the place and figure) get added into the mix, and we get the Enochian literature about fallen angels, where the guided katabasis influenced Virgil which later informs Dante's Inferno.

Then King James messes up translating Isaiah and the Latin for the morning star (Lucifer) gets mistaken for a proper name, further tying the supernatural adversary to being one of the Enochian fallen angels. And we get Milton's Paradise Lost.

It's all just mistranslations and fanfiction.

And yet millions of people believe it's actually a thing so much so that they freak out at the idea of any references to it as literally being dangerous.

In 2022.

An age filled with things beyond the wildest imagination of those in antiquity dreaming up miracles and wonders.

We're so beyond fucked as a species.

[-] phx@lemmy.world 38 points 11 months ago

To those people, if there's no Devil then it means all the bad stuff in their heads and hearts is just them. All the temptations are them. All the hatred, including self-hatred is them. There's no Devil that made them do it or think it, no external tempter or defiler to resist. They can't take that.

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[-] Pratai@lemmy.ca 77 points 11 months ago

It would be sad how badly these idiots fail to see the irony when it’s spelled out for them if it wasn’t so funny.

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[-] lobsticle@lemmy.world 74 points 11 months ago

After School Satan Club would be such a great name for a band.

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[-] Landsharkgun@midwest.social 67 points 11 months ago

ASS Club.

Nice.

[-] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 66 points 11 months ago

Sad that something like this is even needed but the US is full of bigoted hypocrites that want to turn the country into a religious state.

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[-] El_guapazo@lemmy.world 63 points 11 months ago

Conservatives always want to have a free "marketplace of ideas" until it's something they fear.

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[-] rayyy@lemmy.world 59 points 11 months ago

Of course Tennessee Christians are outraged. The after School Satan Club is most likely way more Christian than they are so there's stiff competition.

[-] GardeningSadhu@lemm.ee 55 points 11 months ago

good, the more noise they make the more this will spread

[-] ZeroCool@feddit.ch 54 points 11 months ago
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[-] Gazumi@lemmy.world 53 points 11 months ago

Actively missing the point......... "In a meeting with more than 40 pastors and other religious leaders, the district board chair, Althea E Greene, said: “Satan has no room in this district.”"

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 53 points 11 months ago

The kids are alright 😃

[-] Jaysyn@kbin.social 52 points 11 months ago

They can't without getting rid of all other extra curricular activities & I love that for them.

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[-] BoastfulDaedra@lemmynsfw.com 50 points 11 months ago

If it wasn't registered, "After School Satan Club" would be a great name for a punk band.

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[-] badbytes@lemmy.world 45 points 11 months ago

Low IQ Christians never learn. They must be old dogs.

[-] Atomdude@lemmy.world 45 points 11 months ago
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this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
1347 points (99.1% liked)

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