RE: Your thoughts on Satanism and the petition for a Satanic statue.
September 9, 2015 at 3:41 pm
(September 9, 2015 at 3:04 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(September 9, 2015 at 2:50 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: Why does it matter if their symbol was borrowed from your mythology?
Why does it matter if it is placed next to your symbols?
This is a simple case of freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Do you even know the content of the 1st Amendment?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
If Christianity and Judaism are allowed to put their symbols on Government land, then other religions have he same rights. If the local governments would actually obey the Constitution and remove all religious symbols from their property, then you wouldn't have to be offended by Satanists exercising their rights in getting their religious statue erected.
By the way, almost everyone of Christianity's symbols were borrowed from earlier pagan religions. So your argument that Satanists are borrowing their religious symbol from Christianity is a non starter.
It's not that they "borrowed" that I have an issue with. It's what it was designed to mean when it was made up. It was designed to mean hate and evil in Christianity/Judaism, so as a sign of respect, don't put it right next to a sacred Christian/Jewish symbol.
EDIT TO ADD:
It would be like putting a swastika right next to a Jewish Star, except worse because the swastika wasn't even originated by the Nazis. The swastika was originally a sacred symbol in Hinduism, but by putting one right next to something Jewish would imply hate/hostility towards a group of people.
In the Hebrew Bible, Satan mean 'adversary'. Satan does not have the power of independent action, but requires the permission of Yahweh. Satan works on the behalf of Yahweh, and does not have the ability to transgress.
Therefore, a Satanic statue has no hateful connotation to the Jews.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
