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Notes -
Baphomet Has Fallen
How much good faith is required for an American state government respecting a religion's symbols?
The Satanic Temple, specifically the Satanic Temple of Iowa, put a statue depicting the pagan idol Baphomet in the Iowa Capitol, following the letter of the law allowing religious symbols. Thing is, it's explicitly an atheistic (or rather "non-theistic") religion; they have as much belief in the reality of Baphomet as they do the Flying Spaghetti Monster (mHNAty). They use literary symbols and provocative symbols to promote science and promote humanist atheist goals of tolerance and justice. It was designed to provoke a response, and it has; a Christian broke it. Deseret News reports that:
The state of Iowa finds itself in the position of avenging the rights of atheists to display a pagan idol they don't even believe in, which mocks people of genuine Christian faith with a dark symbol drawn from mythology.
Take that to its logical conclusion.
A Christian church could create a parallel object to be installed in the Iowa Capitol, a similar deliberately provocative anti-atheist symbol to be promoted as a sacred symbol of a pseudo-atheist "Church of the Human Condition" which exposes the failures and tragedies of the Enlightenment and promotes learning how to morally philosophize using the Jefferson Bible and select readings from Ayn Rand in after-school clubs. I can think of a few:
Desecrating any of these would bear the same fourth-degree criminal mischief charges, with up to a year in prison and a $2,560 fine, and exposure to lawsuits by the artists and owners of the symbols.
But aside from the turnabout, I'd like to remind that atheism is treated as a religion de facto by its adherents and proselytes, and de jure by the government in having Freedom of Religion under the First Amendment. Anyone who says it is not a religion must, by implication, accept that the broken Baphomet statue is only a violation of Freedom of Expression (under the same Amendment) so any cries of Christian hypocrisy at its destruction are inaccurate on their face due to the uneven parallel. Only by accepting that atheism is a religion can atheists claim a sacred right to offend Christians.
First, I think the Baphomet statue is stupid, because it's nothing to do with Satanism and they just picked it because "ooh it's the Devil" without fully understanding the background. Since it's specifically the Éliphas Lévi version they use, let me quote from Waite's English translation of the second volume of Dogme et rituel de la haute magie:
'A bizarre image now a scarecrow for the vulgar' pretty much sums up their use of the imagery.
Second, even if it is stupid, the Satanists are entitled to put up stupid holiday crap as much as any other group. It would be nice if they could stop being edgelords about it and trying to be insulting to Christians, but oh well. If you're going to join any organisation called the Satanic Temple, of course you're a plonker.
Third, they have nothing without Christianity. If they want to be a humanist, science-oriented, group of freethinkers nothing is stopping them, but there's no reason to have any associations with 'Satanism' other than to piss off the normies. Frankly, if I were a humanist atheist scientist I'd be embarrassed by this bunch claiming to be affiliated with me (don't worry humanist etcs. on here, I don't hold them against you). I'm less embarrassed by the Christian guy because I think he should have let it alone, but that bunch did do the equivalent of "Make me!" and he did call their bluff, so go my brother in Christ.
Fourth, the suggestions about anti-atheist imagery? I don't think that works, and you could even defend the things as artworks without needing to go into "this is a religious symbol". After all if Piss Christ and Cartoon Mohammed are permissible as art, so is Gay Darwin and Marx. But I wouldn't even bother - why stoop to their level in contending to see who can be the bigger dumbass?
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