this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
318 points (97.3% liked)

politics

19148 readers
1889 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he would support the legal fund of a man who is accused of vandalizing a display by The Satanic Temple inside the Iowa Capitol on Thursday.

Michael Cassidy was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief for knocking over and destroying a statue erected by the temple inside the capitol, The Des Moines Register first reported.

“Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a ‘religion’ by the federal government,” DeSantis said on X, formerly Twitter. “I’ll chip in to contribute to this veteran’s legal defense fund. Good prevails over evil — that’s the American spirit.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Exactly this. While the religion is real, and their morals are pretty tight, they are also encouraged to use this sort of drama to drive separation of church and state.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't think they're encouraging drama. This story would be a nothing-burger if the Christians hadn't lost their damn minds about it.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago

Paraphrased: You don't think they're encouraging drama. This wouldn't have been a story if so much drama wasn't encouraged.

They know their target :-). The fact that those Christians are so readily triggered by nonsense is predictable.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There is no real religion, they do not believe in Satan, they literally state so, and mostly use it to push back against christian intrusions into government and schools

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Belief in an artificial deity does not have to be present asa defining characteristic of religion. They have a strong moral code that they promote and follow with doctrine and practice, which meets the definition of a religion, regardless of supernatural deity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not sure if I agree. I've never encountered a religion that is not based off the supernatural, the supernatural is the entire core premise of religion in general.

The church of the flying spaghetti monster and the satanic temple are organisations and satirical, but they are not religious in any way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

The dictionary definition of religion includes : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.

TST has a robust set of tenets that lays out their moral code and belief system, as well as community and ceremony.

As far as other religions that are not based in supernatural deities, look up non-theistic religions and you’ll find flavors of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Jainism that all follow moral teachings of the religion without acknowledgment of the supernatural deity.

The supernatural is just one explanation for ‘why’ you should follow the religion, but the religion is more about the community, system of moral codes, and ceremony, in my opinion.

I had this debate with a southern baptist one time and came to realize that we had very different reasons to follow or not follow a religion. He was not “doing whatever he wanted, like raping and murdering” because he had the fear of god and didn’t want to spend eternity in hell. I don’t do those things because I have empathy for others and my moral code makes me treat others the way I’d like to be treated. If belief in the supernatural helps you be a good person, please continue in your flavor of religious practice. But understand that other people may not need the same supernatural incentives to follow their religious beliefs and that doesn’t mean their beliefs are any less important to them than yours are to you.