Equal Protection for all Religion?

in particular many satanists are also atheists,

this is three times as humorous as christians celebrating christmas.

i would suggest that one who is a satanist and also an atheist that they should convert to the church of the flying spagehtti monster out of self respect(perhaps this is the problem) and to save a wee tiny bit face.

there has scarcely, if ever, been freedom of religion in the us. there may have been a vague resemblance of it in the late 1800's and early 1900's, but that was just a vague resemblance of it. sure there is more liberty than many other countries, but i'm not going to water down the word freedom.

1. This article makes it seem as though the satanist in question was trying to vandalize a pre-existing display. If that's the case, that's not freedom of religion, that's freedom to be an a**hole, which isn't guaranteed by any gov't document in the US, no matter how often we exercise it.
2. Religious displays on public property should be available to everyone or no one, unless there is a compelling interest otherwise. A good example of a compelling interest is, for example, recognizing the very obvious role played in modern lawmaking
3. Satanists have a reputation as a "shock" religion in the US because of LaVey's attitude both in print and interviews.
4. Christmas is a truly Christian holiday when taken of itself. It's the additional pagan influences that make it curious, but given historical context these all make sense.[/li

There is no lack of self-respect in the satanist movement. Not in general anyway. As steam pointed out, most of them, especially the atheist subset are shockers and contrarians. I have encountered a number of Sith with similar attitudes. There are also genuine Satan worshippers. Some of them are also contrarians much like the traditional LaVeyan satanists, some aren't. Especially in the US only a strict subset of atheists identify by that label, mainly because of the stigma it carries. However, among intellectual atheists many reject both Satanism and the FSM movement and prefer to not identify with either. There is nothing ignoble or shameful about any of those identities in general and on their own, though I would unkindly comment on the worship of Satan or of the FSM as actual beings any day. To say they ought to switch to any one particular because that is what a self-respecting person would do is exactly the kind of semi-religious slander all of those movements were created to combat in the first place.

Steam, you might have misread. It was a Christian lady who tried to vandalize a satanist display.

there are few genuine christians, and even fewer genuine satanists. christmas never was a christian holiday. i am a contrarian in regard to people hijacking religions and just making whatever up, or simply blindly following and being told what to "think" and calling it by an existing name. that is the actual slander/blasphemy.

ghost dog wrote: there are few genuine christians, and even fewer genuine satanists. christmas never was a christian holiday.

Source, please.

there is no single source for any of these three facts. one would simply have to do the research and use the organ residing in the cranial cavity for it's intended purpose. where should i start with Christ Mas?

this is the purpose of most modern day religion - confusion and conflict. the purpose of mainstream modern day religion is to keep people from recognizing the face of the Divine, from coming to know themselves, and the Source(The Force).

if i can re-locate several good singular sources i will post them. however, i know one of them has already been taken off the internet.

http://www.thepropheticyears.com/comments/Apostasy%20in%20the%20Church.HTM

http://youtu.be/oZAL80TMLaE

in my opinion contarians have no place in authentic Satanism, and are an insult to the mythological Satan, or otherwise.

http://youtu.be/OxAo1vr-GWE


to protect genuine Satanist one would have to allow LaVeyin satanists and contrarian satanist to be laughed off the face of the Earth.

Who is Don Koenig to define what a "True Christian" is? Also, do you know what a fact is?
Who are you to tell people how they should call themselves?

there is no single source for any of these three facts. one would simply have to do the research and use the organ residing in the cranial cavity for it's intended purpose.

by ghost dog for a minute.

the infinite heavens are complex. fact or fiction?

let us use this definition of fact so we know we are on the same page.

fact noun \ˈfakt\
: something that truly exists or happens : something that has actual existence

: a true piece of information

A fact is a proposition that is either not in dispute because of the compelling evidence in its favour or indisputable because it can be concluded by logical analysis alone. "The infinite heavens are complex" is neither fact nor fiction, because it is not a coherent proposition. Because it doesn't say anything of content its truth-value cannot be determined by any means. It can be asserted, of course, though it would serve no good as long as the statement has no coherent meaning in the first place.

so we took out the word infinite, and stated "the heavens are complex." would agree that this is a fact?