Florida Satanists are volunteering to fill school counselor roles after Gov. Ron DeSantis ® signed a law allowing religious chaplains into public schools amid staffing shortages.

“Nothing in the text of the bill serves to exclude us, and no credible interpretation of the First Amendment could. Should a school district now choose to have chaplains, they should expect Satanists to participate as well,” Lucien Greaves, cofounder and spokesperson for The Satanic Temple, said in a statement to The Hill on Monday.

Back when DeSantis signed the bill in April, he described Satanism as “not a religion” and said its members would not be allowed to participate in the program.

The Florida move allowing chaplains to serve as public school counselors comes as more states are aiming to inject Christianity into public school environments, including by mandating that the Bible or Ten Commandments be taught in classrooms.

The Satanic Temple has increasingly leaned into the fight over freedom of religion in public schools, including through the establishment of After School Satan clubs.

The temple, founded in 2014, says its mission is to “encourage benevolence and empathy, [and] reject tyrannical authority.”

  • Flax
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    6 months ago

    I have. And the Bible canon was decided upon long before 400ad. And it wasn’t old “fables” either. They were rather contemporary accounts of Jesus as well as letters between His followers.

    I was baptised less than a year ago. My decision to be a Christian is to do with research that I have already done. Atheist arguments are generally based on alternative theories and argument from silence. Reminds me of the classic argument “The Bible is wrong as there is no evidence of Pontius Pilate existing” until they found a first century tablet with his name on it. Or the “Christianity is wrong as Science says the universe always existed” until they discovered that there actually was a beginning.

    • HumanPenguin
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      6 months ago

      Wow, so logical. Accept, this is a discussion of the Old Testament.

      You are showing a fucking desperate effort to ignore the facts.

      • Flax
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        6 months ago

        I didn’t know this was about the Old Testament as it’s common knowledge that the Old Testament was already compiled by the time Jesus came, so I assumed you were referring to the New Testament 🤦

        • HumanPenguin
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          6 months ago

          The Old Testament was a collection of stories, not an actual book. Hence, the word bible. And not compiled as we know it until 400ad by St. Jerome. This was when the 66 books were agreed on and formed into a single accepted source. Also, when a huge number of stories were excluded as they were opposed to the political ideas of the church leaders at the time.

          And given we are talking about the fall of Satan. It is pretty obvious that I am refusing to mythical events and stories passed down long before the bibble was a concept.

          Assuming fundamental xtian belief, just over 6k years. (ignoring clear evidence that Homo sapiens existed nearly 300k years ago and Homo erectus ancestors about 2m years ago. Sorta throws the whole biblical story of Eden as nothing more then fairy tales.

          But those tails def only paint the story of Satan as encouraging mankind to learn

          And god as an authoritarian that did not want his children/humanity t) to learn to question him. Yeah, at no point is Satan actually accused of creating or being evil. Just giving humans the ability to actually question and learn independent of god.

          IE, to question someone who at the very least is very narcissistic. And in the most logical interpretation. Trying to force sentient beings into a slavery of ignorance. .

          • Flax
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            6 months ago

            Source on the St Jerome thing? St Jerome translated the Bible into Latin. And I don’t know how to help you since you clearly don’t know the difference between translating and writing an entirely new book.

            No idea what you are on about the 6k year thing and homosapiens. The Bible doesn’t talk about when homosapiens came about, just that God created them.

            Again, questioning God on what issue exactly? What good has ever come out of questioning God? You’re trying to both have your cake and eat it here. God allows us to question Him, but obviously we will get the deserved consequence for when we do. Of course God didn’t want us to question Him, because nothing good has ever come out of questioning God. And we do have the ability to learn as well. God gave us it. That’s why so many scientists throughout history were Christians and theologians as well. We wanted to see how God’s creation works.

            Again, once again, you want to have free will but also don’t want evil to exist. Free will without the ability to rebel against God isn’t free will.

            • HumanPenguin
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              5 months ago

              Again, once again, you want to have free will but also don’t want evil to exist. Free will without the ability to rebel against God isn’t free will.

              Not believing in god or Satan in no way means I don’t believe in evil. That is a rather nieve Christian idea. And a very fucked up idea of what free will is.

              You seem to believe in some odd version of free will, where you have freedom of action. But get to blame someone/something else for your actions. When you do something evil. You did it, you were not tempted or deceived into it by some 3rd party fairy tail.

              The statement you make here is fucking terrifying to atheists. Because you seem to think free will has no actual responsibility for your own actions. But instead blame Satan.

              And a library of collected stories is not a book. The forming of 66 books into the bible was the actual action of St Jerome.

              • Flax
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                5 months ago

                So you don’t believe in evil… So eugenics and genocide is alright then? So is anarcho capitalism? These are all part of survival of the fittest which is the atheist system for how the world is run, so therefore they shouldn’t be evil in atheist’s eyes.

                Of course we don’t get to blame someone else for our actions. We choose to participate in the rebellion started by Satan. The original point was that Satan isn’t some brave revolutionary standing up to a dictator- Satan is the root of all evil, who started the rebellion against God that we choose to participate in. We do have responsibility for our actions- as God judges us instead of the atheist version where “it doesn’t matter what you do, just enjoy life as it doesn’t matter anyway”

                The canon is formed by the books Jesus mentioned and referenced from and would have used, and the letters and writings of the apostles- People who were around at the time of Jesus. Some of them met Him personally.

                • HumanPenguin
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                  5 months ago

                  Stop inventing fucking insane ideas in my name. It’s a fucking childish way to make an invalid and childish point.

                  I do not believe in mythical fairy tail beings. Evil is an action of free thought and people. Not some stupid influence that allows you to feel better for your own shitty actions.

                  If you do shitty things like eugenics, genocide, murder or rape. The subjects you raise to try and create an emotional link. You are a shitty, evil arsehole. Not some imaginary 3rd party you invent to give yourself an excuse.

                  Its this insulting and self excusing bullshit that makes so many athists consider Christianity and Christians fucking evil.

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                    5 months ago

                    The original discussion wasn’t about accountability - the original discussion was you were trying to claim Satan was some form of cool rebel, essentially Hazbin Hotel level theology. And I pointed out that rebelling against God isn’t a good thing. Trying to justify your wrong by blaming satan doesn’t justify it- because we choose to follow Satan in rebelling against God. Sin is NEVER justified. It’s what nailed Jesus to the cross.

                    Its this insulting and self excusing bullshit that makes so many athists consider Christianity and Christians fucking evil.

                    And I’d say those atheists are bigoted.

    • lorgo_numputz@beehaw.org
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      6 months ago

      Someone might want to inform King James, who published his version in 1611.

      Your lack of knowledge is showing in public. You might want to correct that.

      • Flax
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        6 months ago

        I think you just showed your lack of knowledge? The King James translation of the Bible is literally just a translation of the original Greek and Hebrew. That’s like claiming that Egyptian hieroglyphics were written in the past 100 years because that was when we were able to translate some of them into English 🤦

        • lorgo_numputz@beehaw.org
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          5 months ago

          It was literally altered to enhance the claim of the divine right of kings, among other changes.

          “A popular Puritan bible had downplayed the divine right of kings — greatly offending James — and James manipulated different Christian sects until they agreed to produce a different translation.”

          https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/origins-of-the-king-james-bible-180956949/

          This is your religion, I shouldn’t have to be telling you this. It’s even been altered numerous times since KJV. It is not a literal translation and numerous books were left out because… they didn’t like what was said.

          Don’t get me wrong; Christianity has many laidable tenets - “Don’t murder”, “Don’t steal”, etc. - basic rules for having a maintainable civilization, same as other major religions.

          But don’t pretend it is some static thing. It has been and is manipulated for polical purposes and is used to justify horrific treatment of others (same as other religions).

          You might want to look more closely, but beware - studying religion too carefully is often the birth event of athiests.

          • Flax
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            5 months ago

            So is David Cross proposing that the original texts were translated into the Vulgate, then Geneva Bible to KJV, then KJV was translated into the NASB which was then translated into the NIV and then ESV… Or something?

            The Bible we have today, let’s say the ESV, is translated from the original texts. Meaning any changes made by popes or King James or whatever are gone (you actually can see this as some parts are in the KJV, like the note in 1 John 5:7-8 which was not part of the original text, or the Lord’s Prayer doxology in Matthew 6:13) and they are translated from the earliest texts. They don’t lie to you either about the parts we cannot be completely sure of such as John 8:1-11 or the ending to Mark’s Gospel. So what David Cross is actually saying here is irrelevant - if I were to take a text and badly translated it, then someone comes along and fixes my translation by correctly retranslating from the original text, their translation wouldn’t be bad simply because mine exists - which is what you would be arguing for with your logic.

            Also if we left out books because we didn’t like what they said, we would have left out the Sermon on the Mount and the parts telling you not to have multiple wives.

            • lorgo_numputz@beehaw.org
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              5 months ago

              My last response was unacceptably juvenile so I’ve retracted it - with my apologies.

              I’ll stick to the actually important part.

              We may differ on matters ecclesiastical but this is all I really care about: If you are a Christian are you the type that actually follows the word of Jesus?

              Not churchgoing, I don’t care about that. Instead, being someone who forgives others, is charitable and helps those in need, as commanded by Jesus?

              If so then you and I have no problems. I like you already - which means it makes even less sense to make enemies with you over the internet.

              Enjoy your Friday.

              • Flax
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                5 months ago

                Just can claim things are wrong about anything, doesn’t make them true.