Just a reminder that the tenets of the Satanic Temple are far more instructive and moral than the Ten Commandments.

There are seven fundamental tenets. 

• One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason. 
• The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions. 
• One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone. 
• The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo your own. 
• Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs. 
• People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and resolve any harm that may have been caused. 
• Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word

By now I'm sure that most of you realize that the Satanic Temple really has very little to do with Satan, and actually exists mostly to troll Christians.

I actually enjoy much of their work, and I might think about joining them if I were not already dedicated to repairing the reputation of Atheists instead.

Here's a sight that puts a smile on my face this morning. Worker remove Ten Commandments monument from the Oklahoma Capitol grounds.

Courtesy of the AP: 

A granite monument of the Ten Commandments that has sparked controversy since its installation on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds was being removed late Monday and will be transported to a private conservative think tank for storage. 

A contractor the state hired began removing the monument shortly after 10:30 p.m. The works comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision in June that the display violates a state constitutional prohibition on the use of public property to support "any sect, church, denomination or system of religion." 

The state is paying the contractor about $4,700 to remove the monument and take it to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs' offices a few blocks away, Office of Management and Enterprise Services spokesman John Estus said. 

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol had increased security around the monument earlier Monday, and barriers were erected to keep visitors from getting close to it. Estus said the decision to remove the monument under the cover of darkness was made to avoid disturbing workers at the Capitol and to keep protesters from demonstrating while heavy equipment was being used to detach the two-ton monument from its base.

Don;t care what people believe.

Don't care where they worship.

Just so long as their faith, and our government are kept separate at all times.

Until that happens across the board we will never be the country our Founders intended us to be.

Rather than comply with a court ruling that finds a Ten Commandments monument in violation of the state's constitution Oklahoma lawmakers want to change that part of their constitution.

Courtesy of Tulsa World:  

Gov. Mary Fallin on Tuesday said the Ten Commandments monument will stay at the Capitol despite a court ruling that said it violated the state Constitution and must be removed. 

Fallin said Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to reconsider its 7-2 decision, which was handed down last week after a challenge by the ACLU of Oklahoma on behalf of three plaintiffs. 

In addition, lawmakers have filed legislation to let people vote on whether to remove a portion of the state Constitution cited in the ruling. Article II, Section 5 of the constitution reads: 

“No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such,” according to the Oklahoma Constitution. 

The court said the monument was obviously religious in nature and an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths. The constitution bans the state from using public money or property for the benefit of any religious purpose, according to the opinion.

So to be clear these lawmakers are actually willing to change their state's constitution in order to be allowed to put up a display of the Ten Commandments on the Capitol grounds.

Thereby placing Christianity as more important than the laws of the state as determined by their founders.

Yeah, nothing troubling about that.

Remind me, this is the 21st Century, right?

Oklahoma Supreme Court orders the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the state capitol.

Courtesy of News OK: 

The Ten Commandments monument must be removed from the grounds of the state Capitol, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. 

Justices ruled 7-2 the monument must go because the state constitution prohibits the use of public property to directly or indirectly benefit a “church denomination or system of religion.” 

The decision touched off a furor at the Capitol with several lawmakers calling for impeachment of the seven justices who voted in the majority. 

Attorney General Scott Pruitt said he believes the court "got it wrong" and filed a petition for rehearing — a move that will at least delay removal of the monument. 

If that fails, Pruitt called for changing the state constitution.

Boy religious zealots can certainly get all....zealotry now can't they? (Did I use that word right?)

In my opinion this is just part of the new direction this country is going which includes embracing the idea of gay marriage, rejecting hateful icons like the Confederate battle flag, and eschewing any co-mingling of religion and government.

And may I just say it is all about damn time.

New Texas textbooks teach that the Constitution is based on the teachings of the biblical Moses. And that my friends is how religion hijacks public education.

Courtesy of Progressive Secular Humanist: 

Christian conservatives win, children lose: Texas textbooks will teach public school students that the Founding Fathers based the Constitution on the Bible, and the American system of democracy was inspired by Moses. 

On Friday the Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education voted along party lines 10-5 to approve the biased and inaccurate textbooks. The vote signals a victory for Christian conservatives in Texas, and a disappointing defeat for historical accuracy and the education of innocent children. 

The textbooks were written to align with instructional standards that the Board of Education approved back in 2010 with the explicit intention of forcing social studies teaching to adhere to a conservative Christian agenda. The standards require teachers to emphasize America’s so called “Christian heritage.” 

In essence, Christian conservatives in Texas have successfully forced a false historical narrative into public school textbooks that portray Moses as an influence on the Constitution and the Old Testament as the root of democracy.

This was a statement released by the Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group that focuses on fighting against the Religious Right:  

Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller had the following statement on today’s State Board of Education vote to adopt new social studies textbooks for Texas public schools. “What we saw today shows very clearly that the process the State Board of Education uses to adopt textbooks is a sham,” Miller said. “This board adopted textbooks with numerous late changes that the public had little opportunity to review and comment on and that even board members themselves admitted they had not read. They can’t honestly say they know what’s in these textbooks, which could be in classrooms for a decade.” Miller was critical of board Republicans for rejecting a common-sense proposal by their Democratic colleagues to delay adoption of the textbooks until Dec. 1 so that late changes could be vetted for accuracy. 

The Texas Education Agency posted scores of pages of publisher comments and textbook revisions after the last public hearing on Tuesday. Miller said scholars did not have an opportunity to review and comment on the numerous changes publishers have submitted since the last public hearing on Tuesday. Some of those changes appeared to have been negotiated with state board members behind closed doors. 

During a months-long process, publishers made a number of improvements to their textbooks. Those improvements included removing inaccurate information promoting climate change denialism; deleting offensive cartoons comparing beneficiaries of affirmative action to space aliens; making clearer that slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War; and revising passages that had promoted unfair negative stereotypes of Muslims. Scholars and the general public had ample opportunity to review and comment on those revisions. However, the new textbooks also include passages that suggest Moses influenced the writing of the Constitution and that the roots of democracy can be found in the Old Testament. Scholars from across the country have said such claims are inaccurate and mislead students about the historical record.

The Founding Fathers were scrupulous in keeping religion out of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and in one fell swoop these right wing revisionists have undone much of their hard work.

Great job Texas!

Federal judge rules that controversial Ten Commandments monument in New Mexico must go.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

A federal judge on Thursday ruled that a New Mexico city must remove a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lawn in front of Bloomfield City Hall. 

Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker said in his ruling in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that the monument amounts to government speech and has the "principal effect of endorsing religion." 

Because of the context and history surrounding the granite monument, Parker said Bloomfield clearly violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. 

He gave a Sept. 10 deadline for its removal. The suit was filed in 2012 on behalf of two Bloomfield residents who practice the Wiccan religion.

Well at least the Wiccans will take the heat for this one instead of the Atheists. 

The Bloomfield mayor claimed that he considered it a monument to an historical document. However I am not sure how the Ten Commandments could be considered part of New Mexico's history.

Not only that but of course the actual tablets themselves never existed which sort of undermines the idea that they have a place in reality based history.

If one were to follow that line of logic one could put up a statue representing the Tortoise and the Hare from Aesop's Fables, Humpty Dumpty from Mother Goose, or even Rapunzel from Grimm's Fairy Tales.

Finally a version of the Ten Commandments that I am willing to follow.

Admit it, if THIS were the basis for our morality, the world would be much better place.

A much better place.

Satanic group unveils concept for proposed monument to be placed in Oklahoma state capitol. Should blend right in with the Ten Commandments monument.

Courtesy of Philly.com:  

Will Satan be celebrated on the lawn of the Oklahoma State Capitol? 

A devilish group based in New York believes it should be perfectly OK. 

The group, which calls itself "The Satanic Temple," today unveiled its proposal for a monument it intends to erect next to another religious statue: a depiction of the Ten Commandments. 

According to The Satanic Temple's application, the proposed monument features a large pentagram and “a 7-foot tall goat-headed Baphomet that sits cross-legged flanked by a child on both sides. The lap will serve as a seat for visitors.” 

It would also include quotes from poets William Blake and Lord Byron. 

The monument, said the group’s spokesman, was designed to reflect the views of Satanists in Oklahoma City and could doubly serve as a tourist attraction. 

“The statue will serve as a beacon calling for compassion and empathy among all living creatures,” said spokesman Lucian Greaves. “The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation.”

Oklahoma state legislators in 2009 approved the installation of a privately-funded Ten Commandments monument. It was installed last year over the protests of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The Satanic Temple wasn’t the only group to apply for a monument; People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and a Hindu group have also requested a place near the Capitol steps. 

It will be interesting to see how Oklahoma lawmakers respond to this attempt to take advantage of the door opened by State Rep. Mike Ritze back in 2009.

Will they cry uncle and take down this Judeo-Christian monument?

Will they try to implement religious favoritism concerning monuments at the capitol?

Or will they allow a giant goat headed Satanic statue to share space with numerous other religious monuments, turning the Capitol into a kid of one stop shop for religious diversity?

Should be interesting to watch this whole thing play out.

P.S. By the way there is some evidence to suggest that this whole "Satanic Temple" is really a tongue in check group of satirists. Still if Oklahoma is going to allow one former cult that people orginally ridiculed to place a monument at their capitol, kind of hard to draw the line at any other.

Don'tcha think?

So MUCH better than the other Ten Commandments.

Source

Have you ever read the Bible's Ten Commandments?

The first three are all to stroke God's humongous ego, the fourth tells us not to work on Sunday which millions of people break every week, the next three seem fairly reasonable, and essentially EVERY OTHER religion has them as rules too, and the last one flies in the very face of what it is to an American. 

I tell you after reading the Ten Commandments as a kid I realized right away that only a douchebag would ask human beings to follow those rules.

Oklahoma passes law allowing religious displays on public property. Satanists thrilled at opportunity to join in.

Courtesy of Americans Against the Tea Party:  

In addition to performing the post-mortem homosexual transformation of Fred Phelps’s mom, the Satanic Temple has now offered to donate a monument on behalf of Oklahoma Satanists for display upon the statehouse grounds. The organization has moved forward to file papers to display a memorial next to the state’s display of the 10 Commandments and according to Oklahoma’s religious display legislation, signed into law in 2009, the Temple as every right to do so. 

“By accepting our offer,” said the Temple’s spokesman, Lucien Greaves. “the good people of Oklahoma City will have the opportunity to show that they espouse the basic freedoms spelled out in the Constitution … Allowing us to donate a monument would show that the Oklahoma City Council does not discriminate, and both the religious and non-religious should be happy with such an outcome.” 

It looks like the Conservatives have found themselves in a bit of a religious freedom pickle. Thanks to their argument for religious monuments on public display, it appears they now must accept the Satanic Temple and their memorial. But of course, if not accepted, we sincerely doubt that anyone would be surprised to find out that the legislation is completely hypocritical and specifically only focused on one religious view in direct violation of the US Constitution. Obviously, Oklahoma lawmakers did not take Satanists into consideration when passing such an open bill regarding religious freedom. I guess it is true what they say, “Be careful what you wish for.” 

I envision something along the lines of this:

You know, something tasteful, that the whole family can enjoy.

I think that this is going to be very entertaining indeed.

Atheist group puts up monument in response to Ten Commandments monument.

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

A group of atheists unveiled a monument to their nonbelief in God on Saturday to sit alongside a granite slab that lists the Ten Commandments in front of the Bradford County courthouse. 

As a small group of protesters blasted Christian country music and waved "Honk for Jesus" signs, the atheists celebrated what they believe is the first atheist monument allowed on government property in the United States. 

"When you look at this monument, the first thing you will notice is that it has a function. Atheists are about the real and the physical, so we selected to place this monument in the form of a bench," said David Silverman, president of American Atheists. 

It also serves another function — a counter to the religious monument that the New Jersey-based group wanted removed. It's a case of if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. 

American Atheists sued to try to have the stone slab with the Ten Commandments taken away from the courthouse lawn in this rural, conservative north Florida town best known for the prison that confines death row inmates. The Community Men's Fellowship erected the monument in what's described as a free speech zone. During mediation on the case, the atheist group was told it could have its own monument, too. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, stands on a Ten Commandments and says why he thinks … 

"We're not going to let them do it without a counterpoint," Silverman said. "If we do it without a counterpoint, it's going to appear very strongly that the government actually endorses one religion over another, or — I should say — religion in general over non-religion."

Let me just go on record as saying that the idea of Atheists putting up a monument to rational thought seems a little ridiculous to me. It is kind of like  putting up a statue commemorating breathing.

Shouldn't be necessary.

However I do understand the desire to have a counterpoint to this.

I mean that is just obnoxious.

Besides there is not ONE Christian living today who follows those ten commandments. Not one.

Oh well at lest the Atheists made their point which I ma sure was welcomed by the goodhearted. loving Christians in the area. Right?

About 200 people attended the unveiling. Most were supportive, though there were protesters, including a group from Florida League of the South that had signs that said "Yankees Go Home." 

At one point someone in a car driving by tossed a toilet seat and a roll of toilet paper at the crowd. Neither struck anyone. At another point, Eric Hovind, 35, of Pensacola jumped atop the peak of the monument and shouted his thanks to the atheists for giving him a platform to declare Jesus is real.

Oh yeah, what was I thinking?

You know every time I see another monument to the Ten Commandments or a saint go up, or see another church or temple being built, I just remember this.

The monuments and statues may indeed endure, but the reasons behind them, and the Gods they were meant to worship, will someday be lost in the fog of history.

I have little doubt that someday our children's children will study about Jesus Christ in Edith Hamilton's new and revised book on Mythology, right along with other great religious icons such as Ra, Zeus, and Thor.