Satanic Temple? You must be thinking that I must be joking. No, I am not. It actually exists.
I was going through a documentary called Hail Satan when I came across the reference of this temple. Initially I thought Hail Satan was a movie, not a documentary. It was undeniably entertaining to watch and quite thoughtful.
Now coming back to our main topic. Its not a temple as per but its a non-theistic religious group, founded in 2013, recognized by the the US government as a tax-exempt organized religion. Please note that they are different from the Church of Satan.
Satanic Temple – More of a political group rather than a religious group
If you are thinking that these guys are religious fanatics like ISIS or KKK – who goes around murdering people – then you are completely mistaken. In fact, I don’t think that they are worshiping Satan at all. I think that they took the name of Satan just to get fame. I think that they are more of atheists, but these days no one looks to Atheism or listens to them. But Satan.. its a totally different ball game, almost all Christians will be terrified by anything related to Satan. This is what Satanic Temple hopes to achieve. They are more of a political group than a religious group as per my view.
Their whole purpose is to separate the government from anything related to religion. They have been pretty successful in this regard.
As far as I could find out they are non violent.
The Satanic Temple has seven fundamental tenets:
1. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.
2. The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
3. One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
4. 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.
5. Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.
6. 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.
7. 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.
As far as I could see these tenets are as good or even better than the ten commandments, especially considering their path. They are gathering more support and gaining more followers.
Their campaigns, rituals and activities are all methodically designed to highlight and push back against the right-wing religious establishment and archaic traditions and norms.
I believe that establishments like Satanic Temple is needed everywhere just to make sure that religious fanatics don’t push their ideas into the government.
If you are against Satanic temple because of religion, then please do note that in Hindu philosophy, the king of hell – Yamraj – has temples built for him. Its no big deal.
Please do check out temples and churches listed in this site.