A Satanic activity book for children

So you aren't concerned about fairness and equality in RE teaching, just indoctrination? And as long as your child is being indoctrinated with your superstitious beliefs you don't mind?

*yawn* no, I'm not. As a Christian, I believe every other religion is false testimony. That's the whole idea of being a person with faith. A Muslim or Hindu would say the exact same thing. Just because the world tries to convince people to be 'tolerant, multi-religious people' doesn't make it so. I wouldn't mind my child being taught about other religions to help their understanding of other people they might meet in life. But I'll make them aware that these religions' Gods aren't real. Being taught about Satanism is a step too far because it conflicts directly with the Christian notion of Satan. Clearly you're an Atheist so I don't expect you to understand my viewpoint, you've already said you think all religions are superstitions. But it's a parents prerogative to bring their child up how they choose (within obvious reason). I believe that if my child dies whilst believing Jesus is their Saviour, they'll go to Heaven, otherwise they will go to hell along with the secular masses. I'd be doing the best for my child in my eyes. People bring their children up with all sorts of beliefs, both religious and non-religious. Nothing to do with anyone else.

No, why on earth would I care about that? If the Satanist parent doesn't want their child surrounded by that, they can choose to take whatever action they wish.

As I have said I AM NOT A FULL TIME TEACHER, I am a STUDENT TEACHER, still in university. So of course I don't know the full curriculum considering I haven't had a chance to study all of it or teach all of it yet

Just believing Jesus is your saviour will not get you into heaven

So, it doesn't matter what the Satanist parent thinks about christian imagery, but we shouldn't allow satanic imagery for what Christian parents might think? Seems fairly hypocritical...

There are far more Christian parents, sometimes life does have to cater for the majority.

What else do you think?

How many Satanist parents do you know are complaining about things like this in the UK? There are far more Christian parents, sometimes life does have to cater for the majority. I'm not talking about 'we' as a society, I'm talking about me personally as a Christian. I can't imagine schools here would ever teach about Satanism. If they did, myself and other Christian parents would be angry about it. Perhaps we'll be listened to, perhaps we won't.

So, by your logic, you shouldn't debate it then, eh?

I'm not sure you are right. I bet more religious people in the UK are Moslems than Christians, and that far more than either are atheist, agnostic or otherwise completely irreligious and don't care.

None, I don't know any satanists. I was instead making a general point - you complain that Christians would be offended if we were to teach Satanism because Satan is the bad guy, however Satanists would argue that he's actually the good guy (and if you critically analyse the actions of god and the devil in the bible, they're arguably right) - so no doubt they'd be offended by only one side of the story being taught. So why then should Satanists have to suck it up over their deity being slandered while we shouldn't stand for children being taught that some people think the Devil isn't that bad?

If all these Satanist parents were so offended by children being taught only one side of the story, they'd have made their voices heard. Clearly they're happy to 'suck it up' so to speak or they would have done something about it by now, Christianity has been favoured in this country for centuries (not so much now of course).

Have you considered the possibility that, having been hounded, bullied and persecuted (burned to death, even) by Christians for centuries, Satanists are reluctant to stick their heads over the parapet?

It makes sense that the Bible would be taught in American schools, seeing as 83% of Americans profess to be Christian. The board of education has every right to decide what materials are distributed in schools, and if they decide Bibles make sense but that it's pointless to hand out atheist literature (what would atheist literature even contain, what life lessons would it teach? I thought atheism wasn't a religion) then it is their prerogative to do so. If parents have an issue with it then they can take it up with the school board. However it wasn't the parents who took issue with this - it was an outside organisation, a specifically anti-Christian cult who decided to distribute their bizarre literature in order to get up the noses of Christian parents and manipulate the school board into not catering for 83% of their pupils, and it actually worked.

Well, it would. Religious people are notoriously sensitive to the effects of a bit of logical thinking.

I imagine atheist literature would point out the lack of evidence that gods exist and would show how religions were created by men, taking advantage of people's superstitious propensities, as control mechanisms.

Well, it would. Religious people are notoriously sensitive to the effects of a bit of logical thinking.

I imagine atheist literature would point out the lack of evidence that gods exist and would show how religions were created by men, taking advantage of people's superstitious propensities, as control mechanisms.

Ridiculous, that was centuries ago. I can't imagine any Satanist living in today's modern society that accepts almost anything would be fearful of a Christian backlash and think they were going to be persecuted for their beliefs. Any Christian acting like that towards them would obviously be arrested (freedom of expression notwithstanding).