'After-school Satan club' voted down at York County elementary school

[thucythucy]

10. I agree.

I'm arguing strategy, not disputing the goal.

I saw an excellent documentary by Canadian Broadcasting on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Serious, scholarly, fairly easy to understand. Bring that to the school board and say, "We parents want this to have equal time with the Bible."

The Christians of course would object. And have to explain why, which could only be: "Our religion is better than yours."

Another possibility would be to insist on offering a discussion on atheist ethics, using for instance Julian Baggini's "Atheism: A Very Short Introduction." Again, a serious alternative which would beg a serious response. What the Church of Satan does--in this case anyway--is trolling. Good for a laugh, maybe, but not very effective in the long run.

This sort of fundamentalist religious infiltration into the public schools is a serious threat. As satisfying as it may be to respond with ridicule and sarcasm, it's hardly the best way to deal with this. As I said in another post, it's basically our equivalent to "owning the libs." Worth a chuckle in progressive discussion boards, but unlikely to do much in the real world.