It Isn't Only the Satanists Whose Religion is Violated by Anti Abortion


As a result of the funky Texas law against abortion, a 70 year old semi retired Rabbi explained recently why his branch of the Jewish faith finds abortions part of its religion. The Satanic Temple has already filed a religious discrimination case. Maybe others will follow. 

Taking religious rights away from people is very much the popular grievance recently. What many Christians don't understand is others in addition to themselves have rights as well. For some reason there is a mental block about this. 

It seems like both the Jewish and Satanist arguments have at least a small chance of throwing Christians off balance in the court. While opponents may argue Satanists are too late to the dance they cannot say that about Jews. Even the argument that Satanists are "insincere" or "opportunistic" may not fly. Are the Christians against abortion really sincere about their Christianity or is it just a tool to use toward their real divine entity, the fetus?

Our recent history if full of religions that were first blown off as nothing important and its followers should get a life. Then as time went on those with these unusual non Christian beliefs carried the day and, to some extent as least, got their way. As I see it, Satanists today are quite like Muslim boxer Mohamed Ali when he declared his faith put him in opposition to the Viet Nam War. He was stripped of his boxing titles and could not work for a few years. They public opinion came around to praise him.

Another was use of the drug peyote by Native Americans. It was first thought to be merely an excuse to use an illegal drug. Eventually, courts agreed is was part of a religious ceremony and could be used. 

There was very few Catholics among the founders of the United States. It was mostly viewed as a peculiar religion. Baptists were the big thing in high political circles until now when there are more Catholics on the Supreme Court than Protestants. 

Atheists keep pointing out religions exist in the mind only. While religious people argue this is not the case we keep seeing minds with new religious ideas. Mormonism was one and Satanists are another. Minds will keep making up new gods and religions as long a humans inhabit the earth.

In the meantime, I look forward to religious arguments in favor of abortions.

Comments

  1. Jon LindgrenSeptember 8, 2021 at 6:44 PM

    It occurred to me after I wrote this there is a simple explanation. If one group can make a religious argument opposed to abortion another group can make a religious argument in favor of abortion. It's religious freedom!

    ReplyDelete
  2. tsmSeptember 8, 2021 at 7:15 PM

    ah yes, any group can make a "pro" argument and another group can make a "con" argument. if that's all to the story then we can go on arguing ad infinitum. but what about truth? can we ever hope to find the truth of anything, especially anything that arises from differences involving deep rooted ethical/philosophical issues. of course, we may find it (truth) at one or the other of two poles of the argument. or we may find somewhere in between . or we may find it "'outside" of the two contending positions. or do we "find" it simply by the imposition of raw power: forget truth, just follow the power. or the money (arguably another name for power). you, obviously, are not much bothered by such considerations: you have it all figured out, thereby giving you and your ilk the unilateral "right" to impose your views on the rest of us (while, of course, pretending to be "neutral"). BTW, that seems to be the position taken by Joe the stupid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LindgrenSeptember 8, 2021 at 7:49 PM

      tsm "can we ever find the truth of anything..." Certainly we can find the truth of many things. But we cannot find the existence of a god if all we have to go on is a god people carry around in their heads. That is all we have so far. It gets further from the "truth" when the religious then start imagining religion has told them one fertilized cell is a human being. There is nothing then stopping another group from claiming a god told them something entirely different. The second group may well have "deep rooted ethical/philosophical issues." It's all quite simple: If one group can make religious claims stemming from an invisible god so can another group.

      Delete
  3. tsmSeptember 9, 2021 at 4:37 PM

    good thing that you were never a pilot: you wouldn't have been able to find the runway. as in this Lindgrenian response. as far as I know no god told me to oppose abortion. but my reason, together with a big bunch of empirical evidence did. as in that old maxim about not deliberately killing the innocent. I suppose tho' that since the latter is usually said to have come from God, you reject it, too. BTW, I know (or know of) quite a few Jewish people who reject abortion. and I assume that most Orthodox Jews who, as you might know, cling to the traditional Jewish religion, don't look favorably on abortion. as I say, you couldn't even find the runway, save land the plane.

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