There's Nothing Wrong With After School Satan Clubs

 ... if your value system is atheistic. Here's the story.

A California elementary school is facing backlash from parents after promoting an After School Satan Club aimed at kids as young as 5.

The controversial club is slated to hold monthly meetings starting in December at Golden Hills Elementary School in Tehachapi, Bakersfield Now reported. It was created by the nontheistic religious organization the Satanic Temple — not to be confused with the Church of Satan — as an antidote to the evangelical Christian groups cropping up in public schools.

Thank goodness it's the Satanic Temple and not the Church of Satan. That could be real trouble. I think.

The backlash from the parents amounts to nothing more than gasping and gesticulating. It's completely empty because the parents lack a framework to criticize it. The Satanists characterize their club this way:

However, the After School Satan Club organizers feel that the criticism is misplaced as the group does not actually promote Satanism, but rather encourages critical thinking and rationalism, per the site...

Paul Hicks, a critical-thinking professor who will be running the club, seconded the sentiment. “I’m not teaching these kids to be Satanic, I’m not teaching these kids that they need to hail Satan or identify as Satanists,” he declared. “What we’re doing is we’re thinking critical thinking, we’re teaching science, we’re teaching empathy and benevolence.”

If that's all it is - critical thinking, science, empathy and benevolence - who can complain? What difference would it make if they were teaching different ways to use occult accessories? None, as far as I can see.

Well, none, so long as you have a strictly secular, atheistic worldview. From the atheist point of view, there's no difference between the Christian Club, the Satanist Club and the Knitting Club. Each is just a way to while away the hours between now and when you finally lose consciousness for the last time and succumb to eternal darkness. It hardly matters what you do between now and then. One thing is as good as another.

In fact, "good" doesn't have any meaning at all. Dust you are and to dust you shall return. Please return your library books before you go.

The only real argument against the Satan Club is a supernatural one. God created the world out of love for us. Each of us has a soul. God sent his Son to redeem us. Satan is there to tempt us to sin. If you die in sin, you've got real problems. Don't screw around with this Satan stuff, it's the worst thing you could possibly do for your soul.

There, that's the argument against the Satan club. Without that one, you're left with gasping, pointing and soundlessly moving your mouth in confusion. Welcome to the fully secular world.

I know an after-school Satan Club is wrong, but I can't explain why.

Incidentally, the lack of a secular argument against the Satan Club is the exact same lack of an argument by the Satanists against the Christian Club. Since neither have any meaning, it doesn't matter if a kid is evangelized into Christianity or not. For what disease is the Satan Club an antidote? In a purely material world, your theology is nothing more than an innocent hobby.