Pastor Kleckner has convicted himself with his own statements. We're just along for the ride. If he is acquitted I'll be the first to apologize, although I won't be holding my breath.

Wow! That was quick. I wasn't expecting someone to justify his pedophilia so quickly. Angel, are you saying he didn't do it, or that he was justified in starting a relationship with a 14-year old because he was enticed by the cops? No matter how you parse it, he thought he was soliciting an underage girl.

I have no doubt that he's a man of God. It's becoming more and more clear that men of God have a propensity toward pedophilia. I'm starting to think that it's just part of the job.

Of course, the whole "I was led that way" is just his way of saying he was tempted by the Devil. He would have never had an online relationship with a 14-year old girl, if it hadn't been for demons leading him astray. These are the same people who decry the "culture of irresponsibility". You can't get much more irresponsible than letting a bunch of angels and demons lead you around by the nose.

It's Mississippi. I'm surprised the sign doesn't say "10% discount to whites."

Santa is your new alien overlord. Submit!

Ritual means comfort. Ritual means peace of mind. I understand that. However, once the reason for the ritual is well known, the ritual itself becomes meaningless. If the reason for the ritual is simply to remind us that human beings are social animals with a need to congregate, then I think we've already gotten the point. Thousands of years of recorded history and a couple of hundred years of science have told us exactly that.

I disagree with you that smoking is a ritual. I think what you call ritual is more habit than anything else. I doubt many smokers continue smoking simply for the symbolic gesture of invoking fire. If they do, then they are no less irrational than those who continue to baptize babies for the symbolic washing away of sin even when the idea of a newborn being guilty of any transgression would be alien to them.

I don't have any problem with ritual for the sake of reminding us of things that are important for our emotional or physical well-being. What I don't see is the value in participating in or inventing rituals for the sake of participating in rituals, which seemed to be the gist of the original post. What I gathered from the original post was that there was value in the ritual itself, not just in what knowledge or gain we draw from it.

I agree. If we're going to start picking apart ancient delusions to see what relevant, useful knowledge we can gain from them, then we need to look at all of them, and not just a dystheistic cult based on Judeo-Christianity. How about Shinto? What can we gain from looking at Jainism? Zorasterianism?

Obviously, this is the first sign of the coming Apocalyptic showdown between Jesus and the Sham-Wow!

I have to agree with Inquisitr. The last thing we need, as atheists, is empty religious ritual. There are ways to find like-minded people that don't have anything to do with church or ritual. If it's just community you're looking for, and not atheistic solidarity, then there are secular civic organizations and myriad clubs and associations devoted to nearly any pursuit. I'm a member or past-member of at least four local secular organizations, each one devoted to a different pastime.

I don't think it's necessarily community that atheists are resistant to, it's community for community's sake i.e. joining together just for the sake of joining, and not for any higher goal. This is the urge that swells the ranks of so many churches, including that of the Satanists.

"Worship" must have at its core some object, person or idea. Satanism seems, from what I've been able to gather from the Internet, a type of self-worship. I understand if you disagree, but in my book worshiping yourself is just taking gods off the pedestal and placing yourself on it. Suitheism is still theism.