[BongoMcCat]

I have never been to Croatia or Poland, but of course you are right in that there are European countries where religion has a more central role than in other European countries.

But, how common is it really in Croatia or Poland to use christian terms such as "satanist" when you want to say that you are an atheist?

[NoSorryCannot]

There was an important piece left out of the description of the Church of Satan: it is typically used as a device to test civil liberties and separation of church and state.

If, say, a courthouse has a statue of a religious theme, then by the law of the land, the courthouse must be willing to erect a statue for any religion. Like, say, a statue of Baphomet. Or they can remove _all_ of the religious iconography. That demographics are mostly Christian and so such things are overtly offensive makes it more effective.

So, atheists or agnostics or even people of more orthodox religious persuasion are using the Church of Satan as a vehicle of representation for a strong stance on the separation of church and state.

[dsego]

> christian terms such as "satanist"

in Croatia at least, they use the term "communist" or "child of a yugoslav officer" to slander atheists or secularists.