There is a language of symbolism and iconography that exists in Western cultures. This image of a demon/devil/satan has a relatively coherent meaning. It developed this meaning long, long before some guys in a computer lab chose to use it to represent something completely unrelated...
Yes and no. Sure, the iconography has a history. No, "some guys in a computer lab" are hardly the first or only people to use the iconography for "something completely unrelated."
Do the same people who are offended by the BSD Daemon get all bent out of shape over the many devil and demon themed sports teams and other organizations that exist?
When I was a young child my family had a "Dirt Devil" brand vacuum cleaner. My mother put some masking tape over the "Devil" part of the vacuum's logo because she was uncomfortable with the word. She certainly wouldn't do the same today, but just to be clear, FreeBSD isn't singled out as much as you think.
Yes, there are indeed lots of people who are bothered by it.
You are quick to accuse them of getting "all bent of of shape" about it, but in fact the vast majority of them understand the idea of a mascot and don't complain.
Sports mascots seem to be established as an exception. Sports teams seem to like to project an irreverent image. Duke, in fact, started as a religious school. Methodists are pretty cool about not getting "all bent of of shape" like that.
You don't have to go back in time very far to find people who wouldn't understand the idea of having a mascot for a computer operating system. Thus, it was not established as an objection.
I didn't accuse anyone of getting "bent out of shape," the phrase was part of a non-rhetorical question.
I think the phrase is warranted in light of the story here.
The more I think about the mascot issue, the less sense it makes to me that a person who truly believed it was morally wrong to invoke the Devil would allow such an exception.
The fact that a crowd of 10,000 screaming fans is (arguably) doing something very much akin to worshiping the mascot just makes it about 100,000x worse.
Back then perhaps the athletics were maybe more removed from the oversight of the university leadership. It may be that mascots were selected by energetic (drunk?) young people in an irreverent state of mind. Maybe even being a little rebellious.
Yes and no. Sure, the iconography has a history. No, "some guys in a computer lab" are hardly the first or only people to use the iconography for "something completely unrelated."
Do the same people who are offended by the BSD Daemon get all bent out of shape over the many devil and demon themed sports teams and other organizations that exist?
http://www.thesundevils.com/
http://bluedevils.org/
http://devils.nhl.com/
http://duke.fanatics.com/COLLEGE_Duke_Blue_Devils/browse/
Or by the existence of devil-themed consumer goods?
http://www.reddevil.com/
http://www.google.com/search?q=yellow+devils
Why should computer geeks be singled out for this sort of abuse?