Blasphemy Laws are Legal Protection of Nonsense

The blasphemy laws are the legal protection of nonsense. Why is there not an equivalent of the blasphemy laws for science? The reason is that science can take any criticism leveled against it. That’s how science, and therefore our understanding of the universe, continue to develop. 

Factions of scientists do not engage in sectarian violence to the death because one group believes in the Steady State theory while another believes in the Big Bang. Scientists do not picket films that have a perceived anti-scientific stance. There were no howling mobs outside cinemas showing I Robot.

There is a great deal of anti-science in the world but scientists do not congregate waving placards and threatening death to anyone who denies the existence of Einstein. Nor do they place fatwas on those who deny quantum mechanics. They have better things to do.

Nick Harding, How to be a Good Atheist, 2007