- Blasphemy law only panders to the deranged instincts of an intolerant immigrant minority
(opinion piece by Kevin Myers in the Irish Independent)
May 7, 2009
In the News – Thursday May 7
Muslims and Public Religious Outrage
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed:
“Religious ‘outrage’ is an almost unknown phenomenon in our culture: but it is so common on the Islamic street that one often wonders: do Muslims know any other public mood? And whereas I can ask this question today, might it not be blasphemous under Dermot Ahern’s new law? For some Muslims might hold that it is grossly abusive or insulting to things they hold sacred, to dispute their right to endless public anger.”
Kevin Myers, Irish Independent, May 7 2009
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
Sarah Silverman – My Boyfriend is Catholic
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed.
May 6, 2009
In the News – Wed May 6
- Sinister blasphemy law would play into the hands of religious nut cases
(opinion piece by Stephen King in the Irish Examiner) - A blasphemy clause that does not fit the Bill
(opinion piece by Newton Emerson in the Irish Times) - Pakistan lawyer threatens to kill Christian charged with blasphemy
(news item in Compass Direct news) - Turkey puts novelist on trial for blasphemy
(news item in Press TV)
What if a Religion Deserves to be Disliked Intensely?
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed:
“But what is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion, if the activities or teachings of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be disliked intensely?
To criticise people for their race is manifestly irrational, but to criticise their religion is surely a right. The freedom to criticise or ridicule ideas – even if they are sincerely held beliefs – is a fundamental freedom.”
Stephen King, Irish Examiner, May 6 2009
George Bernard Shaw – Immorality Needs Protection
In 1909, George Bernard Shaw had a play (The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet ) banned for blasphemy. In a masterstroke of unwitting satire, the parliamentary committee examining the matter also suppressed the statement that Shaw gave them in his defence.
- Shaw said he deliberately wrote immoral and heretical plays, in order to challenge the public to reconsider its morals. He defined immorality as whatever is contrary to established manners and customs. He argued that it is immorality that needs protection, and morality that needs restraint.
- He cited examples of classic literature and role models that were once considered immoral and heretical. He noted that old immoralities such as Christianity and Islam are constantly promoted into becoming new moralities.
- He argued that no nation can prosper or even continue to exist without heretics and advocates of shockingly immoral doctrines, and that toleration and liberty have no sense or use except as toleration of opinions that are considered damnable, and liberty to do what seems wrong.
Read on for relevant extracts from Shaw’s powerful statement, plus a link to the full text of the statement and the play, and Shaw’s analysis of the controversy.
Monty Python – Every Sperm is Sacred
Publishing or performing this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed.
May 5, 2009
In the News – Tuesday May 5
- Absurdity of blasphemy law revived by Ahern
(opinion piece by Fintan O’Toole in the Irish Times)
Blasphemy Laws Protect Bigots, Not Religions
“A hundred years ago this month, Bernard Shaw’s little play The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet was refused a licence for performance by the English censors… How brilliant of Dermot Ahern to mark this important event in Irish intellectual life by reminding us of the absurdity of blasphemy laws.
Does he really think that it should be a crime to offend members of the Jedi church (from census returns that includes 70,000 people in Australia; 50,000 in New Zealand; 390,000 in the UK) by saying that a light sabre makes you look like a dork? Of course not.
With one satiric touch he has honoured the memory of Shaw, Yeats and Gregory and reminded us that blasphemy laws exist to protect, not religions, but bigots. For his next trick, he will mark the Darwin bicentenary by threatening to make creationism compulsory.”
Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times, May 5 2009
May 4, 2009
An Insane God who Requires Blood and Misery
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed:
“But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy — he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered.
He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty. The babies were innocent, the beasts were innocent, many of the men, many of the women, many of the boys, many of the girls were innocent, yet they had to suffer with the guilty. What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.”
Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, 1909
May 3, 2009
In the News – Sunday May 3
- Atheist Ireland fights to keep God out of Irish law
(news item by Henry McDonald in the Observer) - Dermot Ahern is a Catholic fundamentalist
(opinion piece by Diarmuid Doyle in the Sunday Tribune) - New libel law is a threat to free speech
(opinion piece in the Sunday Times)
Is Islam a Separate Religion At All?
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed:
“There is some question as to whether Islam is a separate religion at all… Islam when examined is not much more than a rather obvious and ill-arranged set of plagiarisms, helping itself from earlier books and traditions as occasion appeared to require…
Islam in its origins is just as shady and approximate as those from which it took its borrowings. It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or “surrender” as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing—absolutely nothing—in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.”
Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great, 2007
Bill Maher on Religion
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed.
May 2, 2009
In the News – Saturday May 2
- Green TD in blasphemy challenge
(news item in The Times) - Pakistan – Christian families accused of blasphemy
(news item in the Daily Times)
Pope John Paul II Opposed Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws
The following is an extract from a speech by Pope John Paul II in May 2003, addressing the new Ambassador to the Holy See from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
“Your Excellency, I am pleased to acknowledge the considerable political reforms which have recently been implemented in Pakistan for the improvement of civic life… Nevertheless it must also be noted that the grievances which continue to be felt particularly among the Christian minority in your country detract from the overall well-being of the nation. The grave difficulties that the Blasphemy Laws cause and the incidents of violence and vandalism against Christians and their properties have been well documented.”
Pope John Paul was right about this. And blasphemy laws are as wrong in Ireland in 2009 as they were in Pakistan in 2003.
May 1, 2009
In the News – Friday May 1
- Position of blasphemy in our Constitution cannot be ignored
(opinion piece by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern in the Irish Times) - Churches not consulted about blasphemy law proposal
(news item by Carol Coulter in the Irish Times) - Crime of blasphemy dangerous and silly
(opinion piece by John Waters in the Irish Times) - Mystery surrounds reform of our laws on blasphemy
(opinion piece by David Quinn in the Irish Independent)
Transubstantiation and Desert Superstitions
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed:
“(If defamation of religion was illegal) it would be a crime for me to say that the notion of transubstantiation is so ridiculous that even a small child should be able to see the insanity and utter physical impossibility of a piece of bread and some wine somehow taking on corporeal form. It would be a crime for me to say that Islam is a backward desert superstition that has no place in modern, enlightened Europe and it would be a crime to point out that Jewish settlers in Israel who believe they have a God given right to take the land are, frankly, mad. All the above assertions will, no doubt, offend someone or other.”
Ian O’Doherty, Irish Independent, March 6 2009
George Carlin – Religion is Bullshit
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed.