Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed.
May 7, 2009
May 6, 2009
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.
May 5, 2009
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
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
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.
April 29, 2009
In the News – Wed April 29
- Crime of blasphemous libel proposed for Defamation Bill
(news item by Carol Coulter in the Irish Times) - Atheist Ireland responds to proposed law on RTE radio
(recording of Liveline, with Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland) - Ahern defends blasphemy changes
(news item on Irish Times website) - Religion doesn’t need protection
(opinion piece by Padraig Reidy in Index on Censorship)
Irish Constitution – All Authority Comes From God
What Eamon de Valera told the Dail during the debate on the 1937 Irish Constitution:
“I want everybody to realise what this Constitution states about authority. In the Preamble, and in the Article that refers to that, there is a clear, unequivocal statement that authority comes from God. That is fundamental. It does not matter what view a group of Catholic theologians may take as to how it comes to the immediate rulers. What we have here is clear at any rate – that authority is from God. That is fundamental Catholic doctrine, and it is here. It is true doctrine.”