Publishing or performing this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed.
May 10, 2009
May 8, 2009
Is God the Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction?
Publishing or saying this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthristy ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006
Jesus Christ! The Musical – Jesus Will Survive
Publishing this could be illegal in Ireland if the new blasphemy law is passed.
May 7, 2009
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
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 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
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
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.