From Ireland’s new ‘blasphemy law’
Section 36
(1) A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000. [Amended to €25,000]
(2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if (a) he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion, and (b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.
As Les notes at StupidEvilBastard.com, this part of the bill makes it illegal to criticize any religion either verbally or in writing.
SO. Here goes.
There is no evidence of any god, Abrahmic or otherwise.
There is no evidence that anything in Genesis is true.
There is no evidence, indeed no reference outside of the Bible, of Jesus Son of god. There may have well been a wandering rabbi/heretic called Jesus, but the Romans never mention him. Don’t quote Pliny and Josephus, they talk about ChristIANS- it’s like says seeing Tom Cruise in a movie proves Scientology is correct.
You may be interested to know I have seen it argued that ‘Jesus’ was a name of a number of Jews, and had no special connotation- this is why Pilate is so careful with asking the crowd who to release, maybe Barabbas’ name was also Jesus (Bar Abbas=son of Abbas).
Whatever the truth of 2000 years ago, that cracker and wine certainly doesn’t turn into his flesh and blood.
Denying contraception on the basis of religious texts from thousands of years ago is evil, using them isn’t.
Ditto “Teh gays”.
While I’m about it.
There almost certainly is no god (see above re lack of evidence), not even Allah. Ergo Muhammed was not his prophet. (Cos there is no prophet Atheism; boom-boom. I’m here all week).
And Wiccans- No, you are not a Witch of any sort, black, white or spangly (A “Do what?” possibly, but not a witch). There is no Earth spirit.
MOST IMPORTANTLY.
It is wrong to hate someone because of a belief in something that isn’t your belief.
Now as an atheist I don’t care what you do in the privacy of your own home or place of worship. However
- Don’t expect me to fund it through taxation.
- Don’t expect me to agree with you, and if I spot a flaw in your religeous arguement dont expect me to gloss over it if you rely on that flaw.
- Don’t assume that you get extra rights because of your belief. (well ok- in Ireland you do, but don’t expect me to agree with that).
- Don’t expect me to be quiet if you want it taught as ‘Scientific Fact’ in schools.
- or indeed want your private beliefs to be considered more protected than my private beliefs
See, depite what you may think there is no such thing as a Militant Atheist- Not even Richard Dawkins. We don’t go around pushing newspapers through doors asking “Have you heard the Good News about Science?”. We don’t stand in town squares reading bits out of ‘Origin of Species’, or complaining when science shows that something we believe in isn’t true.
I’ll admit I was put out when Pluto was declared ‘not a planet’, but that is emotional attachment to a world view that proved to be wrong. Einstein felt the same way when Nils Bohr showed some of Einstein’s theories to be wrong. But it is just that- emotional attachment to a childhood. I’m never going to go there, and classification is an artificial Human construct. I am certainly not going to support a crusade or jihad demanding it be re-instated as a planet.
Now Ireland; I’ll admit the fact the Irish Sea is between you and me has made me a bit braver in posting this: I’m assuming you won’t go for the whole extradited thing via the EU (though I must say that is actually worrying me a little). But what are you going to do if the University of Dublin comes up with a bit of research that proves something that offends your Catholic mindset? Declare Science blasphemous and demand your fine?
