Blasphemy laws lead to dictatorships and theocracies

[cbayer]

http://www.chicagonow.com/an-agnostic-in-wheaton/2012/09/blasphemy-laws-lead-to-dictatorships-and-theocracies/


By James Kirk Wall, today at 7:34 am
Once it is illegal to criticize or mock a religion, all a man has to do is associate themselves with that establishment to receive the same protection. Throughout history religion and power have gone hand in hand. It’s one thing to assert authority through a family name or abilities, but quite another to claim an authority that comes from god, an indisputable divine supremacy. Many men have claimed to be doing the will of god and therefore any opposition they have declared to be blasphemous.

No god or adult in a position of government authority should ever be exempt from ridicule. That doesn’t mean everyone should mock every religion and politician, it simply means such action cannot be made illegal in a free society. No one should be able to claim power by silencing all opposition under threat of imprisonment or death. There is a reason why the Founding Fathers of the United States wrote the First Amendment guaranteeing Free Speech. There is a reason why the Constitution begins with “We the People.” If the Founding Fathers wanted a dictatorship, they would have created one. They desired something different, something morally superior. A society based on individual rights and liberty; a society where neither politicians nor clergymen are above the law or deserving of protection that would violate any individual’s right to voice opposition.

There are people pushing for a U.N. resolution that would make blasphemy an international crime. These people stink of ignorance and hypocrisy. How many Muslims demanding a blasphemy law have no issue with constant mockery of the Jews or desecration of a Bible? Do they really seek protection for all religions, or only Islam? The naïve apologists out to appease the violent acts of extremists are also in support of these laws. Rewarding violent behavior will never bring peace; it will only spawn further violence.

The most ignorant statement regarding free speech was from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “Freedom of thought and belief ends where the freedom of thought and belief of others start. You can say anything about your thoughts and beliefs, but you will have to stop when you are at the border of others’ freedoms.” This statement stands in opposition to all of human progress. Under this mentally debilitating ideology our societies would be forever stagnant. Every advancement in science and social progress has come from the challenging of other people’s ideas, not ending thought at other people’s beliefs. A belief is worth nothing if it cannot withstand scrutiny. A belief that has substance rests on knowledge, not fear and condemnation of criticism.

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[Viva_Daddy]

1. One person's blasphemy is my freedom of speech.

[msongs]

2. people with weak religious beliefs/faith are afraid of free speech nt

[MineralMan]

3. Blasphemy laws are the mark of a weak society

with a weak religion. If some deity is pissed at being dissed, it would seem that the deity could deal with the issue itself if it's any sort of credible deity. There's no need for blasphemy laws if there are really omnipotent, omnipresent deities. Such laws are for religious leaders and followers only.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Hard to tell what's the 'chicken' and what's the 'egg'

Perhaps it's more that anti-blasphemy laws can only be effectively enforced by dictatorships and theocracies, rather than that the laws cause the dictatorships and theocracies.

Anyone care to guess when blasphemy laws were abolished in the UK? You may be surprised at the answer:

2008!

Clearly we were not a theocracy for quite some time before that. And because of this, the blasphemy laws could not be enforced, though the late Mary Whitehouse made a complete idiot of herself trying to get them to be.

Certainly, blasphemy laws are utterly stupid and undemocratic and certainly help to prop up dictatorships and theocracies, and they should be abolished everywhere!

[Humanist_Activist]

5. Even some states in the United States had blasphemy laws that were enforced all the way up to 2009..

they are struck down by the courts all the time as unconstitutional, many of these laws date back to around the Revolutionary War period, the most recent passed as late as the 1970s.