Published by Atheist Ireland on 1 January 2010
1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.
2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.
3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.
4. Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909: “Also it has another name – The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… 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… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.” Twain’s book was published posthumously in 1939. His daughter, Clara Clemens, at first objected to it being published, but later changed her mind in 1960 when she believed that public opinion had grown more tolerant of the expression of such ideas. That was half a century before Fianna Fail and the Green Party imposed a new blasphemy law on the people of Ireland.
5. Tom Lehrer, The Vatican Rag, 1963: “Get in line in that processional, step into that small confessional. There, the guy who’s got religion’ll tell you if your sin’s original. If it is, try playing it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer. Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate!”
6. Randy Newman, God’s Song, 1972: “And the Lord said: I burn down your cities – how blind you must be. I take from you your children, and you say how blessed are we. You all must be crazy to put your faith in me. That’s why I love mankind.”
7. James Kirkup, The Love That Dares to Speak its Name, 1976: “While they prepared the tomb I kept guard over him. His mother and the Magdalen had gone to fetch clean linen to shroud his nakedness. I was alone with him… I laid my lips around the tip of that great cock, the instrument of our salvation, our eternal joy. The shaft, still throbbed, anointed with death’s final ejaculation.” This extract is from a poem that led to the last successful blasphemy prosecution in Britain, when Denis Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence after he published it in the now-defunct magazine Gay News. In 2002, a public reading of the poem, on the steps of St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, failed to lead to any prosecution. In 2008, the British Parliament abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.
8. Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath, in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, 1979: “Look, I had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.”
9. Rev Ian Paisley MEP to the Pope in the European Parliament, 1988: “I denounce you as the Antichrist.” Paisley’s website describes the Antichrist as being “a liar, the true son of the father of lies, the original liar from the beginning… he will imitate Christ, a diabolical imitation, Satan transformed into an angel of light, which will deceive the world.”
10. Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1989: “In the last century the Arab thinker Jamal al-Afghani wrote: ‘Every Muslim is sick and his only remedy is in the Koran.’ Unfortunately the sickness gets worse the more the remedy is taken.”
11. Frank Zappa, 1989: “If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine – but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve been bad or good – and cares about any of it – to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.”
12. Salman Rushdie, 1990: “The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas – uncertainty, progress, change – into crimes.” In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because of blasphemous passages in Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses.
13. Bjork, 1995: “I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one it would be Buddhism. It seems more livable, closer to men… I’ve been reading about reincarnation, and the Buddhists say we come back as animals and they refer to them as lesser beings. Well, animals aren’t lesser beings, they’re just like us. So I say fuck the Buddhists.”
14. Amanda Donohoe on her role in the Ken Russell movie Lair of the White Worm, 1995: “Spitting on Christ was a great deal of fun. I can’t embrace a male god who has persecuted female sexuality throughout the ages, and that persecution still goes on today all over the world.”
15. George Carlin, 1999: “Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!”
16. Paul Woodfull as Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly, The Ballad of Jaysus Christ, 2000: “He said me ma’s a virgin and sure no one disagreed, Cause they knew a lad who walks on water’s handy with his feet… Jaysus oh Jaysus, as cool as bleedin’ ice, With all the scrubbers in Israel he could not be enticed, Jaysus oh Jaysus, it’s funny you never rode, Cause it’s you I do be shoutin’ for each time I shoot me load.”
17. Jesus Christ, in Jerry Springer The Opera, 2003: “Actually, I’m a bit gay.” In 2005, the Christian Institute tried to bring a prosecution against the BBC for screening Jerry Springer the Opera, but the UK courts refused to issue a summons.
18. Tim Minchin, Ten-foot Cock and a Few Hundred Virgins, 2005: “So you’re gonna live in paradise, With a ten-foot cock and a few hundred virgins, So you’re gonna sacrifice your life, For a shot at the greener grass, And when the Lord comes down with his shiny rod of judgment, He’s gonna kick my heathen ass.”
19. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, 2006: “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, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” In 2007 Turkish publisher Erol Karaaslan was charged with the crime of insulting believers for publishing a Turkish translation of The God Delusion. He was acquitted in 2008, but another charge was brought in 2009. Karaaslan told the court that “it is a right to criticise religions and beliefs as part of the freedom of thought and expression.”
20. Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, 2006: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This statement has already led to both outrage and condemnation of the outrage. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world’s largest Muslim body, said it was a “character assassination of the prophet Muhammad”. The Malaysian Prime Minister said that “the Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created.” Pakistan’s foreign Ministry spokesperson said that “anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence”. The European Commission said that “reactions which are disproportionate and which are tantamount to rejecting freedom of speech are unacceptable.”
21. Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great, 2007: “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… 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.”
22. PZ Myers, on his desecration of a Roman Catholic communion host, 2008: “You would not believe how many people are writing to me, insisting that these horrible little crackers (they look like flattened bits of styrofoam) are literally pieces of their god, and that this omnipotent being who created the universe can actually be seriously harmed by some third-rate liberal intellectual at a third-rate university… However, inspired by an old woodcut of Jews stabbing the host, I thought of a simple, quick thing to do: I pierced it with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash, followed by the classic, decorative items of trash cans everywhere, old coffeegrounds and a banana peel.”
23. Ian O’Doherty, 2009: “(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.”
24. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, 2009: “Whether a person is atheist or any other, there is in fact in my view something not totally human if they leave out the transcendent… we call it God… I think that if you leave that out you are not fully human.” Because atheism is not a religion, the Irish blasphemy law does not protect atheists from abusive and insulting statements about their fundamental beliefs. While atheists are not seeking such protection, we include the statement here to point out that it is discriminatory that this law does not hold all citizens equal.
25. Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister for Justice, introducing his blasphemy law at an Oireachtas Justice Committee meeting, 2009, and referring to comments made about him personally: “They are blasphemous.” Deputy Pat Rabbitte replied: “Given the Minister’s self-image, it could very well be that we are blaspheming,” and Minister Ahern replied: “Deputy Rabbitte says that I am close to the baby Jesus, I am so pure.” So here we have an Irish Justice Minister joking about himself being blasphemed, at a parliamentary Justice Committee discussing his own blasphemy law, that could make his own jokes illegal.
Finally, as a bonus, Micheal Martin, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, opposing attempts by Islamic States to make defamation of religion a crime at UN level, 2009: “We believe that the concept of defamation of religion is not consistent with the promotion and protection of human rights. It can be used to justify arbitrary limitations on, or the denial of, freedom of expression. Indeed, Ireland considers that freedom of expression is a key and inherent element in the manifestation of freedom of thought and conscience and as such is complementary to freedom of religion or belief.” Just months after Minister Martin made this comment, his colleague Dermot Ahern introduced Ireland’s new blasphemy law.
224 Comments
It would be interesting the reaction of the god fearing brigade if we were to stage a symbolic burning of religious books.
Here in Finland we have quite active forum board Suomi24, containing an atheism discussions as well, which is currently 2nd what comes into popularity.
Let see whether your poor legislation create discussion over here (in Finnish) http://keskustelu.suomi24.fi/node/8739903/thread
Great stuff – with insight to highlight this silly legislation – is this one of FF’s classic political tradeoff’s??? if not this, then what is this legislation doing in Ireland in ths day and age???
Carry on! It’s not so easy on this side of the Atlantic (US) either. Happy New year.
Blasphemy is a victimless Crime, however all Religions are all crimes with multitudes of victims, both within their ‘holy’ pages and their bloody histories of trying to gain control of the world, while spouting of supernatural rewards after death to prey on the thick, ignorant, frightened polulace and to keep them in line with threats of Hell. Keep it and grow up or else the Religionists will take us back to the Dark ages. No God = No Victim = No crime. Just a bunch of control freak Priests, Rabbis and Mullahs, trying (and suceeding) to scare you all into submission. Stand up to the superstitious claptrap.
read on the dutch teletext about your action. great list. you have my sympathy. good luck from the netherlands.
Hope you get al the support you need in this ,al the best in 2010
There’s something really quite funny about athiests pontificating on the subject of blasphemy.
There are just so many logical contradictions in there – but the point is almost certainly lost on the atheists.
Hello!
I’m just reading an article on a french news-website about your organization and the law voted recently.
I think this law is not the best thing to decide, but I also think, as a protestant believer, that you CAN NOT take sentences out of their context, even if it’s about each religion. Specially to serve your atheist opinion.
Please excuse my bad english.
Freedom of speech ans freedom from religion !!
Thomas Jefferson had a few choice words about Christianity:
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. ” 1782
“Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being.” 1820
“And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter.” 1823
Wow even as a christian apologist I can see that this law is absolute madness!! I’ve only just heard about this new law over there…shocked to say the least.
I apologise to you guys for having to suffer under such a stupid law.
Sure as a Christian I take the idea of blashephy against God sereously, however what you do on this earth now is between yourselves and God after death, you shouldn’t be punished for a law that was written for the Jewish/Israelite nation over 2000 years ago. They made a covernant/promise with God a sort of contract between the nation and God..however you guys in Ireland have done no such thing!
Sincere Apologies from a Christian.
As a Canadian who was thinking about a trip to Ireland in the future, I will now reconsider and travel to a different place, as freedom of expression means more to me than a vacation. I think Ireland will find a drop off in tourism and have a blow to their economy because of people staying away on principal. Luckily you are still allowed to criticize government, but you better hurry because soon a law like this is a slippery slope that leads to total fascism.
Best of luck with the campaign and greetings from a fellow Atheist in Northern Ireland.
Another stupid move by a stupid government.
Hi folks – As a Christian I find your website interesting. Interesting on why you actively put down the Bible and Christianity, and other religions. To me this opposition makes your cause of Atheism a religion in itself. Why don’t you just not bother. After all if there’s nothing to it why not just let the Christians believe their own stories.
As a Christian the code I live my life by is found in the Bible. I believe there is something more to the few years we have on this planet. While I’m here I’ll try to help others, do some good and if anyone wants to find out from me what gives my life purpose and contentment then I’ll tell them about my FAITH.
I think many Christians have doubts from time to time however like the other night when out walking I saw the moon – what good luck for us that it reflects the sun’s light to give us light at night – just one small example of the Creator’s design.
Of course if I’m wrong and there’s no heaven for me on the other side of death it won’t matter I’ve lived a full and happy life here, however if you folk find out your were wrong……..!
Religion of any type has much to answer for in history – WE DON”T NEED RELIGION WE NEED THE LOVE OF GOD as Brian Houston sings
If you believe what you believe enough to be on this site then I won’t change your mind as you won’t I, however I do wish you a happy new year in AD2010.
Go on comrades
Theugglyest sons of France , (oldest daughter of Catholic Church!), are with you
Great work. I support you. Many thanks for publish this quotations.
Sound’s like the religious are still trying to control everyone, and degrade those that don’t happen to believe the same things they do.
Silly, all of it really. God is between you and Him, that’s all.
This law is complete joke and completely hypocritical, i think the christians are not getting the point. The point, as i see it is not that people want the ability to insult religious people, but the right to free speech, if i want to talk about a cosmic Jew who was his own father by a virgin that can enable you to live forever if you ‘symbolically’ eat his flesh, drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so that he can remove an evil force from something invisible called your soul that is present because a woman made from a rib was convinced by a talking snake to eat an apple from a magical tree, i don’t want to be fined for causing some poor soul “outrage”.
I don’t think anyone should be belittled for beliefs, but neither should we incentivise said outrage.
Keep up the good work. The power of religion and delusion needs to be broken. It offends me to be asked to swear on a bible in a court, to endure grace before meals at functions, to hear the angulus on a tv station I am paying for through my licence fees.
These new blasphemy laws are the latest outrage. As a performer I am going to create a routine which blasphemes the major religions and perform it until I am prosecuted or the law is struck off.
Anthony Galvin.
I find it very comical that christians say they prefer to live their life with a god rather than a life without–just in case they are wrong. Living life with a made up being that doesnt exist is not only silly but proves how fear, and abandonment play in your life.
As far a the Irish government passing this law…it goes without saying the the law benifits no one and will be impossible to enforce. In fact I plan on visiting that country wearing one of my special T-shirts blaring one of these quotes.
Jesus
Check out the church of the flying spaghetti monster (FSM), for those who’ve never heard of it… Become a fan on Facebook…
I posted a link to this article on my Facebook page in the interests of free speech and was promptly “de-friended” by two people (and counting)!
I respect everyone’s right to believe in whatever they want and to express it.
It was interesting to see those who cannot accept any alternative view to their own. Superstition and paranoia about what ‘others’ think is the great control
that religion exercises.
As for the quotes, George Carlin (Quote 15) sums the hypocrisy up beautifully.
Greetings from Sweden!
I just want to say that I fully support what you are doing.
Keep up the great work!
Cheers
Having had my boots on the Hibernian ground for more decades that I’d care to remember I’ve learnt that the Irish are thoughtless reactionaries par none.
Some one comes up with an idea, no matter how idiotic and the Irish will campaign.
Example:
There has been a surge of assaults with knives in Ireland over the past few years.
A politician actually propossed that in the future ALL knives sold in Ireland be manufactured with “rounded tips” in order to make them less likely to penetrate.
FACT:
1) Irish motor vehicle laws have no provision to madate the holder of a driver’s licence to notify the authorities when they change address.
2) It’s estimated 60% of Irish driver’s locence holders have the INCORRECT address on their current, valid licence.
3) Traffic tickets are not issued “on the spot”. The Garda takes the driver’s info from the licence and a “summons” is mailed (posted). 60% of these summonses are not received.
4) If the traffic law offender is ever brought before a judge (very unlikely) he or she just testifies they never received the summons and the judge dismisses the charges.
FACT:
Ikea built a store in Dublin just off the M-50 motorway. It was completed and ready to open at the end of 2007. The Irish failed to provide an access road to the Ikea store for another 10–months. The store sat idle for almost a year because the Irish government has absolutely no grasp of reality. And if the people who elect these morons keep electing them then their must be a connection with the populace and the passing of idiotic laws like the blasphemey law.
How do you utter “DUH” in Irish?
Hi from Slovakia!
Fight for your free speech. I’m with you.
The word “Law” in itself is not a well defined entity as it is invoked by the ruling class as it suits them. So the word “Law” is a matter of “Interpretation” only and as you invoke it. Same way, word “blaspheme” to one may be obnoxious and repellent; whereas it may be just the opposite to others. Who is going to decide? Difficult to find the arbitrator. That is the indomitable cause of needless fight world over; because of the combination of “High intelligence with the low desires”.
Dr. O. P. Sudrania
The god of this world is mamon (money),
To obtain money, power is aquired.
To gain a lot of power you’re gonna need of lot of people backing you up.
Here’s where religion comes in.
Fear money not religion.
Personal opinion: Atheist people are the most religeous people i met so far, no offense
http://jeffpeel.net/2010/01/03/atheist-ireland-takes-a-pop-at-irish-blasphemy-law/
God is Nature, which we blaspheme around the clock by our misguided actions. No matter what you believe, you have a right to your beliefs until they threaten others. Atheists pose no threat to anyone but the fearful and credulous. Keep on truckin’, Irish blasphemers.
gods be damned! I am having a hard time understanding how a law like this can be passed in this day and age, knowing all that we know now. Are we going through another dark age? Keep up the good fight and thanks for helping to raise consciousness about equal rights for non-believers, the importance of freedom of speech and the dire need for separation of church and state.
-Angela
Florida, USA
‘O stony grey soil’
O stony grey soil of religion
The laugh from my love you thieved
You took the gay child of my passion
And gave me your lies conceived
You clogged the feet of my boyhood
And I believed that my stumble
Had the poise and stride of Apollo
And his voice my thick tongued mumble
You told me that God was immortal!
O mean life-conquering God!
The untruths stained, your dogma blunted
I defy your attempts to defraud
You sang on steaming dunghills
A song of cowards’ brood,
You perfumed my clothes with incense
You banned me from swinish food
You flung a ditch on my vision
Of beauty, love and truth.
O stony grey soil of religion
You burgled my bank of youth!
Lost the long hours of pleasure
All the women that love young men
O can I still stroke good reason’s back
Or write with unpoisoned pen
Truth’s name in these lonely verses
Or mention the dark fields where
The first gay flight of my lyric
Got caught in a peasant’s prayer
In Islam, the Christians and Jews
Wherever I turn I see
In the stony grey soil of religion
Dead loves that were born for me
Tell them to shove their fucking laws up their god-crazed asses. Break them too, while you’re at it!
My full support from Italy, fellow atheists!
This law is a shame for the whole Europe.
Why do you use an outdated version of the Bible? If you wanted more historical accuracy, you would use the original Greek text in which it was written. If you wanted readers to be able to understand the closest translation with modern English, you would use modern English. But you use the Old English of the King James Bible from hundreds of years ago!?!?
Is this a political statement about your imperial loyalties?
“After all if there’s nothing to it why not just let the Christians believe their own stories” -James
My dear James…we are more than happy to let the Christianists & the Islamists (same shit, different pile)believe their own little stories. The problem is is that they are determined to force ALL of us believe their little stories as well, and as history clearly shows, they are not beyond killing people to do it.
Recipe to Screw the Irish Government:
(1) Start with one fresh Lisbon “Treaty” (Yes, that’s right, their own laws!);
(2) Add a large portion of the Primacy Clause wherein the new EU Federal State is given primacy over the Irish Constitution by the Lisbon Treaty (Articles 1 and 47 Treaty on European Union– TEU – as amended by the Lisbon Treaty; Declaration 17A concerning Primacy);
(3) Add an equal portion of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides a right to freedom of expression across the 47 nations of the Council of Europe, including Ireland, and which the state is obliged to protect;
(4) Add a pinch of disgruntled native Irish men and women;
(5) Stir with the fact that the legally binding Articles arising from the European Convention on Human Rights in a post-Lisbon 2 Treaty Ireland are in fact, binding upon Ireland, since Ireland is now just a “member state” in a greater United States of Europe;
(6) Gently form a short, coherent grievance statement for the upcoming legal complaint against the Irish government as such: “Blasphemy laws silence people in order to protect ideas and thusly are inherently unjust rendering them a violation of human rights” (Of course, adjust wording to taste);
(7) Cook up a coalition, if possible, to muster as many dissidents as possible (It is noteworthy that anyone, including Muslims, can be fined under the law if they simply deny Jesus is the Messiah-which indeed, they must do if they are devout Muslims. Of course, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Atheists, Witches, Satanists, Animists, etc., could all be terribly persecuted by this “Blasphemy Law” );
(8) Simmer until the mixture bubbles;
(9) Serve up multiple portions as needed in order to tie up (and screw) the Irish government for the next generation or two.
Now that’s a recipe. Don’t you love it? The Irish government screwed itself by pushing the Lisbon 2 “Treaty” and perhaps now the “Treaty”, among other things, can be used to screw the government with endless legal entanglements!
Bon Appetit!
http://blog.antilisbontreaty.com/2010/01/03/a-legal-flaw-in-the-irish-blasphemy-law.aspx
I find the last quote the most disturbing – when the Justice Minister thinks he’s God (or at least sacred), you are indeed on the slippery slope to fascism.
It will be interesting to see if Mr Ahern feels obliged to prosecute your site in respect of your blasphemous statements about the great man Himself.
Well done on opposing this absurd law. Our happy-clappy politicians in Australia will be watching with interest to see if they can lumber us with something similar.
Like many previous posters, I’m not an atheist, but atheism is moving us closer to the truth (or lack thereof) of the supernatural than religion ever will
Oh my fucking God…xD
Well done Michael. What a ridiculous distraction Ahern has served up. I see they’ve called you a crackpot. Who are these people kidding?
Gilbert O’Sullivan: But as if to knock me down,
Reality came around
And without so much as a mere touch,
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt,
All about God and His mercy
For if He really does exist
Why did He desert me
In my hour of need? I truly am indeed,
Alone again, naturally
@the m.u.f.c. chap: When Bohemian FC fans call Kevin Hunt ‘God’, should Dermot Ahern and/or the FAI fine them?
I guess that leaves the scientology cult, er, organization out of Ireland though. They love to sling the insults. It would be priceless to see some of them prosecuted by this new law. Otherwise, this law promotes a very dangerous premise. Given Dermot Ahern’s statement above, if taken the right way, may have you all imprisoned for speaking out against your government. Let’s all hope that this isn’t what was implied. (He’s as pure as baby jesus……… JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ON A POGO STICK)
Great list to start off with. Good luck fighting this ugly law and the creeping destruction of our most precious rights. We freethinkers and non-theist citizens of U.S. support you.
It saddens me to think that in 2010, we still have to fight this medieval monstrosity.
Is it a blasphemy when a rabbi offers cocaine for sex?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/8367085.stm
or does this silly law apply to the catholic church?
Those quotes simply aren’t bad enough to inspire the result you want.
How about something like jesus and mohummad were gay lovers who regularly molested goats at he behest of satan???
Come and get me!!!!
Freedom of speech is the basic rule to freedom of thought. I understand that religious people wish to worship their belief, but why should they impose silence to others?
The idea in blasphemy is that you do it against your own belief. If you dont believe in it, its not a basphem.
As for having a United Nation rule over this, please help promote http://www.secularnations.org
This organization promotes balanced ideas to nations rulers and to United Nations.
Thanks.
What the hell inspired Dermot Ahern to re-read the constitution and of all things to decide on changing, choose something as out dated as blasphemy!?!
Anyway, I wrote a blog about it and used the 25 quotes in it, so hopefully that’ll help a bit
Darah
darahcn.wordpress.com
A short film detailing the history and context of the Irish Blasphemy Legislation. http://blasphemy-law-ireland.blogspot.com/2010/01/everybody-knows-what-blasphemy-is-short.html
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