In 2018 it's time to make Blasphemy laws history
I believe in God.
I also believe that the view that an omnipotent being needs humans to impose blasphemy laws to protect Him from having His feelings hurt is a strong contender for the most ridiculous idea ever put forward, despite there being strong competition for that distinction.
Incidentally although it doesn't word it quite as bluntly as I just have, the Holy Qur'an says pretty much the same thing, Surah Al-Baqarah 2.256 usually being translated as "Let there be no compulsion in religion" or similar.
Yet, as 2018 begins, there are no fewer than 13 countries with barbaric laws that carry the death penalty for apostasy (renunciation of or conversion from a particular religion) or blasphemy (which can include atheism or humanism).
As Michael Bates points out in an excellent article on Conservative Home,
"Forty-six countries have laws that entirely prohibit certain religious groups. Governments and authorities in 96 countries exercise violence or discrimination against religious groups based on their religion or belief, whether in the form of arbitrary detention, physical violence and torture, or destruction of religious property."
As he also rightly points out, such laws
"... undermine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18 which declares: 'Everyone has the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.'
These words were enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 as the world came to terms with the scale of the Holocaust where, as a result purely of a religious belief, six million men, women and children were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime. This basic human right was not an incidental add-on, but something fundamental to seeking to prevent a repetition of the darkest chapter in human history."
Over the centuries people who follow every religion and every perspective on religion, including atheism and agnosticism, have been both the victims and the instigators of persecution of those who take a different view.
(A large number of atheists are under the mistaken apprehension that religious persecution is something that only religious believers do: in fact some of the cruellest and most blood-soaked religious persecutions in history have been carried out by atheist regimes such as the People's Republic of China.)
In the Middle East in recent year Islamist extremists such as DA'ESH have carried out vile persecutions of everyone of different belief systems to theirs - including Christians, Yazidis and other Muslims who don't toe the line - but in Burma at the moment the Rohinga Muslim people have been on the receiving end of a similarly vile campaign of victimisation. Just over a year ago there were about a million Rohingya Muslims living in Rakhine State in Myanmar (Burma) but over the past few months, over 600,000 of them have been forced to flee their homes and cross the border into neighbouring Bangladesh to escape persecution by the Burmese army and Buddhist extremists. How many Rohingya have been murdered, raped or wounded it is currently impossible to say but the answer is likely to be horrifying.
One of the steps forward we need to achieve in 2018 is to move towards it being universally acceptable for people to make up their own minds about the Universe, especially whether there is a God or not, and if there is what He or She is like.
The principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were sound when they were adopted and are still sound today both because they are right in themselves and as the only way to avoid horrible wars and tyranny.
It is high time that blasphemy laws of any kind and similar restrictions on freedom of religious belief (or non-belief) joined slavery, racism and sexism on the rubbish dump of history. May 2018 see progress towards that end.
I also believe that the view that an omnipotent being needs humans to impose blasphemy laws to protect Him from having His feelings hurt is a strong contender for the most ridiculous idea ever put forward, despite there being strong competition for that distinction.
Incidentally although it doesn't word it quite as bluntly as I just have, the Holy Qur'an says pretty much the same thing, Surah Al-Baqarah 2.256 usually being translated as "Let there be no compulsion in religion" or similar.
Yet, as 2018 begins, there are no fewer than 13 countries with barbaric laws that carry the death penalty for apostasy (renunciation of or conversion from a particular religion) or blasphemy (which can include atheism or humanism).
As Michael Bates points out in an excellent article on Conservative Home,
"Forty-six countries have laws that entirely prohibit certain religious groups. Governments and authorities in 96 countries exercise violence or discrimination against religious groups based on their religion or belief, whether in the form of arbitrary detention, physical violence and torture, or destruction of religious property."
As he also rightly points out, such laws
"... undermine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18 which declares: 'Everyone has the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.'
These words were enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 as the world came to terms with the scale of the Holocaust where, as a result purely of a religious belief, six million men, women and children were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime. This basic human right was not an incidental add-on, but something fundamental to seeking to prevent a repetition of the darkest chapter in human history."
Over the centuries people who follow every religion and every perspective on religion, including atheism and agnosticism, have been both the victims and the instigators of persecution of those who take a different view.
(A large number of atheists are under the mistaken apprehension that religious persecution is something that only religious believers do: in fact some of the cruellest and most blood-soaked religious persecutions in history have been carried out by atheist regimes such as the People's Republic of China.)
In the Middle East in recent year Islamist extremists such as DA'ESH have carried out vile persecutions of everyone of different belief systems to theirs - including Christians, Yazidis and other Muslims who don't toe the line - but in Burma at the moment the Rohinga Muslim people have been on the receiving end of a similarly vile campaign of victimisation. Just over a year ago there were about a million Rohingya Muslims living in Rakhine State in Myanmar (Burma) but over the past few months, over 600,000 of them have been forced to flee their homes and cross the border into neighbouring Bangladesh to escape persecution by the Burmese army and Buddhist extremists. How many Rohingya have been murdered, raped or wounded it is currently impossible to say but the answer is likely to be horrifying.
One of the steps forward we need to achieve in 2018 is to move towards it being universally acceptable for people to make up their own minds about the Universe, especially whether there is a God or not, and if there is what He or She is like.
The principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were sound when they were adopted and are still sound today both because they are right in themselves and as the only way to avoid horrible wars and tyranny.
It is high time that blasphemy laws of any kind and similar restrictions on freedom of religious belief (or non-belief) joined slavery, racism and sexism on the rubbish dump of history. May 2018 see progress towards that end.
Comments