Abolition of the crime of blasphemy

[jake-the-peg]

Today a cross party group are seeking the abolition of the crime of blasphemy.

This crime only protects Christianity and signatories calling for it's abolition bizzarrely include Richard Dawkins and the ArchBishop of Canterbury

Yet it's getting a somewhat luke warm response from the Government.

Is there any good reason to keep a piece of archaic legislation like this that hasn't been sucessfully used for decades?

Does Jesus need the protection of the law?

[Theland]

Sorry Vic, you are wrong.
I can call myself a Christian, and blow up doctors at abortion clinics, but that doesn't make me a Christian, it just gives Christianity a bad press.
A muslim, on the other hand, can blow you up, if he believes he is waging holy war, jihad, and he really really is a muslim. The peaceful muslims, are the apostates to their own religion, and thankfully, they are in the majority.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Interesting that Theland's notions of society essentially say that inequality between people is not desirable.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Sorry, that was b0ll0cks. I meant to write:

"Interesting that Theland's notions of society essentially say that equality between people is not desirable."

[Oneeyedvic]

A Christian is someone who believes himself to follow Christian values. Some Christians follow the Bible. Some do not. Some choose which parts they wish to follow.

A Muslim is someone who believes himself to follow Islamic values. Some Muslims follow the Koran. Some do not. Some choose which parts they wish to follow.

Both Christian & Islamic values and interpretations of the Holy Book can be (and have been) perverted.

Just because you believe in a different interpretation of Christianity does not make you right and another Christian wrong.

[jno]

Theland, I hope you wash yourself and your clothes if you touch a chair that a menstruating woman has sat on; otherwise you too are an apostate. Leviticus 15:22.

[Oneeyedvic]

And if you haven't heard this (Marcus Brigstocke's rant about Abrahamic faiths) I suggest it is good listening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42p2SO5wQag

[Theland]

Waldo, I don't think that a dearly held belief, that it is O.K. to blow up you train in the name of allah, should be protected by blasphemy laws. That's what it comes down to.

[WaldoMcFroog]

No it doesn't. You appear to have no understanding of what the existing blasphemy law covers.

May I suggest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3753408.stm

as a primer?

[jojojoanne]

what of blasphemy and it's role?..............and the bigger picture?

[Theland]

jno - by following the food and hygiene laws over many centuries, Jews were often spared the worst of diseases and epidemics. That was just another reason why they were often singled out for persecution. The Jew followed those laws, because the were given by God, not understanding the science behind them. It is only with the advances in science, that the value of these laws has been fully appreciated.

[WaldoMcFroog]

If the pig were so dirty that God had to ban them, it's odd that there's extensive evidence of them being consumed by other people in the same geographic region with no ill effects on health...

[jojojoanne]

is there life without blasphemy?..........

[Oneeyedvic]

That's why I am ill. Its not because of the flu virus - its because my wife sat on the same chair as me and I failed to wash my clothes in time.

d'oh

[Theland]

Should we all be allowed to lampoon, criticise and insult anything and everything accordint to whim?
Where would that leave us? A better place?

[Theland]

"according"

[whiffey]

It doesn't matter an iota whether it is retained or abolished. It is not difficult to see where Britain is headed. Christianity is on its way out anyway, and most people seem to be unconcerned about this.

They may depict any religion in any way they like as far as I am concerned. Reactions vary from a browned-off Mary Whitehouse to outright street violence. Either way, legislation can never affect what is in the heart and mind, and this is the only thing that matters.

[WaldoMcFroog]

"Should we all be allowed to lampoon, criticise and insult anything and everything accordint to whim?
Where would that leave us? A better place?"

You're like the librarian in The Name of the Rose, who would suppress Aristotle's book of Comedy, Theland.

[Theland]

whiffey - that is an excellent point. That is at the heart of Christian belief. Good civilised behaviour, cannot be achieved solely through legislation, although in many areas, a carrot and stick approach is pragmatic.
Jesus Christ was only concerned about what went on in the hearts and minds of people, he didn't lobby the authorities for changes in the law.
The Kingdom Of God will be established in Gods' own time, with or without a blasphemy law, it only remains for us to follow our conscience and act in accordance with it.

[naomi24]

Theland, sorry to be awkward, but you lampoon Islam on every whim and at every opportunity - and no, it doesn't make the world a better place. It only causes more friction. As I said to you recently, I'm not too happy about the number of immigrants coming to this country either, but they're here and they aren't going to go away, so to make the world a better place, we have to learn to live together - all of us. Laws that benefit one section of society above another must be abolished.

[Theland]

I think, Waldo, that those who wish to extend some protection to beliefs that are explicitly threatening to us, have a tiger by the tail, but they don't realise it yet.