Council of Europe attacks blasphemy laws

Blasphemy is part of a person's freedom of expression and should not be made illegal, a Council of Europe advisory body said in a report published Wednesday. The body’s constitutional law experts, the Venice Commission, argued that while inciting religious hatred should be a criminal offence, as is the case with almost all of the Council of Europe's 56…

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The intimate and inescapable connection that contemporary liberal believers like to see between God and love, theism and compassion, is largely a modern invention. It's far from universal now and it was vanishingly rare in the past. St Francis was an eccentric, not an exemplar. The painful truth is that still, to this day, most people who believe in a god believe in a god who is often vindictive, punitive and sometimes just plain cruel.

- Ophelia Benson on why God hates… Continue

The NSS Newsline is usually a pretty good source of information which is why I'm not immediately dismissing this article as being nothing more than a conspiracy theory.



What they are suggesting is that Blair's enthusiasm for the invasion of Iraq was inspired by a belief, shared with Bush, that the invasion was a “holy mission” and "a fulfilment of Biblical prophecy".



Personally, I don't think… Continue

If you are Irish, or living in Ireland, a new website has been set up to campaign against the regressive anti-blasphemy legislation proposed by Dermot Ahern.



The site is well worth a visit and includes a wealth of background material, including a history of Irish Blasphemy Law that brings us right up to the current situation:

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on…

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Once upon a time, four blind men were walking in the forest, and they bumped into an elephant. Moe was in front, and found himself holding the trunk. "It has a tentacle," he said. "I think we have found a giant squid!"



Larry bumped into the side of the elephant. "It's a wall," he said, "A big, bristly wall."



Curly, at the back, touched the tail. "It's nothing to worry about, nothing but a piece of rope dangling in the trail."



Eagletosh saw the…

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This is simultaneously amusing and depressing.