Field of Science

Irish blasphemers

Atheist Ireland has put up a list with quotes by famous people who would have fallen under the new blasphemy law in Ireland. It includes Mr Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Tom Lehrer, Frank Zappa, Salman Rushdie, Bjørk, George Carlin (duh!), Tim Minchin, Richard Dawkins, the current Pope, Christopher Hitchens, PZ Myers, and some Irish clergy and politicians to round it off.

Clearly this blasphemy law, making material "that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage" a crime, will not work, unless they plan to seriously fine their own politicians and clergy €25,000 (though I wonder if they get a pass because what they said was not intended to cause an outrage).

I am not scheduled to go to Ireland any time soon, but foreseeing that I will at some point (and that I have loads of Irish readers - 208 to be exact in 2009), I will here post something that I trust someone will find grossly abusive or insulting to their religion, intending and hoping to cause an outrage among a substantial number Christians:

"The Christian doctrine that a good person is expected to go to Heaven enjoying the rest of eternity while some of his or her loved ones will be tortured in Hell for the same amount of time, because they didn't live up to the same standard, is so emphatically evil, that should God really exist, I hope to get the chance to say to his damned racist, misogynist, vain, unjust, unloving, and selfish face just how much I despise him."

Additionally, since the Irish law doesn't define "any religion", I think before I go to Ireland I better give people a fair warning that according to my personal religion, under which it is blasphemy to refer to The Religion as anything but "The Religion", it is highly blasphemous to talk about the notion of life after death, because in The Religion we aren't given any information about the afterlife, and therefore it may not be discussed in any form or shape, including it's very existence, except by the high clergy of The Religion, which currently includes only me, and doing so will tangibly insult and abuse all followers of The Religion, which currently also only includes me.


Interestingly, PZ will be going to Ireland soon. Hopefully he will get arrested on arrival.


Update 1/4/2010:
George Carlin is just too precious not to quote:
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!”

2 comments:

  1. You should found a religion that worships the f__k word, and everybody who uses it as in insult saying f___you, becomes insulting your believes....

    Ireland will go to jail as a closed formation.

    Cheers
    Arend

    ReplyDelete
  2. And why does the Big G need money, anyway? Has his permit to create stuff out of nothing expired? Could he not, in his Omnipotence, wangle an extension? (Who or what he would wangle it from is a separate question, and not germain to the point.) If he needs something done, can he no longer just "make it so"?

    Maybe he's been "downsized"? Busted to the ranks?

    cicely

    ReplyDelete

Markup Key:
- <b>bold</b> = bold
- <i>italic</i> = italic
- <a href="http://www.fieldofscience.com/">FoS</a> = FoS