Unfortunately our schedules are getting very busy right now so there will not be a new episode this week as originally planed. Look for episode 55 of Reasonable Doubts (which discusses Darwin's views on race) next week. In the meantime please enjoy this extra material1. William Crawley from the BBC show Everyday Ethics interviews RD's Luke Galen about the Profiles of the Godless survey.
2. Jeremy Beahan's speech to Blasphemy Bash, an event hosted by Grand Valley State Universities CFI On Campus group to celebrate Blasphemy Day International 2009.
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4 comments:
The U.N. "Combating defamation of religions" resolution purports to protect ALL religions from criticism. The resolution makes frequent references of this nature: "respect people regardless of their different religions and beliefs". You know what's missing? A definition for "religion".
What is a religion? Is Scientology a religion? The I.R.S. says they are. I guess they're above reproach now. Jedi is a recognized religion in the UK. Does that make it blasphemy to criticize Star Wars Episode I? Well damn me to Hell!
Ben Stein likes to call Darwinism a religion. Does that make Kirk Cameron a blasphemer?
I can see lots of shell religions popping up as convenient shields from criticism. The Republican Party is practically religion already. If they make it official, political ads will be classified as hate speech.
I know William Crawley reasonably well and he's a good fella. You might want to watch his recent documentary at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and search for "losing our religion".
Jeremy's talk on the nature of blasphemy and the importance of protecting it was a real winner. What a cogent and thoughtful examination of the issue!
I like this show so far, I've listened to about the last 10 or so episodes, but this one I couldn't get past the halfway point.
I agree that all forms of speech must be protected, but at what point are we protecting hate speech? I am not a religious person, but it's very important to me to have tolerance for other's creeds.
You're free to express your opinion that hate speech be unfettered, and I am free to call you a bunch of bigoted attention-grabbers. Do yourselves a favor and challenge religion when it interferes with people's liberties or promotes ignorance. Are you yourselves so ignorant as to believe that all religious sects are homogeneous? I'm sure a Pentecostal and a Universalist Unitarian would find very little that they agree with. By extension, you cannot judge all of the Muslim nation by the example of the most extreme Wahhabi.
The cartoons themselves are inflammatory, ignorant and hateful.
I anticipate that your support for blasphemous works may very well extend to blasphemies against all religions, but why?
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