Religious defamation
Why does religion occupy a special ground, free of the restraints of critical thinking and reason? If you believe in astrology, I can tell you that it’s a load of crap. If you place your faith in chinese herbal supplements, I can criticize you for ignoring scientific fact. If you believe in an invisible man in the sky, however, I’m compelled to take you seriously, no matter how wacky your claims:
A United Nations forum on Thursday passed a resolution condemning “defamation of religion” as a human rights violation, despite wide concerns that it could be used to justify curbs on free speech in Muslim countries.
Despite the colossal stupidity of this resolution, a small body of mostly Islamic nations banded together to pass it today. I guess that makes what I’m about to do pretty serious:
Religion is bunk, and there is probably no god. Get over it.
Hrmmmm. I always expected my first human-rights violation to be more… I don’t know… violent?
The really funny thing about all this, is that in most jurisdictions, defamation charges can only be brought if the statement you make is demonstratively false. I’m aware of no valid proofs for the existence of a supreme being, so I suppose my statements aren’t defamatory after all.
March 27th, 2009 • 5 Comments » • Tags: law, religion •


