by Grania
Jesus and Mo are revisiting the subject of Blasphemy again. Although this is a subject that largely holds no terror for those of us who live in largely secular nations; its victims are inevitably members of minority religions and they pay the price for believing in the wrong god with their blood and their lives.
Ken White, legal blogger over at Popehat, has cataloged blasphemy prosecutions on a global scale. The stories are grim and relentless. Ken notes:
These are the values that advocates of blasphemy laws would have us accept: use of state power to enforce religious orthodoxy, suppression of political and religious minorities, and the rule of law employed to channel mob violence against the powerless.
Sounds like a great idea to me…..
Yeah, I recognize the circular logic being portrayed here. You usually see it in this context, though:
“Why are you so certain God exists?”
“I am, of course, a fallible human being, but God is infallible, so I can trust him. That’s how I have faith as a believer.”
I’m not even joking. I’ve met people online who seem to confuse “Why do you think God exists?” with “Why would you believe anything He says?” They think they can believe a god exists because He says so. Or rather, a voice in their heads said so, probably in some kind of experience*: thus, they assume without a shred of skepticism that this is unassailable “for them”, as if truth was a synonym for “personally preferred flavour of mental ice cream”.
*Of course, they’re usually more subtle in their wording, but it boils down either to that or to any other cockamamie argument from something in their personal experience.
“personally preferred flavour of mental ice cream”.
I think the problem is, that’s exactly what truth is for most people.
If epistemology were tennis, emotional appeal would be Serena Williams and the facts would be an out-of-shape retired accountant from Boca Raton named Stan.
lol
I would have told him/her/them you sent me, but I didn’t see anywhere to do that. No problem; they can probably tell by the timing. $15/mo for J&M.
Thank you, Chewy!
I had the impression that the author of J&M kept his actual name out of it for the sake of his personal safety. Do you think maybe it should be removed from this post, so as to continue to protect him from real terrorist murderers?
Once they have been convinced they are the meat puppet of Jehovah. With the perfect one indwelling they can’t be wrong because it isn’t them, but their deity that is moving them. Or so the reasoning goes. They become infallible with their entity is using them. How do they know this? That voice in their head or that feeling says so. And nice they are absolved of sin they can do anything needed by their deity. Nice circular thinking.
Blasphemy isn’t terrifying. That there are even countries like Canada where there are, strictly speaking “blasphemy laws” sort of is.
Ask Salman Rushdie, he is an expert in this area.