Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “please,” rings in the new year, with Mo asking for a distinction that’s not a difference. And no, they’ll have to put up with blasphemy, though you might get executed for blaspheming Islam in countries that adhere to that faith. Blasphemy mesaures are still on the books in Western countries like Spain and Northern Ireland, but they’re never enforced.
Blasphemy laws have been newly coined in places like Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. No prosecutions yet …
Indeed Coel.
Another great Jesus ‘N’ Mo.
Denmark has some strange plans for separating immigrants (muslims mostly) and compelling integration or such like, cannot see how anti blasphemy will assist though.
Deport them all would work much better.
Rep of Ei, who knows after generations of intense papism but I think they are realising that they may have immigration problems, probably more to do with the pressure of “Islamophobia “
Removal of “provocation (religious)” as justification for anything – including parking in the wrong place/ time – would be a start.
But that wouldn’t include a built in benefit for [most-popular religion]. So that will never get sufficient votes. (At least, in democracies.)
I think attempts are made at enforcement. But they never survive those attempts (of course, I am open to counter-examples.)
Nobody rational (an important caveat) goes to the effort of proposing and steering a law through a legislative body without the hope that it will be enforced. The irrational, on the other hand … do not learn from experience.
When the religious manage to get blasphemy laws in place — whether that be through social sanction or legal penalties — do they imagine that this fosters a sense of respect in those who can’t say what they’re really thinking?
Or does it just give them an opportunity to imagine that the potential blasphemer is gradually coming round to the recognition that not believing is bad?
My guess is the religious who institute these laws don’t care much about what’s going on in anyone else’s head as long as they can move smugly through a world that reflects their own image back at them, while calling it piety.
I think the concern is that the blasphemer’s words might get his or her audience questioning, i.e., thinking.
BURN the heretic!
James Madison felt that what mattered most was that people were able to be true to their convictions. Didn’t matter if that meant believing in God or not. Which was why he was for separation of church and state. Evangelicals at that time agreed with this as they were a minority and the established religions were giving them a hard time. From “Founding Faith” by Steven Waldman.