An affront to an affront: atheists rightfully violating the ridiculous blashphemy law in Ireland

As you have undoubtedly heard, Ireland has declared that it has chosen to sink back to Medieval times with its enactment and enforcement, starting last January 01, of its new blasphemy law, which would condemn anyone who “publishes or utters matter 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”. Which is so bloody vague that anyone who so much as posts a caricature of a religious figure(head) could end up in court, not to mention find themselves fined up to €25,000 ($35,000).

Of course, the only thing I, within my mature, reasonable and Freedom-of-Speech-loving capacity as a foreigner, can say, is

FUCK RELIGION.

(Not to cause offense to any pearl-clutchers perusing this blog, of course. I can’t help it if you have the thin skin of a sickly baby.)

Admittedly, Atheist Ireland has chosen a route a bit more sophisticated than I in terms of choosing a riposte to this nonsense. They’ve taken it unto themselves to publish 25 horrible blasphemous quotes from a staggering range of people – including (but not limited to) Mark Twain, Monty Python, Frank Zappa, Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers (naturally), and even Jesus Christ and Mohammed themselves. This is all part of their effort to launch a widespread campaign aimed at repealing this ridiculous law, a law that serves no other purpose than to curtail free speech for the sakes of oversensitive pearl-clutchers.

This new law is a travesty and an affront to free speech and reason. It cannot be allowed to remain in place for long. Religion is nothing special or sacred, and does absolutely not deserve its special and privileged place in our modern society, where it is practically immune from challenge and criticism. If anything, being the load of silly hogwash that it is, it is perhaps the one thing that is the most deserving of the harshest criticism available to man.

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