On Criticizing Religion: A Few Thoughts on Blasphemy
"Blasphemy is only our old friend Heresy in disguise, and that, we know, is a priestly manufacture." "[I]f the law were really impartial, and punished blasphemy only because it offends the feelings of believers, it ought also to punish such preaching as offends the feelings of unbelievers. All the more earnest and enthusiastic forms of religion are extremely offensive to those who do not believe them. Why should not people who are not Christians be protected against the rough, coarse, ignorant ferocity with which they are often told that they and theirs are on their way to hell-fire for ever and ever? "Why charge us with hypocrisy when we dare your hate?" --G.W. Foote (Prisoner for Blasphemy) A couples things caught my attention while reading Foote's account of his imprisonment for crimes of blasphemy. The first is evident in the first quote, where Foote makes the keen observation that blasphemy is only a type of heresy--i.e., a form of thinkin