pious censorship no thanks
I read an article recently by Madeline Bunting in The Guardian selectively attacking a documentary by Richard Dawkins arguing for atheism and against religion. Amongst other fatuous assertions and the occasional sensible point she claims,
"...there's the unmistakable whiff of panic; they fear religion is on the march again. There's an aggrieved frustration that they've been short-changed by history; we were supposed to be all atheist rationalists by now."
Well bollocks, frankly. This atheist fears religion on the march because of increasing assaults on freedom of speech by righteous bigots. Whether Muslims attacking novels, films and cartoons, Christians attacking tv programmes and stage productions, or Sikhs attacking plays, such bullying, frequently with threatened or actual violence, should be abhorrent to anyone.
I'm not bothered whether or not people are religious, I get far more irritated by people who swallow garbage like healing crystals, guardian angels, 'paganism' etc. But I do object when any religion attempts to stifle debate, and just as I would defend Muslims against the hateful and inaccurate attacks of Nick Griffin and his ilk, so I would defend the rights of newspapers to print cartoons of Muhammad against Muslim protests.
"...there's the unmistakable whiff of panic; they fear religion is on the march again. There's an aggrieved frustration that they've been short-changed by history; we were supposed to be all atheist rationalists by now."
Well bollocks, frankly. This atheist fears religion on the march because of increasing assaults on freedom of speech by righteous bigots. Whether Muslims attacking novels, films and cartoons, Christians attacking tv programmes and stage productions, or Sikhs attacking plays, such bullying, frequently with threatened or actual violence, should be abhorrent to anyone.
I'm not bothered whether or not people are religious, I get far more irritated by people who swallow garbage like healing crystals, guardian angels, 'paganism' etc. But I do object when any religion attempts to stifle debate, and just as I would defend Muslims against the hateful and inaccurate attacks of Nick Griffin and his ilk, so I would defend the rights of newspapers to print cartoons of Muhammad against Muslim protests.
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