Mark it on your calendar: 30 September is going to be Blasphemy Day. Join the Facebook group, if that is your kind of thing.
Blasphemy Day International is an international campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a national day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for the freedom to mock and insult religion without fear of murder, violence, and reprisal. It is the obligation of the world’s nations to safeguard dissent and the dissenters, not to side with the brutal interests of thugs who demand “respect” for their beliefs (i.e., immunity to being criticized or mocked or they threaten violence).
So if you support free speech, and the rights of those who disagree with religious views to voice their opinions peacefully, support our group and join the cause!
I like this take on the matter:
Blasphemy is a joyous, funny, socially progressive, and profoundly moral act. It deserves its own day. Join the group. Spread the word.
I only have one reservation. Every day should be Blasphemy Day.
(via The Freethinker)
I’m fairly certain that Blasphemy Day is an affront to God and that participants will be guilty of an unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit. At least, that is, if either God or the Holy Spirit or any of the other locally popular deities were to actually exist. Then, boy, you’d really be in trouble!
Yeah.
not when you just bopped your thumb with a framing hammer
can be
can be
huh wha?
that follows…how?
When’s mooning-the-train-commuters day?
I deny the holy spirit! *he says as he drives a rusty nail through a consecrated wafer*
I’ll take that one step further. Every day is Blasphemy Day.
Hot damn! Another holiday! But what should I serve? Maybe crackers?
Quite so. Now, if they were to make it a bank holiday….
Spread the word: I tried to think of a word to spread, but I can’t think of a single word. I prefer my blasphemy in sentences, and not the kind you get for breaking the new UN resolution.
Yes, crackers would be nice, as would whine – we’ll get plenty of that.
Religion? Fuck ’em all!
Oh–I was supposed to wait until September 30th?
Shit!
Perhaps, just for that day, the US motto could be changed to: “Un-God we trust.”
Every day IS blasphemy day for godless atheists, liberals, heathens, heretics, fag-enablers, or whatever else we’re being called this week.
There is no god, Jesus was no more miraculous than a street performer, and the Bible is filled with bunk. I think that makes… three felonies?… if the UN members pushing the binding “Don’t make fun of my crazy delusions!” resolution get their way?
You know what would be ironic? If Bill Donohue and the other “Respect mah ig-NOR-i-tah!” creotards decried the UN bill. Of course, they would immediately resume saying that atheists shouldn’t make fun of their starchy deity.
.
I like “micturate” myself. The only problem is that people think you’re taking the piss.
Any good ideas how to efficiently and thoroughly blaspheme the most?
Will we get points for each religion blasphemed? Or do we have to focus on the predominant one in our country?
Are all religious people aware, that in the eyes of 2/3 of the rest of the world, they are blasphemers all of the time?
Will they be counted as participants?
Every day is a day to mock and insult religion.
So screw all the gods, spirits, & other magical entities.
As for the dumbasses that believe in a religion, you are deluded idiots, & the World would be a better place if you all came to your senses & stopped kidding yourselves with self-serving, divisive, dangerous superstitions.
There, I feel better already.
Every day is mooning-the-train-commuters day. Gives the bored passengers a thrill, and gives your perineum a little brisk, fresh air.
Why didn’t you send a mass invite to your “friends” on Facebook?
Chocolate nekkid Jesuses on a stick for EVERYONE! God damn, what a good idea!
I may practice my glass painting skills and put out a series of Burning Bush themed bongs for the local head shop. Perhaps a “Portrait of Mohammed” life art class too. But the pièce de résistance will be the Rush Limbaugh piñata bash! The NeoCons will go nuts!
“and profoundly moral act.”
How can this be so?
In olden times, a king had a jester to remind him of his foibles, to bring him down off the high horse that the fawning courtiers would put him on.
Likewise blasphemy is necessary to try to maintain sanity in our culture. To point out the foibles of things that declare themselves unassailable, be that blasphemy of a religious idiocy or a blasphemy of the party line when delivered as holy writ.
Certainly it will offend some people, but then ask the question:
“Are you offended because I am attacking you, or because I’m pointing out how silly you’re being and deep down you’re embarassed?”
Somebody ought to tell these folks about International Left Handers day.
It’s a much better holiday started by Skeptics mocking superstitious thinking.
Plus it’s a holiday for me!
Oh shit! I was supposed to mock and insult religion, not the dumbass followers.
Jumpin’ Jeezus, that’s too bad. Sheeesh!
And cheese, Gromit.
Don’t forget the cheese.
Sept. 30th. Shit! My current job will be over by then. I won’t be able to stand on the grounds of the catholic church and dare their capricious, puerile god to strike me down. Oh wait. I do that already. Carry on.
Wow! That’s my BIRTHDAY!!
But . . . I wonder what Edward Current would think about this idea. I can’t really decide what to do about it until I know what Edward thinks. (A decision this important has to be decided by a role model, and I can’t think of a better one than Edward Current.)
Let me be the first here to say:
I deny the divinity of jesus christ and deny the existence of the holy spirit.
On another note:
Jesus fucking Christ, Mohammad fucking Shiva up the ass with a sacred cow and pork sausage, Joseph Smith blowing L. Ron Hubbard.
Just thought I’d cover all the bases.
Peace.
Spread the word! Tell everyone! Let’s start a blasphsmeme!
@Joseph Smith.
One two many ms, Joseph, your sole error.
frustrated scientist, they can not invent anything, zero. Now they are going to mock around blaming other for their own fault. What a scientist !
go and blaspheme your mother and father too, i will be watching.
Simple Simon the incesuous pieman, science does a heck of lot more than religion. If you don’t think so, quit typing on your computer, made available by science, not religion.
Do you actually know what blasphemy is ? Here is a hint: It does not mean being disrespectful to your parents. Unless your parents happen to be deities of course.
Okay… you just go ahead and do that, oh caped crusader. (WTF?!!) Hmmmm, I think it’s time to take your meds.
What tool are you using to type that again?
Simon must a son of that fucker Rev. Moon.
Or a son of Teodoro Obiang, who also calims to be a deity, and is worse than Mugabe, but as he has oil, does not get as awful press.
Sure, Blasphemy Day is easy to declare. It is easy to observe, too. So is International Blasphemy Day. But when they can observe Blasphemy Day in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, then the world will be free.
You can’t actually blaspheme if you are an atheist. If you believe you blaspheme (against god) then you believe in god.
Or Oklahoma.
simon: If Dr. Myers’ parents asserted special claims to be above criticism which were unthinkingly accepted by a large number of people AND there was no good reason to suppose they existed AND if they did exist they would necessarily be far too powerful to be hurt by the insults of us normal folk AND the word “blasphemy” actually made sense when applied to them, THEN, and only then, might you have a valid comparison.
I’m pretty sure that isn’t true of Dr. Myers’ parents (although I confess I’ve never met them); if it were, it would indeed be moral to blaspheme against them.
Simon, as someone who has difficulty learning a new language, I am heartened by your attempts to communicate. Blathering away without understanding the words you use is not communicating. Don’t take this as an attempt to censor, simply hoping you’ll get the syntax and definitions down.
Oh, and religion is the most horrible thing to ever happen to the human race.
I believe the tool in question goes by the name of “simon”.
@34:
Zippy: Isn’t blasphemy in the eye of the beholder/believer?
Oops, problem. I cannot commit blasphemy.
After all, blasphemy is defined as “impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.” (dictionary.com). However, there are no gods, so I cannot “act or utter impiously” concerning a non-existant non-entity.
And since there are no gods, there are no sacred things either.
You should be watching Barney at the moment, Simon. Seriously, does mom know you’re on the computer? (But while you’re there go to history and find out what porn dad’s been on – why, there are all the funny pictures he took of you!)
simon, do you eat bacon? Ham? Shellfish? Ever have a cream sauce with meat? Then you’re a blasphemer, sorry to say. Probably an unrepentant one too, I’d wager.
Seeker@40. I’m pretty sure everything you say after “there are no gods” is false. I could show a lack of piety towards Odin or Cthulu if I thought it was worth bothering with; existence is nothing to do with it. And “sacred” is a word describing the relation of things to society not to the supernatural (else things couldn’t be “sacred to” a group, they would have to be sacred in absolute terms).
Blasphemy is in the eye of the beholder/believer. And everyone, whether they are trying or not, is committing someone else’s blasphemy every day.
unrepentant.
1) I never pented in the first place.
2) If I did, I never did it again,
3) I deny not having done again what I didn’t do in the first place.
So, yes. Unrepentant. And damn proud of it.
Um. Can we take Darwin’s name in vain and say rude things about Richard Dawkins too? I mean, at least the latter might hear and have the decency to show he’s offended. I’ve tried it with god and the git just doesn’t react.
Don, it can’t be your birthday, because it’s mine. You are blaspheming against my sacred day.
A thrill or bleeding eyes. It depends on the, er, moon in question.
Blashphemy is only just legal here in the UK (except Scotland); 8 July 2008 was the date of abolition of the blasphemy laws.
In Scotland, it’s still illegal. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a prosecution though.
Insulting the Muslime faith could lead to charges, because it could be construed as racist. Racist remarks are illegal UK wide, and a racial group is defined as
No mention of religion, but that may not be needed in the hands of a clever lawyer.
I beleive the UN definition of racila group also includes religion.
/sigh/
Blaspheme away with that in mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heresy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrilege
Seeker,
So you can’t speak or think about fiction?
Sounds like a great way to celebrate my late mother’s birthday. She was an agnostic all her adult life, though I don’t think she was ever explicitly blasphemous — she was far too quiet, polite and reserved in her very British way for anything like that.
Blasphe-me! Blasphe-you! Blasphe-everybody-in-the-room!
(Comment #53: quoting from the incomparable Eddie Izzard)
Bless the blasphemers, every one.
I feel that PZ’s views on lateral gene transfer are unsound.
Now that’s blasphemy!
Hungarian peasant prayer: Oh God, stop slapping me in the face with your cock all covered with shit from fucking Jesus.
Simon, here is something that will help you communicate with the people here. They think your intelligence is related to how you speak. Therefore, you should do your best to speak correctly when you write a comment here.
I occasionally volunteer for a website that helps English learners. It’s called UsingEnglish.com. They have a forum where you can ask how to say things correctly in English. It’s called “Ask a Teacher.” Here is the link:
http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/
He’s not listening, Speedwell. A friend has just come round with a transformer he hasn’t got yet and he’s just about to rectify that deficiency.
Of course, everybody blasphemes to at least a certain group of people, given the fact that certain religions nowadays are mutually exclusive. Christians blaspheme Islam, Muslims blaspheme Christianity, and so on.
alextangent: IANAL but I’m pretty sure your misrepresenting every there. First, racist comments aren’t illegal; inciting racial hatred is. It’s the difference between “[group X] are no good” and “run out and attack [group X]”.
Also, I’m pretty sure the courts have ruled that Muslims (like Hindus and Christians) aren’t an ethnic group for these purposes. Even if you are spewing real hate against these groups, the worst you can face is generic public order charges (the same if you incited riots against atheists)
Curiously Jews and Sikhs are protected as ethnic groups. Given the near uniform ethnic background of those groups in Britain, that’s not completely crazy. In these cases it is well established that there is not protection against blaspheming the religion, only inciting hatred against the group
Blasphemy: the one truly victimless crime.
In defense of Simon, I doubt if he believes scientists never invent anything. (Ignore for the moment his failure to comprehend the critical distinction between Scientist and Inventor.) I suspect he meant to imply that the Dear Readers of Ye Olde Pharyngula think they are scientists but are in fact lame-ass frauds who talk a big game but who have invented nothing and therefore have no standing to blaspheme his pet mythology.
So you see, he has made, not a single childish error, but several more subtle – dare we say? – “adolescent” errors.
I rest my case.
I just stabbed a consecrated cracker with a nail. Don’t worry, Christians, I said an unbinding spell over it first, which de-Jesusified it. Of course, there is no way to tell that the incantation worked (there is no change molecularly); you’ll just have to have faith. You can do that, can’t you?
:D
Happy Monkey!
It looks as though I’ll be able to participate, since Maryland’s anti-blasphemy law was repealed in 2002.
#13: “Any good ideas how to efficiently and thoroughly blaspheme the most?”
Eating a bacon-double-cheese-burger on a Friday, and washing down a couple of Prozac with a beer should do it.
Does anyone know how to blaspheme in Buddhism?
How soon can we put out press releases decrying Bill Donohue’s War on Blasphemy Day?
How awesome is this that they picked my birthday as the date!
A single day of Freedom ???!!
It would be an insult to the Man.
A dictatorship.
MH@66: Is the Prozac against the Scientologists? Better to wash it down wine than be;r, that way you literally going against the word of Mohammed rather than just an interpretation of it.
A single day of Freedom ???!!
It would be an insult to the Man.
A dictatorship.
Thanks for the tip, Matt (#70). I didn’t realise that the prohibition was that specifically.
specificallyspecificIt is difficult. There’s a three-fold path to non-enlightment.
You’re all a bunch of wusses!
Here is real blasphemy to the One True God of our world.
FUCK MONEY!
.
Gee, blasphemy is such a victimless crime. Can’t we include sacrilege, just for fun?
It’s going to be difficult to think of ways to commit sacrilege that haven’t already been tried, and that won’t land me in jail… let’s see… I could paint a Sacred Heart picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe, except use a different organ (here in Texas that might raise a few eyebrows)… decoupage something with a deck of Tarot cards… say a Shiva mala backwards, then deconstruct it and make a lampshade with the rudraksha beads… oh, I know! Go to Quaker meeting and HUM…
I feel pretty special as Blasphemy Day is also my birthday!
Right. but why not put Blasphemy Day in the same week as Talk like a Pirate Day ? Yar! there be no Gods, me bucko!
Blasphemy day!
An excellent plan!
And on my birthday, too. What could be better?
my birthday too. smashing.
I’m just going to copy Attila’s blasphemy. I can’t top that.
Depends on who your parents are – you diss my father, you risk get hit by lightning. And he’s still at it – 100% of all lightning strike victims in the last 1000 years have been people who disbelieve my father. Strange but true.
Of course, he’s not exactly a great role model – he killed his own dad, but then Gramps did try to eat Dad when he was born. Thanksgiving at our place is even worse than at Stuart Faulk’s…
That’s it guys, on november 30, I’ll make all of my eucharist desecration serie videos available on the net. I’ll make sure to tell the bloggers when they’ll be available. So far, I have 47 videos in wich I desecrate a communion wafer, every time in a different way. I’ll reach 50 and it’ll be all. I wonder what will happen again (and Donohue who complained twice about me, ha).
Yay for Blaphemy Day!
I did my latest blasphemy last night. Why wait? Better out than in, I always say,
http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=A434612&entry=23432
You can’t actually blaspheme if you are an atheist. If you believe you blaspheme (against god) then you believe in god.
Technically correct.
However saying “That fictional character whom ignorant people falsely believe to be a holy spirit, is a piglet fucking, son of a whore.”
Just isn’t easy or fun to say. So I just shorten it to Jesus and figure that people will know what I mean.
Oh god! Oh god!…….. I hope this day doesn’t preclude having really great sex ;-)
Jesus fucking god in the earhole! Only 7 months to come up with a good blasphemic phrase? Could be tough.
Does this count? It’s a funny site which has translated the Bible thusly;
http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Blessinz of teh Ceiling Cat be apwn yu, srsly. This is the lolcat Bible Translation Project, a project dedicated to translating the entire Bible into lolspeak. The Project started in July of 2007 and so far we have most of the Bible translated! Any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to email the site administrator.
For instance;
Genesis 1
From LOLCat Bible Translation Project
Ceiling Cat creats teh universes and stuffs
Boreded Ceiling Cat makinkgz Urf n stuffs
1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.
2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.
3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.4 An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.5 An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1
@23 Don, it’s my birthday too! I take this as a sign that we must be dual messiahs of blasphemy!
Feh. For me, every day is blasphemy day. I feel it’s that important.
Every day is blasphemy day for me! Fuck all gods with a big pork fat smeared dildo labelled REASON!
Sorry, my calendar that month is already too full with two much more important dates:
Celebrate Bisexuality Day (9/23)
Talk Like a Pirate Day (9/19)
After those bacchanalia I’m afraid I don’t have any energy left for more sinning until October.
I strongly support Blasphemy Day! Fuck God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit at the same time, lol.
-Staks
DangerousTalk.net
I will not blaspheme the great Mother Goddess. It just isn’t good taste.
“I will not blaspheme the great Mother Goddess. It just isn’t good taste.”
gaypaganunitarianagnostic
I’m happy to do it for you:
Fuck your Great Mother Goddess!
That tasted good to me.
This whole notion (blasphemy day) is immature, immoral, and insipid! I’d advise you to drop the whole thing right now unless you wanna answer to me, pencilneck boy. P.S. – my wrath is nothing compared with that which you’ll face on judgement day. Terminate this idea while you still can sissy.
I love this & I also love that it’s on my birthday! Double awesomeness!
Hey this is the guy who created Blasphemy Day! Hell yeah! Thanks for the support. Anyone who wants to get in touch with me, leave comments, or see how you can get involved please do. I’m looking for anyone who wants to be actively involved in spreading the word for this group. Just find me on facebook – Detin U. Sledifni or find me at my myspace page, which will have my contact info.
The comments on this board are a good wake-up call for me. I am fifty-four years old. I have already lived a good amount of the days allotted to me on Earth. Even if I were to live another fifty years, I am old enough to know how quickly those years would fly by. Thus, days are precious to me. If someone were to ask me to participate in a national blasphemy day, I would say no. The question then becomes, how would I spend that same day? Even if I would much rather praise than blaspheme, might I actually waste some hours in the same killjoy attitudes that — if persisted in — can lead one to blaspheme? In other words, do I ever throw away moments of my life on ingratitude, bitterness, and meanness? Sadly, the answer is that I have already wasted enough of my life in that fashion. So, I ask myself, wouldn’t it be better to spend a day (and every day) thinking about, speaking about, and doing things that are pure, true, lovely, admirable, merciful, kind, respectful, loving, etc. I think so. There are so many more creative ways to use time than in spewing out vitriol, which I have learned the hard way only burns one’s own tongue. After all, mockery and blasphemy cannot produce anything; they can only assault and attempt to tear down. Love, on the other hand, produces things of great beauty and usefulness. So, instead of mocking, why don’t we think of happier things to do? Here are some ideas: write thank-you notes to people who inspire you; make a list of 100 simple things that make you smile; spend some vacation days in a missionary hospital in another country and see the world while you help the sick and the destitute; forgive someone; weed an elderly neighbor’s flower bed; have an impromptu picnic and thank God for the wine and the bread; cook something fabulous for your closest loved ones; spend an hour tutoring kids in a homeless shelter; read the Bible for yourself and not through a veil of either past religious experiences or what you’ve heard skeptics say; make an unbiased scientific study of something; let yourself feel awe when you see God’s glory written in DNA or in the galaxies or in a flower; crank up the music for an hour and dance; read to a child; paint something beautiful; play the piano; learn a new language; take a walk; rub someone’s aching shoulders; sing even if you wander off key; plant a garden and share the produce; go out of your way to be friendly to someone who has a different religious or political point of view than you do; rejoice at a wedding feast; play Frisbee with a dog; comfort someone in trouble; try a new cuisine; text someone a kind message; kiss your spouse, etc. The possibilities are limitless. But, you say, “What about so and so who believes X and was hateful to me? Shouldn’t I fight hatred with hatred? Doesn’t that only escalate hatred? Loving those who mistreat us, as Jesus taught us, is the only way to go. After all, we cannot live so-and-so’s life for him or her. Perhaps, so-and-so claims to have true faith, but is either hypocritical or misinformed about what pleases God. Perhaps, so-and-so, just like the rest of us, goofed up and needs some mercy and compassion. Perhaps, so-and-so really did have something true and helpful to say to you, but you weren’t ready to hear it. Either way, so-and-so carries the responsibility for his or her actions. The question each of us has to answer is, what will I do with my days? Each moment presents us all with choices to mock and to try to tear down or to love and to build up. The many little choices we make along this line shape the overall pattern of our lives. Thanks for reminding me that I want to pour my life into loving the Lord and loving others and that I want to learn daily from Jesus how to really walk in love and faith. Your comments have also shown me that if I want that to be the focus of my life, I don’t have a day or even a moment to lose.
tl;dr
What an idea. Here’s my contribution:
“You should love because you love, not because you believe a violent Sky Fairy demands it of you lest you suffer eternal hellfire.”
Blasphemy and love, together at last.
See, a lot of us think that blasphemy is pure, true, and admirable, and that people who blaspheme can also be lovely, merciful, kind, respectful, and loving. You have set up a false dichotomy.
Other than thew loving others part (rock on), this would be wasting your life on a fiction.
Could it be possible to blaspheme in one moment and turn around and do something lovely in the very next? Yes. However, in the moment in which someone is trying to blaspheme, he or she is reviling beliefs that others cherish and, by extension, reviling others for having those beliefs. That’s hard to do without harboring some kind of ill will, anger, disdain, or indifference to the feelings of others — or, at least — without being naive about the harmful effect careless words can have on others. Don’t you think that there are kinder, more respectful, more reasoned, and more honest ways to engage people in a dialogue about matters of faith and/ or the lack thereof? I do.
Unless you are on the show Lost and are possibly living in two time lines right now :), you can’t have it both ways in the same moment: either you are engaged in the act of mocking and reviling someone’s faith, or you are not. Thus, that does bring us to a true dichotomy of choice: In any given moment, will we attack other people through attacking their beliefs or will we find something more productive to do? So, that, in turn, leads me back to my original conclusion: Instead of setting aside a day or a web site to mock faiths and the people who believe them, it would be better to devote a day to happier, kinder things. I do realize that people are participating in this because they think 1) it’s a way to “liberate” others (I already went through my agnostic period decades ago and have personally found freedom only in Christ) and 2) many of the people participating in this don’t really believe in or quite understand what it is they think they are blaspheming. So, I do think we have to take some of the harsh comments on this board with a grain of salt. The choice is out there, however,and what each person on this board will decide to do with her or his time is up to her or him. My prayer is to mature in using the moments of my days in loving God and others.
I hope you don’t mind that I threw in my little 2 cents.
Regards.