It is obvious we don't need less criticism of religion and belief, we need more criticism and understanding about what we and others believe, based as it is on faith, self-serving dogma, and myriad ancient texts. You want some land occupied by other people? Just tell'em God said it was yours. Hey, Jews do it, Christian did it, and Muslims did it. It's the old Manifest destiny trick that is still in use today... all courtesy of a sky-god you've never seen or heard from. Talk about a hate crime!
And we wonder why the world is screwed up?
Belief is the problem, not the solution as evidenced by people who prefer untouchable faith to science. Blasphemy and hate crime legislation only keep us from spiritual and societal advance. They are absurd, medieval, and insulting to freedom itself. Words are clearly not our problem, but actions based on religious belief have proven deadly for centuries on end. Unless we analyze and criticize religious belief we undo the Reformation, and we undo freedom and progress.
How do we advance or get nearer the truth of our being and reality but by vigorous debate and openness to experimentation? The effect of hate crime laws is to discourage debate and honest expression, and so protect and encourage religious extremism and Fatwa terrorism.
As we've seen in spades, dogma is clearly dangerous, whether religious or economic. But hurting people's feelings with words is not. It is imperative that we fight back against this return to blasphemy and verbal hate crime nonsense... or we will find ourselves imprisoned in more ways than one.
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