Discussion Group Report

Tauriq Moosa is an ex-Muslim who has a web site on which he "Defends Reason and Promotes Beauty without a God." He is a contributing editor for the Secular Humanist Bulletin and also writes for "Skeptic" magazine. His motto on his web site is "Freedom of thought is the only good more important than peace; for without it peace would be another word for servility."

In his recent article entitled "In Defense of Blasphemy," he defines blasphemy as "impious utterance or action concerning the God of the theists or sacred things." In Judaism it is defined as a) an act of cursing or reviling God.or b) pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) in the original, now forbidden manner instead of using a substitute pronunciation such as Adonai. The Catholic Encyclopedia however, defines blasphemy as an "etymologically gross irreverence towards any person or thing worth of exalted esteem." How are we to contemplate these various definitions, all churning within a pot of miasmatic confusion? He feels there is an absurdity of any imperfect human being able with his or her language to insult an omniscient, omnipotent being like a God. It is the humans themselves that take offense to having their particular God's name taken in vane.

Mr. Moosa then goes on to ask, "Does anyone feel hurt when I say Zeus is a bastard?" Only if there are any classic lecturers listening. Or "I know what Thor can do with his hammer." Shocking to a medieval Viking. But what happens if we replace these insults with the name Yahweh, capital-G god , or Jesus. By today's standard, this is not allowed. We must ask ourselves why we can all scorn Zeus but not Yahweh. Offense is taken in and of itself as an argument. You have hurt my feelings, it states, therefore you must be silenced or censored. On the other hand, open dialogue, the nature of a stable society, means that we have an agora-or open market place of ideas-to which all are allowed to contribute. Naturally being an open environment there are things that we will not like. But whether we like something or not, does not tell us whether it is true or helpful. It must be subjected to criticism from both sides, for and against. It hurts your feelings, well, that is really just too bad. We cannot simply dismiss an idea because one side is "hurt." Defenders of reason do not use offense in and of itself as an argument. Moosa quotes JM Coetzee: "Convictions that are not backed by reason…are not strong but weak; it is the mark of a weak position, not a strong position, that it's holder, when challenged, takes offense. All viewpoints deserve a hearing; debate, according to the rules of reason, and reason will decide which deserves to triumph."

But why to so many people take offense so easily? Most people believe their religion to be true because these ideas have been passed down via heritage and are not subjected to the same criticism as many other ideas. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. When challenged about their religion they immediately retreat under the guise of offense. This is a personal thing, and you are not allowed to talk about it. Mr. Moosa feels that if it was not the fact that so many people believe in a god and so many people respond to open criticism of religious ideas in this way (personal offense); we would all agree that most religions are absurd; at least all the other religions, other than our own. Which leads directly to the definition of a myth, which is of course "the other persons' religion."

Blasphemy is a right for everyone because everyone will be offended by some view, in this open market place of ideas. This is the deal we sign up for when entering a secular society, premised on freedom of speech and equal human rights. If a view upsets you, you must be able to give good reasons, aside from a simple assertion of unquestioning belief or faith. We must eliminate the arbitrary boundaries based on emotion and magic books. Reason will decide the victor. The tiny light of reason in this path of darkness, marked with the blanket of religious superstition, is our guiding light in this world.

--Craig Wilkinson, MD