They just don't get it, do they?

[mdlbear]

Catholic News Service: Vatican says freedom of expression does not mean offending religions

The Vatican, commenting on a series of satirical newspaper cartoons that have outraged Muslims, said freedom of expression does not include the right to offend religious sentiments.

At the same time, the Vatican said, violent reactions are equally deplorable.

"Intolerance -- wherever it comes from, whether real or verbal, action or reaction -- always constitutes a serious threat to peace," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement Feb. 4.

(From The Volokh Conspiracy by way of DocBug.)

Bad church: no cookie. Any deity that can't handle satire, scholarly scrutiny, scientific facts, and even consumer complaints is obviously not omniscient, not omnipotent, and in fact has a serious inferiority complex. The Jews have been poking fun at, studying, and even complaining about (and to) their deity for thousands of years, and He apparently hasn't abandoned them yet. Any religion that can't handle satire, scrutiny, hard facts, and skepticism is clearly inhabiting a fantasy world of its own making.

And any religion that claims to have a corner on religious truth, in spite of the obvious fact that every other religion has claims of roughly equal validity, has a very high probabability of being simply wrong. That's the essence of fanaticism, folks -- being so certain of one's own beliefs that you can use them to justify any action, no matter how evil. It's not the only excuse for terrorism, to be sure, but it's a common one.

Comments

[animekid.livejournal.com]

It's sad how all things like this make people tired of religion and such.
Not to mention the mindless sheep and so forth behind it all =\
(Not all but a fair number if you know what I mean)

[mithriltabby]

And in the context of the complete set of cartoons, we see free speech in action: a decent chunk of them are critical of the newspaper asking for the cartoons in the first place. This is free speech in action. If you see someone using their freedom of speech to commit blasphemy, that lets you know to stand well clear of them if you’re expecting a thunderbolt to strike them down. (Which is my translation into this issue for my opposition to amending the Constitution to allow flag-burning to be banned: “I want to know which people are willing to take a match to Old Glory so I know who’s too extreme for my taste.”)

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Something to think about here. Two wrongs—or n wrongs—don't make a right, but that fact doesn't make the individual wrongs any better.

Good article

[capplor.livejournal.com]

and I'm willing to concede the point with respect to the turban/bomb cartoon. The bit about mere depiction of Mohammed being blasphemy, I don't support. I eat cows, because I'm not Hindu; I'll write the whole "God" instead of "G-d" because I'm not Jewish, and although I do know the ritual, I would consider it out & out blasphemy to go to Confession, since I am not Roman Catholic.

(And if someone thinks I'd be more upset if the tables were turned, I point out that I still have my "I helped Oral Roberts Die" button)

[tagryn]

Not sure its logically valid to state that it's an "obvious fact" (i.e. a certainty) that all religions are equally valid/wrong, then in the next sentence criticize others' for having certainty in their beliefs. Also, fanaticism isn't just limited to religious folks: antitheists appear just as capable of fanatic beliefs and behavior as their religious counterparts, and reading about some of the more militant atheists only seems to confirm that possibility. In the U.S. it seems the difference in the damage done re: theistic vs. antitheistic fanaticism is a matter of numbers, not intensity.

[mdlbear]

I may not have phrased that clearly enough. What's obvious, at least to me, is that if N religions all claim to be the One Valid Religion, then at least N-1 of them are wrong.

Fanaticism and intolerance certainly aren't limited to religions (look at vi vs. emacs, for goodness' sake, not to mention politics). But religions certainly cause more than their fair share.

[tagryn]

Point taken.