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By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) Jan 2 | A fundamental component in the battle over homosexuality is religion and moral standards. In fact, for the most part all over the globe religious factions and theologians have been at the forefront of waging war on the LGBT community regarding what they perceive as "sinful behaviour" for centuries.
I am not really an atheist nor am I agnostic either. To be truthful I fall in the category of I''m sure there are forces at work in the universe but doubtful that some old guy deity with a prurient interest in my sex life is in control or cares if I don't go to confession once a week.
Then too, I feel that morality is actually an inherent part of human beings behaviours which are defined by teaching, indoctrination, and internal mechanisms which are still a mystery to science let alone religion.
Yesterday I was reading the Guardian and ran across a fascinating article on the recently enacted law in the Irish Republic regarding blasphemy. The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the headline was; "Oh crap, not another beat up the homos and freaks story." As is turns out, it wasn't.
The heavily Catholic Irish have always included the church as their 'state' religion more or less, so no great shock that such a law would be passed. What is scary to me is the fact that use of such laws elsewhere in places like Iran, have left folks dangling from nooses attached to cranes and the like for offending the religious types.
Here's a quote from an opponent of the new law from the article:
"We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous."
Interesting eh? Mind you, this is an Irish law not an Islamic country's law.
I highly recommend this article as a good read and I'll close with a quote found at the end of it from Frank Zappa:
"To hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you've been bad or good – and cares about any of it – is the chimpanzee part of the brain working."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/01/irish-atheists-challenge-blasphemy-law
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johnleeb
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Toe is in the water |
Location: USA
Registered: January 2009
Messages: 44
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Given:
'It defines blasphemy as "publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted"'
That actually says that if there is a religion that is pro-gay, use of the typical anti-gay words would be punishable, even it said by a Catholic Bishop.
So why not file complaints against them for using those words?
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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What a refreshing viewpoint! And so well worth a try!
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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...and now on the topic of religion there's this: 
