A survey some time ago in Ireland, that most devout of Christian and Catholic-dominated of countries, found that only 53 % of people believe in hell, so the other 47 % either haven’t been married, or creeping atheism is afoot even there. If there’s no hell, then there’s no heaven, and that’s what’s rubbing the church – and state, since they are just about the same in Ireland – the wrong way, as a group of atheists have challenged a new anti-blasphemy law that takes away their rights not to believe. A gay man or lesbian woman will be President of Ireland – or the United States – before an atheist will, because those who don’t believe in God are the most prosecuted politically, although they are correct in their disbelief, since no one has seen him (or her) so thinking there’s a God requires a bigger suspension of disbelief than accepting that Vladimir Putin is not still Russia’s ruler.
Thank God that Irish atheists have published a list on their website, www.atheist.ie  of “blasphemous” quotations – including Mark Twain, Salman Rushdie, Mohammad, and Jesus - so God might have to be called to the witness stand, although we can dispense with him putting his hand on the Bible. The law makes blasphemy a crime punishable by a $35,800 fine, or 25,000 euros, although some Christians would prefer 30 pieces of silver. The law makes it a crime to insult Mohammad too, so Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who did it and was attacked by an axe-wielding extremist, had better not plan any vacations in Ireland.
Atheism is a dangerous business, especially in fundamentalist parts of the US, and in Europe, where churches still wield so much influence, despite a growing movement of Militant Atheists, such as British writers Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) and Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great,) whose books brilliantly skewer the idea there’s a God living in a cloud. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the suit brought in the US by Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of the Atheist movement there, which stopped forced prayer and mandatory teaching of religion in schools, but that still goes on in Europe, especially in countries such as Greece.
For Irish Atheists, who are as brave as Muslim homosexuals, the idea of not allowing them freedom of speech is anathema, so they’re praying (wrong term) they win. “Despite these quotes being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, we unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them,” they stated, correctly, but religious zealots believe the Golden Rule extends only to believers, although God would beg to differ. In Ireland, you can’t say or publish anything “grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion,” although making fun of American fundamentalists or Muslim extremists is redundant ridicule since they do it to themselves better.
Atheists in Ireland may try to defend their position in almost the same way American pornographers did, by proving, as CNN reported, that a reasonable person would find literary, artistic, political, scientific or academic value in what they said or published, even as the group denounced the law as “silly and dangerous,” which it is, because it provides an incentive for religious outrage and allows extremists to hide behind it. Rushdie knows how these people are because he’s been living under a sanctioned death threat for 20 years for his novel The Satanic Verses. So if Ireland’s government, church, and Christians who would kill in the name of God, and believe in their faith, don’t like what the Atheists are doing, they don’t need a law. They can just forgive them.
 Andy@NEurope.eu