Ireland goes full retard

Ireland has regressed and passed an anti-blasphemy law:

 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0710/1224250387384.html

THE DEFAMATION Bill was passed by a single vote after the Government nearly suffered a defeat on an amendment by Fine Gael’s Eugene Regan which would have deleted the offence of blasphemy from the Bill.

 

Section 36

(1) A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000. [Amended to €25,000]

(2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if (a) he or she publishes or utters matter that is 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, and (b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.

Oh, for Hel’s sake. Blasphemy laws are a holdover from a darker time, and they should *not* be a part of any modern society. Any person who is so fragile in their faith that they need laws to protect them from hearing a contrary view needs to wonder if maybe that faith just ain’t for them.

The odd thing is that this law is coming from Europe. For decades Europe has been becoming more and more secular; I’m forever seeing European speakers and posters yammer on about how stupid/backwards/ignorant/whatever Americans are because we have, on the whole, substantially deeper and wider religious belief. So why is Ireland leading the charge into the past? After years of secularism, what growing subset of the population could this sort of law possibly be meant to placate? Hmmmm…. gosh, nothing comes to mind….

Odin laughs at your dumbass blasphemy laws and your cowardly faith.