Dear Sir,
I was shocked and appalled to see that the anti-blasphemy law has successfully been legislated by our lumbering oaf of a government. As one comment on Twitter read on January 1st, when the law came into effect ‘Happy new year Ireland, welcome to the 16th century.’ It’s a complete step in the wrong direction. Instead of aiding the separation of church and state, this enourages the educated ignorance of religion, and safeguards it’s practice.
Whilst it is said to be unlikely that anyone is every prosecuted for the offence of blaspheming, it undermines the laws of the country if there is even one law that exists that is seen as a ‘joke law’ that only exists to play lip service to our constitution. If we don’t believe the terms of our constitution, it should be paramount that it be altered, regardless of cost. Every TD I emailed about my concerns replied saying that it would require a constitutional change which they were not currently prepared to make. If one law can be ignored, surely all other laws will suffer?
Ironically, the atheist associations fighting the law, Atheist Ireland and the Humanist Association of Ireland, are not protected under the new law, as Atheism is not a religion, but the lack of religion. So Justice Dermot Ahern calling the president of Atheist Ireland ‘A crackpot in an attic somewhere’ in court is not illegal, where as a perfectly true phrase such as ‘some priests are dirty horrid sexual perverts’ would be. For God’s sake, when will this be repealed?
Please let me know when you have gotten rid of this rubbish law, so I can get back to complaining about the fallacies of religion in public places.
Yours Sincerely,
David Cody
