Freedom Of Speech Is Not Blasphemy Update

Richard Dawkins doesn’t need me to protect him, as I tried to do in this post. He has many supporters and is more than capable of protecting himself. Here is a link to his own website where he responds to the libelous criticisms that have been leveled at him by the radio station KPFA.  The key point Dawkins raises in his open letter to KPFA…

“I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?”

…cuts to the heart of the mad alliance between people who loudly proclaim their liberalism, progressivism and left-wing credentials with the far right fascists, misogynists, homophobes and anti-Semites of the Islamist movement.Since posting my thoughts about this attack on Dawkins’ reputation I have found myself musing on the ‘crime’ of blasphemy. Who exactly is the victim of this ‘crime’? Surely if ‘god’ is as omnipotent as his followers claim he could destroy any blasphemer with a twitch of his celestial finger? The inescapable conclusion has to be that the ‘crime’ of blasphemy only exists to prevent the power and religious delusions of bigoted old men from being challenged. As Seneca said nearly 2,000 years ago, religion has always been viewed as a useful tool to keep the plebs in their place.