It is an absurd law [Section 295A of the Indian penal code] but also extremely dangerous because it gives fanatics, whether they are Hindus, Catholics or Muslims, a licence to be offended. It also allows people who are in dispute with you to make up false accusations of blasphemy.
Interpretation
The quote critiques a law that enables individuals to exploit religious sentiments for personal grievances.
Richard Dawkins highlights the dangers of Section 295A of the Indian penal code, which he views as both absurd and perilous. He argues that the law allows extremists from various religions to claim offense easily, thus potentially weaponizing religious sentiments. Dawkins cautions that this law not only encourages real disputes but also opens the door for individuals to fabricate accusations of blasphemy against others, leading to intolerance and conflict.
In practice
In a debate about freedom of speech, this quote can highlight the consequences of laws that restrict expression.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
Christianity is not about good people getting better. If anything, it is good news for bad people coping with their failure to be good. The heart of the Christian faith is Good News, not good advice, good technique, or good behavior. Too many people have walked away from the church, not because they’re walking away from Jesus, but because the church has walked away from Jesus.
Other people teach us who we are. Their attitudes to us are the mirror in which we learn to see ourselves, but the mirror is distorted. We are, perhaps, rather dimly aware of the immense power of our social enviornment.
To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in.
Before I die many will die with me and they'll deserve it. See you in Hell.
On the streets of the city They have taken my Who-I-Am As well as my What-I-Was And now I am desperate for them both Again
'Culture' is a finite segment of the meaningless infinity of the world process, a segment on which human beings confer meaning and significance.
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