Most institutionalized religions, especially the proselytizing ones, seem to take an issue with criticism of any kind. Not that one should consider it criticism what I saw in the first few minutes of that unspeakable “Mohammed movie trailer”, but the cartoons in the French satirical magazine certainly were.
So, by the way, were the recent cartoons showing the Pope with a yellow stain on his cassock on the front cover saying “The leak has been found” (referring to Vatileaks) and a brown stain on his cassock on the back cover saying “Another leak found”. Being a subscriber to this particular satirical magazine I had to laugh out loudly when I took it out of the envelope.
The reactions from German Catholics weren’t all that joyful. They tried to invoke what’s called the “blasphemy law” (Gotteslästerungsparagraph) and actually managed to get an injunction against the magazine. Strange, I thought, given that the Pope isn’t a deity and Christianity (if we forget the trinitarian idea) only accepts a single god. The chief editor countered by saying that the yellow stain can be easily explained by the Pope’s love for Fanta (a fizzy drink invented in Germany 1) and that he accidentally sat down into a chocolate cake would explain the brown stain on his back. It is to show that not just the Muslims are outraged by what they perceive as blasphemous remarks. However, the Catholics didn’t start burning the editors at a stake or similar things, like parts of the Muslims did, leading to some fatalities the world over.
Well, (un)fortunately we live in a world of many competing religions, spiced with a lot of people who dismiss any deities at all (atheists) or don’t care (agnostics). Personally I hold it with the following quote:
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
Peace!
// Oliver
- the German Coca Cola company didn’t have all the supplies to make Coke during the second world war and had to improvise … [↩]