We do? Which country would that be? I can’t think of one.
It’s worth pointing out that nobody has been prosecuted for blasphemy in Ireland since the 19th century (and they weren’t even found guilty). And the current position of the Irish supreme court is that any such prosecution would be unenforceable, so none will be taken by the DPP in this case either.
Our constitution does make blasphemy a crime, our current law reflects this and that cannot be remedied without a referendum, but one is on the cards (we’re currently in the process of setting up a referendum on liberalising abortion, ideally they’d both happen at the same time but that doesn’t look likely at the moment, will probably have to happen after that one is out of the way).
I’ll also say here, that an awful lot of people are really ignoring the history of Ireland and Britain, and how Catholics were persecuted during the centuries of British imperial rule. The language used to describe Irish Catholics was pretty egregious, and this use of anti-Catholic language continued up to the Sinn Fein bombing campaign in the recent past. To not take that history into account is missing the forest for the trees.
Appearing on The Meaning of Life, hosted by Gay Byrne, in February 2015, Fry had been asked what he might say to God at the gates of heaven.
Fry said: “How dare you create a world in which there is such misery? It’s not our fault? It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?”
He went on to say that Greek gods “didn’t present themselves as being all seeing, all wise, all beneficent”, adding “the god who created this universe, if it was created by god, is quite clearly a maniac, an utter maniac, totally selfish”.
The investigation was triggered by the complaint of a single viewer.
It’s unlikely, but there’s the remote possibility that the plaintiff is trying to get a case brought to court in the hopes of the law being struck down.
“I told the Garda that I did not want to include this as I had not personally been offended by Fry’s comments - I added that I simply believed that the comments made by Fry on RTÉ were criminal blasphemy and that I was doing my civic duty by reporting a crime.”
I’d contend that a “blasphemy law” is an abuse of logic and reason on its own.
If your god is too wimpy to defend itself on its own without human help, then you’re pathetic for worshiping it, or dishonest about how powerful you think it is.
I’m reminded of George Bernard Shaw’s defence of atheism. He took out his watch, said “Right, God, if you exist strike me dead in one minute”. Then a minute later he put his watch away.
