Toto

To mark the new year, Atheist Ireland Publishes 25 Blasphemous Quotes

The first 4 seem especially pertinent to this forum:

1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.

2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.

3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.

4. Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909: “Also it has another name - The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy - he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.” Twain’s book was published posthumously in 1939. His daughter, Clara Clemens, at first objected to it being published, but later changed her mind in 1960 when she believed that public opinion had grown more tolerant of the expression of such ideas. That was half a century before Fianna Fail and the Green Party imposed a new blasphemy law on the people of Ireland.

avi

Thank you for these quotes, all of them were fascinating. I especially enjoyed the one by Mark Twain.

I was a little disappointed to read about the Green party of Ireland, imposing Catholicism on everyone. What a shame.

Happy New Year, Toto.

avi

gdeering

I can't believe there is an Irish blasphemy law. What a stunning time waster. The sayings are fine, but nothing gets the dander up like a good image. That should be next.

g-d

mountainman

The first 2 quotes of 25 seem especially pertinent to this forum as possible common 4th century forgeries. Someone should write to the Irish Atheists and inform them that the following literary citations were appropriated from a 4th century publication. We know that the bible was not widely published until its official release as the "Constantine Codex".

1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.

2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.

The Irish Atheists must be informed that Jesus was first widely published in the 4th century by an admiring group of followers lead by their revolutionary historian Eusebius, who in turn were led by Constantine, his bloodthirsty barbarian sword and his Draconian anti-Hellenistic and anti-Semetic laws, such as "Religious privileges are reserved for Christians".

Toto

Pete - this is not an exercise in history. It doesn't matter if all of these quotes are fictional.

arnoldo

Verse 8:40 puts this into context, these words were directed towards people who had the intention to murder.

. . . and as you summarized these people in fact tried to stone him. The intent to murder must also be taken into consideration.

Toto

arnoldo - the Irish Atheists quoted this passage to show that the Jews were about to stone Jesus for something like blasphemy. That's the point.

mountainman

From my perspective the first two quotes are blasphemies against the ancient historical truth and the reasons by which I am convinced that the fabrication of the christians is a 4th century fiction of men composed by the wicked desire to get rid of the Greek priesthood out of the Roman empire and to replaced them with a new imperially controlled "[Platonic] Guardian Class"

With the exception of the the satire by Monty Python, and perhaps Muhammad, we have recent and established historical authors being cited. Jesus is not a firmly established historical author (leaving aside the Agbar letter) and his existence is being continually taken fro granted, even by international atheist organisations. When will they learn?

3. Muhammad,4. Mark Twain,5. Tom Lehrer, 6. Randy Newman, 7. James Kirkup, 8. Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath, in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, 1979, 9. Rev Ian Paisley 10. Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1989: 11. Frank Zappa, 1989: 12. Salman Rushdie, 1990: 13. Bjork, 1995: 14. Amanda Donohoe 15. George Carlin, 1999: 16. Paul Woodfull 17. Jesus Christ, in Jerry Springer The Opera, 200318. Tim Minchin, 19. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, 2006: 20. Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, 21. Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great, 2007 22. PZ Myers, on the Roman Catholic communion host, 2008 23. Ian O’Doherty, 2009: 24. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, 2009: 25. Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister for Justice, as a bonus, Micheal Martin, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs,

An interesting distinction between blasphemy and heresy is to be found in
Blasphemy in the Christian World by David Nash at newhumanist.org --

Toto

Pete - the whole point of this exercise is to protest against thought crimes.

You can label anything you want as blasphemy or heresy, as long as you don't propose criminalizing it.

arnoldo

The point is that the Irish Atheists falsely state that this verse is a scriptural foundation for Christian Anti-semtism, note the following;

In fact, this verse (John 8:44) is directed primarily towards people with the intent to murder rather than simple unbelief.