Blasphemy Day: Freedom of Belief

Today is blasphemy day. In honor of that, here's some blasphemy: If God exists, he is monstrously evil. People do not get reincarnated when they die. Bad actions are not always punished, and good actions are not always rewarded. The writings of bronze age goat herders are scientifically inaccurate. Human sacrifice is not necessary for the sun to rise. Bunnies don't lay eggs.

Doubtlessly, you believe at least one of these things. Which is why I support Blasphemy Day. Because something you believe is blasphemy to someone. The price you pay for being able to express it is that others can express something that you may disagree with or find personally offensive. To oppose that is to oppose the very concept of free speech.

And so here's another piece of blasphemy: Religious belief should not be treated any differently than any other belief.

I don't believe in freedom of religion. I believe in a more general freedom of belief. Everyone should be allowed to believe whatever they want, including but not limited to religious beliefs. I prefer this formulation because as above, religious belief should not be treated any differently than any other belief.

There are lots of times when beliefs are treated differently because they're religious beliefs. The most obvious examples are blasphemy laws, which is what Blasphemy Day is in protest of. For some groups, simply disagreeing with their religion amounts to disrespecting it, which is a totally different standard to non-religious beliefs.

The reason religious beliefs should be treated just like any other is that they are just like any other. They can be right or wrong just like other beliefs and wrong beliefs should be discarded for right ones. Bad beliefs cannot be improved if they are specially protected as religious beliefs tend to be.

Another reason to treat religious beliefs the same as others is who gets to decide what is a valid religious belief and what isn't?

Free Speech

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -Voltaire

Sometimes, I'm surprised when I realize that a lot of people don't believe in free speech. I guess I shouldn't, really, since the concept is only a few centuries old, compared to millenia of human history.

The incident that really brought it to my attention was a couple months ago. A professor here at Purdue posted an argument against gay marriage on his personal blog. The argument he made was frankly, pretty stupid. But I won't get into that, since plenty of other bloggers have taken care of that for me, and it's really not pertinent.

This was a rather large controversy then, there were many letters to the editor in the Exponent, and other blogs talking about it and such like. What struck me is that so many of those who disagreed with him wanted him to be fired from his position, or otherwise disciplined. When others pointed out the whole freedom of speech thing, the response was that the constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech didn't apply in this situation. That's true, the constitution doesn't forbid an employer from firing an employee for saying the wrong thing.

But that's not the point. When I talk about free speech, I'm not referring to the constitution. I'm talking about the principle. And the principle is that you don't want someone punished just for saying something that you disagree with. Even if it's wrong. Even if it's bigoted.

The whole point of freedom of speech is that it's the only way to determine whether something is wrong or bigoted. Just because people think something is wrong, doesn't mean it actually is. The only way for new ideas to be accepted or rejected is for the ideas to be expressed and critically examined. The appropriate response to someone saying something you disagree with, no matter how strongly, is not to call for their punishment, but to explain why you think they're wrong.

That was the biggest incident, but since then I've noticed other similar examples. Even though free speech is one of the things the modern world was founded on, it seems it hasn't really sunk in yet.