Friday, 2 March 2007

Atheism and Richard Dawkins

The petition is entitled Recognise Atheism as on a par with all religious faiths, thereby enabling the prosecution of Richard Dawkins on grounds of incitement to religious disharmony and the explanatory notes say
"I specified religious 'disharmony' instead of violence, though I am unconvinced that this is against the law. However, given the duration of the petition, I fully expect it to be in the near future."

This is a quietly potty petition. It feels like something half-thought-out ramble that someone's been daft enough to actually turn into a petition.

I have no idea whether Dawkins' work actually incites religious disharmony - the only snippets I've read have made him sound quite reasonable. Clearly he provokes unreasonableness, and perhaps he is himself unreasonable, but "inciting religious disharmony"?

I can't see how this can ever be a crime anyway, to be honest - even in the next year (which is how long the petition has to run). And if it is, there are an awful lot more people to prosecute tahnone bonkers atheist.

All very odd, really.

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