Ireland introduces new law which makes blasphemy a crime.

[mrstickball]

Kasz216 said:

mrstickball said:

I don't think you understand what hate speech is, Stof:

Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade a person or group of people based on their race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality ...

(from google define: hate speech). It doesn't have to involve threats.

By that definition, they are very similar. The only difference is who they are protecting. Hate speech laws usually protect minorities from the majority, and blasphemy laws protect the majority from the minority. Both are dumb.

More or less what i'm getting at.  Though insulting someones faith also does tread on insulting someone.

Right. It is the other side of the same coin - anti-blasphemy laws can be leveraged by religious leaders to curb secular thought, just like hate speech can be used to curb religious thought.

Either way, we need to have free, open, and honest discussions and debate about life choices and worldviews.