Blasphemy

“Blasphemy uttered by great minds is more pleasant to God than the interested prayers of the vulgar man”.
Renan

Apparently the above quote resonated with somebody. That was why he included it in his partial translation of the French language diatribe against Radical Islam. I, on the contrary, found the quote repugnant and redolent of sophistry and elitism. The quote was used to support the provocative portrayal of Muhammad in a cartoon as a “terrorist”

Assuming that there is a God with all the attributes ascribed to Him, would any human with a functioning brain really believe that God would find blasphemy uttered by great minds is more pleasant to Him than the interested prayers of vulgar men? I submit the answer is No. Renan twisted the sentiments around to please himself and then sophistically ascribed the sentiments to God. In other words, Renan viewed himself as God. Renan had the right to view himself in whatever terms he likes, but at least he should have been more honest. That is why I despise sophists with a passion.

I am not against blasphemy per se. I am not a follower of any religion. I am an atheist. What I am interested in is truth. Now, there are two types of blasphemy: gratuitous blasphemy and a blasphemy based on facts. I am only against gratuitous blasphemy. And I hold an opinion that the cartoonists committed an act of gratuitous blasphemy when depicting Muhammad as a “terrorist”. Contrary to popular misconception, truth is not as pernicious as lies. Lying enrages and infuriates humans more than telling the truth. Muslims throughout the Islamic world were enraged and infuriated with the cartoon because the deeds and actions committed by Muhammad throughout his life did not support the allegation that he was a “terrorist”. On the contrary, he had a reputation of being fair when he was a caravan leader. That was why he was often chosen as an arbiter whenever there was a dispute among fellow traders. When he became a founder of Islam and also assumed the positions of military leader and administrator, he conducted himself with fairness, firmness, and mercy, not wanton cruelty. History textbooks have never lumped him into the same company with Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot. Only diatribes written by Christian bigots and Zionists would descend to the level of deliberate debasement of the man.

If there is a God, I would think that God would be moved by the prayers and entreaties of vulgar men since they are sincere. He would treat any utterances, blasphemies or not, of great minds with amusement and bemusement, and not with any true pleasure.

The gentleman who gave us the quote indicated he was no longer interested in religion and that he found the arguments against the existence of God of the illustrious Bertrand Russell shallow even when he (the quoter) was only fourteen when he read the collection of essays, Why I am not a Christian. If he read Russell at that tender age in the original English and not in French translation, then I would submit that he was indeed precocious and quite a prodigy in languages.

Roberto Wissai
October 07, 2009
____________________________________________________________