Radio Blasphemy

South African DJ, Gareth Cliff, is in trouble again. This time, when discussing the uproar over the English school teacher who named a Sudanese teddy bear "Mohammed", he made the comment that only a petty god would be offended by such things.

Now Cliff stands accused of blasphemy and faces a tribunal of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, which could result in censure.

Blasphemy is one of those things that is in the eye of the beholder. If a member of one monotheistic religion declares in all seriousness that their god is the one true god, they are logically declaring all other gods not to be gods at all. Blasphemy has been committed, by means of a simple declaration of faith, against a plurality of other gods in a very efficient, high yield, pre-emptive strike. Cliff himself says that blasphemy should not be a crime, but the reality is that blasphemy simply cannot be a crime in any society that recognises even the mildest forms of religious freedom because all true believes would have the be rounded up and charged.

Despite this, most people remain sensitive about their religion, and about other peoples' religions, to a degree that is almost irrational. This is very well illustrated by the nature of the complaints against Cliff.

The main complainent, Ms Gerda-Mari Povey of Pretoria, E-mailed Cliff with the following comment:

"You know what, Gareth, I love your show, but this morning u shocked me!!!! just wanted to say, God is not petty!!!!!"

OK then! Let us have a look at the Ten Commandments. Number 1 says that you shall have no other gods but the god of the Bible. In Number 2, which states that you should not make idols or worship them, it is explained:

I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. - Exodus 20:5 & 6

So, if your great grandparents built an idol, you will be punished. That doesn't really seem all that just.

Number 3 says that you should not make "wrongful use" of the name of god. Number 4 says that you must keep the sabbath holy because:

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. - Exodus 20:11

That seems like a petty basis for a commandment if there ever was.

We get as far as Number 6 before we find anything about not killing people. Indeed, everything from 1 to 4 really involves not offending god. That makes for 40% of the commandments serving little other purpose than protecting god's omnipresent ego.

My favourite commandment is Number 10:

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. - Exodus 20:17

Its OK to have slaves, but don't covet other peoples' slaves. In fact, if you find yourself thinking, "Bob's new car is nice! I wish I had one like it," you have sinned.

In my view, therefore, god is petty. We can come to this conclusion without even dealing with one of my favourite bits of the Bible:

And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria. - 2 Kings 2:23-25

Wow!

Ms Povey, like the mothers of Bethal, worries about her children, although perhaps with less reason. She had the following to say to News24:

"As a Christian, I really felt offended. He should have more respect for people's religion. He has offended many of his listeners. What if my children had heard his comments. It was very irresponsible of him. I'm normally the kind of person who just keeps quiet, but this time it was just too much.

"I don't have anything against him personally, he can debate politics etc all he wants, but when it's about religion, he should show more sensitivity."

What if her children had heard the comments? Richard Dawkins makes the very good point that you just don't get "Christian children" or "Muslim children". You get "children of Christian parents" and "children of Muslim parents". Children are a blank slate who don't accept any particular god until they are indoctrinated, or more likely terrified, into doing so.

It is this very terror that makes it OK to speak about politics, but not OK to speak about religion. On some level we are scared that if we offend someone else's religious sensibilities, they will come back and kill us. Sadly, they often do, which should illustrate the sick immorality of the entire religious system.

People are also scared that they might hear something challenging to their religious beliefs. God doesn't even want you to think about thinking about questioning him, and ominously threatens your entire family for four generations if you get something slightly wrong while playing this ineffable guessing game.

I don't think that any of us, given a choice, would want to live in a system like that. Why, then, do we accept it without question on the basis of no evidence whatsoever? Why, in a nutshell, do we believe in god at all?