[ExI] FW: hitchins fans: hitchins on UN free speech proposal

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: spike [mailto:spike66 at att.net] 
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 7:46 AM
To: 'ExI chat list'
Subject: RE: [ExI] hitchins fans: hitchins on UN free speech proposal

 

> ...On Behalf Of Stathis Papaioannou
....
> Subject: Re: [ExI] hitchins fans: hitchins on UN free speech proposal
> 
> 2009/3/6 spike <spike66 at att.net>:
> > Hitchins is about 4.5 minutes in, so you might want to fast forward.
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji-qdC5zYd4
> >
> > When we were talking about those who consider transhumanism a 
> > religion, we never dealt with the possibility that if it were so, 
> > criticism of transhumanism could become an international crime.
> 
> This is disturbing, but the thing about the United Nations is that for 
> the most part governments through their UN delegates behave better 
> collectively than they do individually... Stathis Papaioannou

Depends on how one defines "behave better."  Making blasphemy illegal seems
like a license for any organization, regardless of how egregious, to have
arbitrary legal sanction against it's enemies.  We have already seen how a
"religion" has used that against one of our own.  Imagine any religion being
given the authority to do that.  I can imagine the radical Presbyterians
would want to have a word or two with me for instance.  I don't see any
legal way to define exactly what is and what is not a religion, and what
actually constitutes criticism.

spike