"Stop"? Really?

Apparently there has been some response to our artwork at the University of Illinois quad. According to the AAF blog post, a few individual members of the Muslim student group at UIUC were seen defacing our faces of Muhammad. The attempts at censoring the chalk images included erasing the figures with water, and this:

(photo credit: http://uiucatheists.blogspot.com/2010/05/update-campus-muslims-try-to-censor.html)

Unfortunately I missed out in seeing the response, I am actually home this weekend, attending the St. Francis prom with the beautiful Becky Solomon. I hope to at least see some of the Muhammad figures remaining when I return on Sunday, but if the Muslim student group has its way, all 150 chalk drawings may be erased. Possible but unlikely.

Again, if I understated it in my previous post, I am extremely excited by the participation and success in this project. I think we, as a team, did a great job supporting free speech and really making a statement that no belief, faith, or assertion is immune from the power of critical thinking and scrutiny.

Kudos to all those who made this possible!

It looks as though the event has caught the public eye, PZ Myers posted about the event here on his blog Pharyngula, be sure to read it!

South Park Gets a Thumbs Up From Me

First off, I do not watch South Park. Its times like these that I wish I did. In their 200th episode, South Park pictured the Islamic prophet Muhammad in cartoon form, and broadcast it across the entire world.

The problem? Depicting the image of Muhammad is an unthinkable crime in the Islamic world. The blasphemy has historically been answered with death threats, and in some instances, real murder and acts of terror. In 2005, images of the prophet Muhammad were published in a Danish newspaper's editorial column, and in response Muslims all over Europe, the Middle East, and even Africa took up arms against the cartoonists. 





"They burned embassies and churches and fought with police; at least 200 died and many more were injured." (NY Times)


In 2008 a bomb exploded outside of the Danish Embassy in Pakistan, killing 8. The attack was claimed by Al Qaeda, who said that it was in response to the cartoons.


Here's a link to the cited NY Times article.


And the carnage doesn't stop there. Public criticism of Islam has been revenged by the harshest of consequences. In 2004 Theo Van Gogh's short film Submission was broadcast on a Danish television network. The film is a commentary on the abuse of women in Islam, an extremely powerful and thought provoking short. I urge you to watch it here. (its only 10 minutes long):




Theo Van Gogh was murdered, shot to death 8 times on his way to work in Amsterdam. His film was seen to be blasphemous and unacceptable, and the artist paid the dearest price.

So where does this leave us? What can we do to support our freedom of speech?

The answer is absolutely not to fall silent. The first thing we can do is to speak our mind. Blaspheme. Think critically about these things. Religions do not inherit the right to abuse members, nor kill opponents. The idea of "relativism," that we have our rights and morals, and they have theirs--its as wrong as they come. I am not a Muslim. I have no inherent respect for Muhammad, nor the sanctity of his image. I see no rational argument for such respect: why should a man who was alive in the 6th and 7th centuries not have his face depicted, under penalty of death? These kinds of issues, religious or otherwise, should not be taboo. 

When we give up our ability to question, we give up our ability to progress toward greater understanding and morality. People deserve the respect. People are entitled to opinions and the pursuit of happiness. Ideas are not people, and deserve no innate respect.

Tomorrow, the AAF (Atheist Agnostic Freethinker) club will be chalking up the quad at the University of Illinois with stick figures labeled "Mohammad." I vehemently  support this cause, as I support the right of South Park to jest at the expense of a bullshit tradition.

My Candle in the Dark

I love Science. Science isn't just a subject we learn about in grade school. Its not the thing that you have to memorize facts for and study. Science is a PROCESS. Its a growing organism. Drawing upon an statement by Neil deGrasse Tyson, science is an apple. The skin of the apple is very rough, filled with colorful and tasty facts that are intriguing and awe inspiring, but are also challenged and merely approximations. Deeper within the fruit is the real substance, the essence of well established scientific understanding. And deeper still are the seeds of law. Fundamental kernels off of which every other fact protects. The beauty of the system is that it self corrects, so every day it is more accurate than the previous. We do not claim to know everything, but those things that we do assert to know have been well established as scientific theory through multiple lines of empirical evidence that have been tested and retested and retested. The time for speculation is over. Faith is unnecessary. Yea, I like Science.

I also love learning. I like finding out that I'm wrong. You wouldn't think it to talk or debate with me, but I really do like to know when I am wrong. Being wrong about something is an incredible experience because it lets you know that you are now that much closer to finding truth. I am obsessed with truth. I can see no more noble pursuit than the search for truth, both as an individual and as a finite species. Its not like we as humans have anything else to do, everything we do and build and think is finite. We might as well do and build and think the greatest things possible, and milk everything we can out of our simple insignificant existence here in this Universe.

Finally, I love life. I want to live my life and make my decisions and learn what I can without being limited by anyone or anything else. And I want to allow others the same life that I wish for. We humans are empathetic creatures. Our brains, in some ways, literally feel what the people around us feel. Let me live how I wish to live, and I will let you live how you wish to live. This is liberty. This is freedom. This is how we allow each and every person to live to their absolute fullest, so long as we don't step on each other's toes.

One other thing. I love my freedom of speech. I will use it to try to inspire, propose, protest, blaspheme, explain, and express all that I am and think to the people around me. If I insult you as a person, I apologize sincerely. People deserve every ounce of respect. Ideas, however, do not.