richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion
288 T H E GOD D E L U S I O Nmentioned in Chapter 1 as Britain's leading 'moderate' Muslim. Ichallenged him on the death penalty as punishment for apostasy.He wriggled and squirmed, but was unable either to deny or decryit. He kept trying to change the subject, saying it was an unimportantdetail. This is a man who has been knighted by theBritish government for promoting good 'interfaith relations'.But let's have no complacency in Christendom. As recently as1922 in Britain, John William Gott was sentenced to nine months'hard labour for blasphemy: he compared Jesus to a clown. Almostunbelievably, the crime of blasphemy is still on the statute book inBritain, 118 and in 2005 a Christian group tried to bring a privateprosecution for blasphemy against the BBC for broadcasting JerrySpringer, the Opera.In the United States of recent years the phrase 'AmericanTaliban' was begging to be coined, and a swift Google search netsmore than a dozen websites that have done so. The quotations thatthey anthologize, from American religious leaders and faith-basedpoliticians, chillingly recall the narrow bigotry, heartless crueltyand sheer nastiness of the Afghan Taliban, the Ayatollah Khomeiniand the Wahhabi authorities of Saudi Arabia. The web page called'The American Taliban' is a particularly rich source of obnoxiouslybarmy quotations, beginning with a prize one from somebodycalled Ann Coulter who, American colleagues have persuaded me,is not a spoof, invented by The Onion: 'We should invade theircountries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.' 119Other gems include Congressman Bob Dornan's 'Don't use theword "gay" unless it's an acronym for "Got Aids Yet?"', GeneralWilliam G. Boykin's 'George Bush was not elected by a majority ofthe voters in the United States, he was appointed by God' - and anolder one, the famous environmental policy of Ronald Reagan'sSecretary of the Interior: 'We don't have to protect the environment,the Second Coming is at hand.' The Afghan Taliban and the AmericanTaliban are good examples of what happens when people take theirscriptures literally and seriously. They provide a horrifying modernenactment of what life might have been like under the theocracy ofthe Old Testament. Kimberly Blaker's The Fundamentals ofExtremism: The Christian Right in America is a book-length exposeof the menace of the Christian Taliban (not under that name).
W H A T ' S WR O N G W I T H R E L I G I O N ? 289FAITH AND HOMOSEXUALITYIn Afghanistan under the Taliban, the official punishment forhomosexuality was execution, by the tasteful method of burial aliveunder a wall pushed over on top of the victim. The 'crime' itselfbeing a private act, performed by consenting adults who were doingnobody else any harm, we again have here the classic hallmark ofreligious absolutism. My own country has no right to be smug.Private homosexuality was a criminal offence in Britain up until -astonishingly - 1967. In 1954 the British mathematician AlanTuring, a candidate along with John von Neumann for the title offather of the computer, committed suicide after being convictedof the criminal offence of homosexual behaviour in private.Admittedly Turing was not buried alive under a wall pushed overby a tank. He was offered a choice between two years in prison(you can imagine how the other prisoners would have treated him)and a course of hormone injections which could be said to amountto chemical castration, and would have caused him to grow breasts.His final, private choice was an apple that he had injected withcyanide. 120As the pivotal intellect in the breaking of the German Enigmacodes, Turing arguably made a greater contribution to defeating theNazis than Eisenhower or Churchill. Thanks to Turing and his'Ultra' colleagues at Bletchley Park, Allied generals in the field wereconsistently, over long periods of the war, privy to detailed Germanplans before the German generals had time to implement them.After the war, when Turing's role was no longer top secret, heshould have been knighted and feted as a saviour of his nation.Instead, this gentle, stammering, eccentric genius was destroyed, fora 'crime', committed in private, which harmed nobody. Once again,the unmistakable trademark of the faith-based moralizer is to carepassionately about what other people do (or even think) in private.The attitude of the 'American Taliban' towards homosexualityepitomizes their religious absolutism. Listen to the Reverend JerryFalwell, founder of Liberty University: 'AIDS is not just God'spunishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the societythat tolerates homosexuals.' 121 The thing I notice first about such
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W H A T ' S WR O N G W I T H R E L I G I O N ? 289
FAITH AND HOMOSEXUALITY
In Afghanistan under the Taliban, the official punishment for
homosexuality was execution, by the tasteful method of burial alive
under a wall pushed over on top of the victim. The 'crime' itself
being a private act, performed by consenting adults who were doing
nobody else any harm, we again have here the classic hallmark of
religious absolutism. My own country has no right to be smug.
Private homosexuality was a criminal offence in Britain up until -
astonishingly - 1967. In 1954 the British mathematician Alan
Turing, a candidate along with John von Neumann for the title of
father of the computer, committed suicide after being convicted
of the criminal offence of homosexual behaviour in private.
Admittedly Turing was not buried alive under a wall pushed over
by a tank. He was offered a choice between two years in prison
(you can imagine how the other prisoners would have treated him)
and a course of hormone injections which could be said to amount
to chemical castration, and would have caused him to grow breasts.
His final, private choice was an apple that he had injected with
cyanide. 120
As the pivotal intellect in the breaking of the German Enigma
codes, Turing arguably made a greater contribution to defeating the
Nazis than Eisenhower or Churchill. Thanks to Turing and his
'Ultra' colleagues at Bletchley Park, Allied generals in the field were
consistently, over long periods of the war, privy to detailed German
plans before the German generals had time to implement them.
After the war, when Turing's role was no longer top secret, he
should have been knighted and feted as a saviour of his nation.
Instead, this gentle, stammering, eccentric genius was destroyed, for
a 'crime', committed in private, which harmed nobody. Once again,
the unmistakable trademark of the faith-based moralizer is to care
passionately about what other people do (or even think) in private.
The attitude of the 'American Taliban' towards homosexuality
epitomizes their religious absolutism. Listen to the Reverend Jerry
Falwell, founder of Liberty University: 'AIDS is not just God's
punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society
that tolerates homosexuals.' 121 The thing I notice first about such
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