Last Friday morning in Ireland, about 30 minutes after a new law took effect with the new year that makes blasphemy a crime punishable by a fine of up to $35,000, a group of Irish atheists invited the government to prosecute them by publishing 25 blasphemous statements on an Irish Web site.
According to the updated Irish Statute Book, the criminal blasphemer is defined as someone who “publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion, and … intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.”
NY Times
