'Blasphemy is a victimless crime' is utter arrogance

[Existentialist]

I agree with him there might be too much of a consensus between atheists around here...

You should think again, I think

Wow. This thread got quite ridiculous, didn't it?

What do you mean? I think it's fundamentally added to our understanding of the subject and of each other. Isn't that the point?

if a government declares any act to be 'illegal', then committing that act is a crime within the jurisdiction of that government. [...] If you do not understand that, then I contend that you do not understand what makes something a 'crime'. Put simply... if it is against the law, it is a crime. The rightness or wrongness of the law is irrelevant. When a law is broken, a crime is committed... whether one agrees with that law or not.

I 'understand' your point about what you think a crime is perfectly. As an adult who was been criminalised by a stupid government for choosing an adult boyfriend, I utterly disagree with it. Maybe you think I committed crimes too. Thanks. Obviously you do not understand how oppressed minorities deal with the authorities' contemptuous attempts to criminalise them. Submitting to the injustices of some technical rule book doesn't inspire anyone. Oppressed minorities create their own truths where the government's ones are lies. They do this in different ways. Saying "my relationship for my partner is not a crime" is one way of summoning up the solidarity to get off your backside and marching on parliament, something I've done many times. Technocrats who go waving rule books in your face rightly get pushed aside in that process, they slow down the process of change. If you don't understand that, you don't understand human emotional autonomy.

Blasphemy is against the law in some places, which makes committing blasphemy a 'crime' in those places. That 'crime' has no victims beyond god and the sensibilities of those that worship him, but it is a crime nonetheless. Thankfully, such laws against blasphemy are dying out, because they remove freedom of thought and expression from those that do not believe in and/or worship this god character. Being insulted or disagreed with does not make one a victim.

Governments in Ireland, Iran, Israel, Afghanistan, the Netherlands and many other places pretend blasphemy is a crime. Those are governments with no legitimacy - pretend governments, whom free, proud people should force to change their law books, or overthrow.

Blasphemy, adultery and gay sex are not crimes. You may disagree with me about the status of these so-called crimes, but I think they have no such status and never have had, and I am entitled to state my opinion.